His work has appeared in the South Dakota Review, Crow's Nest, Expanding Horizons, The Enchanted Self, Community Mental Health Journal, Maturing, The Lyon County (Minnesota) Review  Wine Rings, North Country Anvil, North American Mentor Magazine, the McLean County (Illinois) Poetry Review, River Bottom, Tower Talks and Foundations. 

He has also authored several booklets in the mental health field, two of them co-authored with Ana Dvoredsky, M.D. in 2007.

George's e-book 'The Old Man & The Monkey' poses one of the most elegant and powerful arguments against racism of all time, and his 'Grandfather & The Raven' argues equally compellingly against violence in all its forms.

Click on picture to go to Amazon CreateSpace

'The Old Man & The Monkey'

Earlier this year I read George Polley’s ‘Grandfather & The Raven’. Tonight I have read his ‘The Old Man & The Monkey’. There is one thing I have learnt about George’s books – that when you sit down to read them, you needn’t stop until they end, and probably that you cannot stop until they end either.

At one level, the two books have a similar theme – they are about an old man in Japan befriending an animal – a monkey in the one case and a raven in the other.

They also delineate the same reaction of the protagonists’ wary wives which is in both cases “Why do you bother?” and then “Don’t you dare bring it home!”

However, that is where the comparisons end.

‘The Old Man & The Monkey’ is very focused indeed. It is an allegory about racism. The wife and the villagers fear that the monkey will interfere in their society. They fear, in fact, that one monkey is a harbinger for a whole host of monkeys who will invade the village and cause a maximum of inconvenience, damage and despair. The wife does not only fear this but she also fears that the villagers will consider her as the introductory force.

As it turns out, the monkey is the epitome of decorum and the eventual horde of monkeys is likewise.

As a male monkey in Japan, George Polley knows intimately both the monkey’s tale and that of the old man. The story is beautifully told, and is quite differently told, as it happens, from the telling of ‘Grandfather & The Raven’.

In the end it makes you cry – at least it did me.

You can regard it as a very small ‘Animal Farm’ or a fairly small ‘The Little Prince’ or simply as an exquisite tale in its own right.

Buy it and read it. It is one of the most amazing and moving (and indeed clever and subtle) pieces I have ever read.

It will take you about an hour to read it each time. I am sure that you will want to share it.

Click here to go to CreateSpace

'Grandfather and the Raven'

When my children were eight and five, they used to love listening to a couple of Barefoot Books CDs in the car and as they settled down to sleep – ‘Tales of Wisdom & Wonder’ narrated by Hugh Lupton and ‘Grandmothers’ Stories’ narrated by Olympia Dukakis.

Coming from Barefoot Books, these were charming multicultural tales suffused with wry observations on the world – the monkey who asked God to give him more misery, thinking that ‘misery’ meant honey; the blind man who was always one step ahead of his sighted companion who was trying to cheat him; the animals who helped two children escape a witch who wanted to eat them; the beautiful crone who drew a raven and a basket on her cell wall and had them come to life and carry her away.

There is a great deal of outstanding entertainment around for children nowadays, especially on TV and DVD and in computer games, which parents often candidly resent but which set the bar very high for more traditional literature-based competitors to jump over. However, speaking as a parent, it is always a delight when something I would regard as more wholesome than constant Japanese-based cartoon battling succeeds in entrancing my children as well.

George Polley’s ‘Grandfather & The Raven’ tales remind me a great deal of the Barefoot Books stories. Their starting point is a meeting between a talking (as they do) raven and an oldish man which leads to their teaming up to help and instruct the people around them. Their author is an American who chooses to live in Japan and they are suffused with a gentle knowingness and humour accompanied by a sharp disapproval of unprovoked violence (violent dogs, violent people, war). There is also a cannily and wryly portrayed running description of the relationship between the old man and his wife which serves to add welcome dabs of wasabi to the concoction.

According to George, these tales sprang from nowhere and told themselves, which I well believe as they are both freely flowing and naturally quirky, and clearly not targeted at a neatly-defined market segment nor containing artificial story-enhancer additives.

Some more cautious adults may baulk slightly at reading to a small child the tale of the angry man who beats his wife because he feels misunderstood and that of the ravens who literally have the shit scared out of them but, for me, such occasional departures from safe storytelling are the nutty bits in the organic wholemeal bread and I am sure that many a grandparent will as much enjoy reading these stories for themselves as retelling them at bedtime to younger folk.

It would be good to be able to hear them on audio CD too.

Click on picture to go to Abbott ePublishing

That man never dies, and Abbot ePublishing have just released thirteen new flash fiction tales, seven of which were written by George Polley.

• 'Adventure of the Feline Assistant'
• 'The Neverbody Business'
• 'Sherlock Holmes and the Holiday in Brighton'
• 'Body of Evidence'
• 'The Sinister Monk'
• 'The Man with a Knife, or, MacTavish Saves a Neighbour'
• 'Sherlock Holmes and the Blue Clasp'