For anyone who loves the beauty and grace of this fine film this makes a wonderful companion. It includes the screenplay, an interview with director Beeban Kidron, stills from the film and, of course, the origional short story by Joseph Conrad.

I have never been a huge Conrad fan and reading this short story after seeing the beautiful film it inspired was a reminder why. Though it obviously is literature, it is plauged by Conrad's choice of Kennedy to relate the tale. Whereas Fitzgerald found that grace and beauty in seemingly sketchy or even trivial people and situations Conrad is either unwilling or unable to do so. It reads as though someone gave a good writer a beautiful romantic tragedy to write and then had them write it without any love or sentiment. Conrad's "Amy Foster" leaves you cold.

Tom Willocks, who does love Conrad, ran into this problem while writing the screenplay. Only when he realized everything was askew in Conrad's origional story because Kennedy's perspective was tainted was he able to turn the story inside out and find the vestiges of love and romance Conrad had omitted.

It is because of Willocks's wonderful screenplay and Beeban Kidron's handling of it that this is one of those rare instances where the film is better than its origional source. The film has the grace and beauty of fine literature because screenwriter Tom Willocks gave it such. Reading the screenplay will make you appreciate just what a difficult task such an adaptation is and how it is an art form all its own.

One of my favorite films is 'Plenty' with Meryl Streep and I was delighted to find that Fred Schepisi, the director of that film, was chosen to interview Beeban Kidron about the making of 'Swept From the Sea.' The 21 questions Schepisi asks and Kidron's responses are invaluable to anyone who loves this exquisitely beautiful work of art. There are little gems and insights into the making of the film you will enjoy immensely.

There are some nice stills to look at and as a bonus the entire credits for the film are listed as well. If you haven't seen this spare and lovely film yet you are missing out. If you have seen it you'll definitely want to own this as an addition to the film.

"It struck me that Amy Foster was one of the greatest love stories ever told, except that the love story itself had been left out."
Tom Willocks (screenwriter)

Bigger than life and meaner than a pitbull, New Orleans Police Lt. Clarence Jefferson has spent his career collecting dirt on the rich and powerful. Always wary, Jefferson has accumulated the incriminating evidence in two huge suitcases as insurance. One day, Jefferson disappears and, after several months, is presumed dead. He exerts his influence from beyond the grave, however, writing to his lover, the sultry heiress Lena Parillaud, and to the last man who saw him alive, Dr. Cicero Grimes. The letters provide clues to the whereabouts of the suitcases, triggering a desperate search which eventually involves the feisty WWII veteran George Grimes (Cicero's father), seedy attorney Rufus Atwater, Lena's estranged husband Filmore Faroe (recently escaped after 13 years from a prison his loving wife had made for him), and Ella MacDaniels, a young woman who unknowingly stands at the center of the mystery. Before book's end, alliances are made and broken, bullets fly, and several players lose their lives.

Willocks delivers a riveting novel, a southern gothic replete with buckets of blood and philosophical musings. Willocks knows his terrain as well as James Ellroy knows L.A., and is equally unafraid to expose its dark underbelly. Frightening and hypnotic, grotesque and suspenseful, Bloodstained Kings is one of those books that grabs you and doesn't let go--Willocks provides memorable, three dimensionsal characters, sharp dialogue and rich atmosphere, weaving his protagonists' disparate lives togther with enviable skill. An unusual, unforgettable novel, a worthy successor to his previous effort, the gritty Green River Rising.

Just a quick point of information: Bloodstained Kings is Tim Willocks' third novel, with Green River Rising his second. The first is Bad City Blues and deals with the main characters in Bloodstained Kings i.e. Dr Grimes and Clarence Jefferson, and describes situations alluded to in Bloodstained Kings.

You can get it at amazon.co.uk and personally, I would advise reading it before this, to save confusion.

It is also a superb read, dealing with the same emotions and decisions that "strong men" have to struggle against as this book, and as a primer to Bloodstained Kings is excellent.

On the other hand, it is perfectly possible to read Bloodstained Kings without having read Bad City Blues, and still thoroughly enjoy it. Go ahead, buy this book!!

