I shall be reading from “Flirting at the Funeral” at the Manchester Book Market on Sunday, June 7th. Not to be missed!
FERN HILL UNREMEMBERED
Empty, neglected and falling into dereliction, surrounded and ignored by orgies of congratulatory self-promotion, this is Fern Hill in centenary April.
FLIRTING AT THE NEW BREWERY ARTS CENTRE
To everyone who came to the New Brewery Arts Centre in Cirencester last night and bought copies of “Flirting at the Funeral” – big thanks for warmth, wine, hospitality, enthusiasm and, of course, impeccable literary taste! What a nice town Cirencester is!
MARK BRADY NEWS
My rock star publisher Mark Brady of Cillian Press, full tilt at the Millennium Centre. Go Mark!
THE GHOSTWRITER’S NOTEBOOK
A mummified apparition in a wheel-chair. A mammoth in the permafrost.The oligarch lives round the corner from the Blairs, where restless groups of armed police – Diplomatic Protection Group – stamp their feet outside little designer boutiques with a single silk dress in the window. He is hiring: a ghostwriter, a dialogue coach, a personal shopper; and the limousines wait in …
FROM “THE FRENCH THING” (CARREG GWALCH 2002)
“M. Dreyer drawled his fork across the plate with a disheartened gesture, stirring the frozen peas into little heaps. Beti finished her food with hurried, efficient movements. She pushed her plate to one side and picked at her teeth. Tom’s newspaper was folded on the table between them. There was a picture on the front page of an …
MAKING AN ENTRANCE
“At eight o’clock, as the light deepened, Matty walked slowly down the stone steps to the terrace by the pool, concentrating on making an entrance. She was wearing the red silk dress, matching her lipstick, and she’d put her hair up in a thick and tangled mop of blonde. Charcoal smoke was blowing about in the evening breeze; …
FROM “LIMINAL” (ALCEMI, 2007) CHAPTER THREE
“The colours of the map rose up at him out of the pool of lamplight: the lucent blue of the Halcyonic Gulf; the sand-shades of the littoral, deepening in tone as the mountains rose behind the sea; winding yellow roads, and everywhere churches, and the little broken pillars marking ancient sites. He traced a route along the shore with the …
ALL-AMERICAN
Proud to be an all-American speaker!
More from the Cillian Press Author Gathering
This is William Etty’s “The Storm” – one of the treasures of the Manchester Art Gallery. Alternative titles:“What were the chances of that?” or“My God, we’ve lost the sail!”
CILLIAN PRESS AUTHOR GATHERING MANCHESTER JANUARY 2014
“There’s a neon light ablaze in this green smoky haze, and laughter down on Elizabeth Street…” Such a night!
THE GATHERING
To Manchester on Saturday for the fabulous, fabulous Cillian Press Author Gathering – THE social and literary event of the year!
AUTUMN IN AMERICA
View PostPeople slip away
“People slip away,” Howard said. “You have to hold on to them, or they slip away.” He walked through the vaulted archway of the gate-house into the dazzling afternoon light. “You can’t hold on to them,” Matty said, hanging back inside the key-hole of the arch. “They slip away anyway.” There was a slight resonance in her voice, a hollow …
Paddington again
The train was passing through a landscape of gravel-pits and reservoirs, silvery stretches of water away towards the airport where the motorways merge, airliners hanging heavily below the clouds. They ran into another squall, trails of raindrops driven wriggling across the window like urgent sperm. He pictured Paddington, not far up the line, its echoing loudspeakers in the teeming …