Ian Newton - The Night Shift Reviewed By Kevin Maguire

The guy in a sharp business suit glowered as if I was mad for laughing out loud while waiting for a flight in Washington Dulles International Airport. No exhibitionist, I rarely laugh out loud. Indeed, I rarely read anything worth laughing about, let alone out loud. But the story about two on-the-run robbers holding a group of Hull factory workers hostage after a fish and chip shop raid went wrong is very, very funny. I won't spoil it for you but I defy anyone not to enjoy the tale, including po-faced Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott who harbours personal and political grudges against the author.

Courtesy of The Hull Daily Mail

Ian Newton's collection of six stories in The Night Shift recount life on the shop floor after dark and is hugely enjoyable. Sure, some are better than others, with a tale about threatened redundancies trailing off into a disappointed and well-telegraphed ending. That, however, is true of many good books. The chronicling of working-class life is still too rare and Newton commendably resists the temptation to heroise his experiences into his characters. He's happy to recount how this particular group makes the job tolerable by doing as little as possible while nicking anything not nailed down. And you know what? I suspect most of us would do the same if up all night in a monotonous, low-paid job.

The six episodes are written as short television scripts, reading like mini-plays. Newton's characters remain consistent and the vivid descriptions ensure a colourful read. And he comes up with some good lines. At a surreal modern art exhibition in the factory, there is a dig at those celebrated Tate bricks of a few years ago. Some bloke in Hull is said by manager Fat Jeff to have paid £100,000 for a pile of bricks. 'I think my mate bought it actually. Was it a Barratt house?' responds one of the boys. Newton wrote Dustbingate a few years ago, based on night-shift workers nicking the Deputy PM's rubbish to have a laugh and earn a few bob by selling tit-bits to newspapers.

I have a final reservation about The Night Shift. The author slips into stereotypes that would be out of place even in the militantly politically incorrect Daily Mail. Indeed, an endorsement from a former branch secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union delights it is 'guaranteed to piss off every politically correct poseur from Left, Right and Centre'. I've no quibble over an employee nicknamed Monkey Hanger (who, incidentally, hates Hartlepool) or a corpulent manager dubbed Fat Jeff. The same cannot be said of Black Dave and Mary, a male if effeminate forklift truck driver.

Newton basks in a reputation for telling it as he sees it - in his case a dozen night shift years in various Humberside refineries. He must have left a lot out. It's only a pity he didn't add a few nicknames to the list.

Kevin Maguire is Industrial Editor of The Daily Mirror. The Night Shift is published by RPM Publications and available from Browns Books, Bookworld, Hull Books and Amazon. Read what other people have said about The Night Shift on: www.thisisull.com/opinions/newton/anthonyiannewton.html www.thisisull.com/opinions/newton/anthonyiannewtonreply.html

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