As others have said, not up to par with Green River, but still a fascinating page-turner with a literary edge. I'd love to read more from Willocks, but it looks like he's not going to be cranking them out too quickly.

I, too, was a bit mystified by the sketchy explanations of the relationship between Grimes and Jefferson. But it didn't bother me. I like a book that lets me draw some of my own conclusions. I don't need to be spoonfed all the details.

this novel was pretty good. I read green River Rising and really enjoyed it and managed to find this one. I was a little dismayed to find that this novel is a kind of follow up to Bad City Blues but it still works on its own.
Basically the story was really good and I like novels that give some pretty gritty narrative and tough characters. However, this novel is not short and after a while I began to find the fact that every single character is completely devoid of redeeming qualities a bit tedious. Willocks creates a difficult blend of sympathy for his protagonist and cynical disgust at the darker side of him. Willocks is certainly a fantastic writer and Clarence Jefferson is one of the finest villians since Frank Booth.

I also thought that Willocks kind of fizzled out at the end and after a very promising build up, things just kind of stopped. That said, there is some great description in here and if you like your characters truly vile and your plot riddled with ... and double crossings, take a look.

Not a bad book. Good plot. Holds your attention. Easy reading. However, the book reflects the writter's background a little too much. All the characters are prone to self reflection and psychobabble. And for some reason, all the characters like to quote from ancient philosophers. The schools in LA must be better than I thought. That being said, I did enjoy the book and would recommend it others.

Nothing compelling here. Just a prison. I have never been to
or in a prison so can not comment there. But the story is lacking and the characters are dull. The broad is flat out stupid. The
main character doesn't even belong there, so it's just ridiculous. Who wants to read about violence anyway. All violent
criminals should be put to death, in my opinion. And the fact that the author is a "young British psychiatrist who has never been
to Texas, or to a prison" .blows any credibility. And Booklist describing this book as "part Stephen King horror novel" is
totally irresponsible. What an insult to the great man of horror Mr. Stephen King (1974-1999)

Sure as a debut it may be good. I had read this book upon a zealeous advice from one of my work pals, describing the author and book a "new Stephen King in the sense of riveting writing and character development" as well as "future bestsellerdom-king". So I grapped it excitedly...started...but disappointed. The story is interesting; but the language is extremely foul (may be necessary to create a compelling sense of location in prison you know) but even then it was very extreme and not offending but simply boring and taking you out of the story. Not riveting also as well as a King book (I am a huge fan of King and I know well when he becomes riveting) so this guy falls short of catching up with King. Character development?No. A woman foolishly wandering around and in prison where even men survive just to remain alive, or having foolish sex with one of inmates just because of a pity on him while monsters are pounding on the door; a man with a bleak past, ie, a philosopher doctor, a cool one, almost too coool you cannot help but wonder why he is in such a pit of hell... full of blacks and whites against each other bla bla bla. No I did not like, it did not captured me and the author will be bestseller-king like our beloved King? No way...He is too philosophic (but not a deep one)and has too much sexual (prison) fantasy. I gave it three stars just thinking that if perhaps I should not have started it with huge hopes, it might have been a nice pass-time reading

I think it's stupid to put Stephen King and Tim Willocks on the same level. Green River Rising is a thriller. It reminds more of an actionmovie. Stephen King on the other side writes horror. Green River Rising doesn't have any mysterious elements, and has much more action then King books. Kings books are very detailed, and GRG on the other sides has a pretty quick developing story without pagelong descreptions of for example rooms. To me GRG was like a good actionmovie. I read the german translation, and I thought that the bad language and all the violence fit in the atmosphere of the book. The books lives off his sick crazy characters. And I think that it's really interesting to read chapters out of views of mentally ill people. If you like movies like "Face off", but you like deeper stories and complexer characters you should read this book. It's one of my all time favorites. And people that complain about the dirty language and the violence should not even write a review about this. It's about a prison with mentally ill people. So what do you think what they are doing, maybe playing with puppets and drink tea?