When you start to read, you think you'll be getting a string of anecdotes. And you do indeed, scattered about like chocolate eggs in the garden on Easter Sunday. Well, that's what we do in France, and the kids are told they've been brought by the bells of Rome. I suppose it's assumed that a bit of Papist twaddle never did anyone any harm. Hah! A slippery path to tread in my opinion - do you want your children to be bigots as well as obese? But I stray from my point. It's not just anecdotes, it's Toxteth. Remember the riots? Anyone under forty probably doesn't, but in 1981 a Liverpool suburb I'd never heard of became a name I was never likely to forget. And I wasn't even there.

 

Charlie was though, front line, crouching behind his shield, a target of stones and hatred, unable to retaliate because there were orders not to. It lasted all night. Finally, in the early hours, permission was given to fire back CS gas, the first time it had been used on British soil.

 

Charlie, understandably, did not enjoy that night. But although Toxteth is a focal point of the book, the message goes beyond that. What we get is a shrewd analysis of the way the police has changed. Note the singular - policemen have changed as well, but that's because the institution has changed. It's not a force any more, it's a service. Accountability and bureaucracy are its drip feeds. The rough and ready way policing used to be done has gone forever.

 

To read Unreasonable Force is to think about things that you've always taken for granted. You step into a world that before was just a reflection. To show what lies behind the surface is important, and Charlie does it with a painter's deftness of touch. No, honestly, this is sincere! I know what you're thinking: he's only saying that because Charlie published his novel. Well, it's probably true that you'd have to have been through the thick of Toxteth to be reckless enough to publish a book like French Sally, but that has nothing to do with it. I'm not saying Unreasonable Force is smooth and polished and faultless. I'm saying it's important. One of those paintings that leaves in your mind something different, something deeper, than the shape you originally saw. You don't believe me? Find out for yourself:  Unbound Press.