Welcome to Royston Tester's official website.
NEW: Qingdao: Wind in its Sails
"In mandarin, the name of this sailing city can sound like "Please come to..." as well as "green island" -- which is a fitting ambiguity -- and very much an invitation: Qingdao, Qingdao. Such a beautiful resort on China’s NE coast, yet the spot is little known beyond the mainland and its Yellow Sea reach: Korea, Japan -- and is referred to as "Little Switzerland" or "Bavaria" for its unusual, European architecture, mountain scenery, beaches and emerald waters. Greater Qingdao is also home to some remarkable ancient treasures and sites -- over 6,000 years old -- as well as hot springs, ski-ing, and golf, easily accessible from the urban downtown... Qingdao is a remarkably inspiring green island on the Shandong Peninsula. It will leave you as it did me...with the craving to look again...and a memory of yachts at full sail in Fushan Bay. You, however -- with this book in mind -- will also see what you see. And far more than I."
--Royston Tester
Praise for Summat Else.
"A devastating debut collection of short fiction, encompassing a young working-class Englishman's coming of age, written with great humour and pathos."
"...a gloriously aromatic stew of comically thwarted desire."
--Graham Harley, Literary Review of Canada.
"These deftly-compacted stories tracking Enoch Jones from babyhood to his twentieth year are sprinkled with mischief and wit. The writer's prose is smooth as polished stone. Lust is ever present. Birmingham's grittiness no less so. [...] This is lively, exciting work. Summat Else is a fine book."
--Leon Rooke
"The writing is stripped and clean and so spare it almost shines. The dialogue sparkles. [...] Its seeming simplicity must have been hard won. Tester captures the gritty detail of England's Black Country with an evocative faithfulness which is convincing and extremely moving."
--John Metcalf
Royston Tester has already been nominated for a slew of awards, been published widely and internationally in literary journals and anthologies, and charmed the CanLit establishment. His writing is very English and in a spectacular way. Summat Else is published by Canada's Porcupine's Quill (2004), and distributed in the U.S. by Ingram, and Baker and Taylor. The author is represented by Anne McDermid Literary Agency, Toronto, Canada.
