Debut Derry novel 'True Colours' by James Simpson is well received

‘An indulgent pleasure---a contemporary fairy tale; even a morality tale… a clever and subtle satire on the way we live in Derry…’

This was how local journalist and author Felicity McCaul described James’s novel, True Colours, when it was published in September 2024 to considerable acclaim by Colmcille Press. ‘Derry on a Plate,’ said Sue Divin.

Following the launch of his successful short story anthology Smokes and Birds in 2021, James has been, ‘thrilled,’ with the response to his debut Derry novel.

‘With a short story anthology,’ he says, you have completed each story and logged them over time. You aim to capture the reader’s attention, multiple times, in a brief but concentrated way. The tales all have different characters and plots. By contrast, with a novel, you must maintain the thread all the way through and make it worthwhile for the reader to get to the end. I love both forms.’

James was ‘particularly delighted,’ to locate his first full length novel in Derry, the city of his adoption. In many ways, he sees the city itself as ‘the chief protagonist.’

At a number of public events, held in Derry’s Central Library, Foyle u3a, Limavady Arts and Cultural Centre and Strabane Library, he has read from True Colours and was interviewed by well-known writers.

‘These were, without exception terrific fun,’ he says. ‘I’m hugely grateful to Bernie McGill, Maureen Boyle, Sue Divin and Felicity McCall.’

The artwork for the book is by talented local artist Bridget Murray. ‘I love how Bridget captures the spirit of the novel,’ James says. ‘Her flair and skill is truly stunning. It’s what makes a prospective reader lift it from a shelf in the very first place.’

James was, ‘greatly encouraged’ by the early participation of potential readers while the book was in gestation. ‘I’m also fortunate,’ he says, ‘to receive regular feedback from readers who are happy to tell me, anywhere and everywhere, what they think about the work. I came to the city as a blow in, in the mid-seventies, so I get a lot of satisfaction when they tell me it sounds authentic.

‘Without a doubt, Derry is a special city crammed with amazing and colourful characters. A town of music, kindness and great generosity. I think the novel reflects that.’

During the writing of True Colours, he says he ‘drew on conversations, random encounters, stories, legends and the whole panoply of great characters you meet every day on the streets of the city.

The chat in bars and bakeries, cafes, trains and buses. Every entertaining encounter is a potential gem. It’s all been lodged somewhere in my head, waiting to be released.’

True Colours achieves that release. It recounts the larger-than-life career of the flamboyant Indigo Black, as she grasps opportunity and plays her hunches to become headteacher of the prestigious St Gobnait’s College.

Faced suddenly with set-back, she switches direction to become a city councillor. This is not without challenge. ‘Her dream of aesthetic renewal, probably harks back,’ James says, to the Year of Culture. For Indigo, nothing is too ambitious, too outrageous or unthinkable. “Pessimism is passé darlings. Human potential is everything.”’

‘True Colours is written by a cast of illustrious characters whose pedigree might be traced back to Dickens with a detour via Flann O’Brien.’ (Bernie McGill). They are life pilgrims on their own journeys to self-realisation. ‘Like all of us, they experience,’ James says, ‘the highs and lows, the what ifs of life. Each human being carries their own need for fulfilment.’

True Colours may be literary fiction, but it’s rich in the vernacular language of ordinary people going about their business.

‘Actually though, when you listen to those voices,’ James says ‘there is nothing ordinary about them. They are all exceptional.’

Has he modelled his characters on real people?

‘It’s pure fiction,’ he says, ‘but there’s a lot of truth in fiction. In a way, I guess we are all in it. I had seriously hoped it would resonate, and so far, I think it has. I get smiles and laughter from readers, and sometimes, tears.’

Because the story is set in, ‘our actual, pulsating city,’ James took the opportunity to share relevant chapters, in advance of publication, with the staff of local business featured in the book; Java and McLaughlin’s of William Street.

They liked it,’ he says.

Sadly, McLaughlin’s has closed forever, after one hundred and eleven years of trading, but its kind, conscientious and compassionate service is forever immortalised in True Colours.

As an emergent writer James is grateful and ‘proud to have been financially assisted in the writing of the novel, by both Derry and Strabane District Council and the Northern Ireland Arts Council.

‘I’m also deeply grateful to Garbhán Downey of Colmcille Press for having faith in me.’

‘Every city has its own character and characters,’ James says. ‘We love stories set in Dublin, Paris, New York. Derry is well on the map. It’s up there too.

‘A sense of ‘place’ is central to this book, but humanity resonates wherever we find it. I trust True Colours reflects that universality,’ he says, ‘but above all, I want to share the uniqueness of the town we love so well, and its remarkable people.’

A past runner up in the Francis McManus Short Story Competition, James has been a winning Irish Novel Fair finalist.

Last year he was selected to take part in the John Hewitt Association Pen/Pen project, administered by the Irish Foreign Affairs Department, for ‘up and coming writers.’

His next project is a coming-of-age novel set in the nineteen fifties, written from a child’s point of view.

He is a founder member of Derry’s This Writing Thing.