Charing Cross Read

Gothic YA – A Starter Reading List – The Book Smugglers

2012-03-09T07:00:00.000Z

New from Blackwell’s! Are you pining for more Young Adult books? Do you adore Gothic novels? You can now have both for the price of one!

Seriously now – being the Gothic lovers that we are, we’re immensely happy to contribute to the upcoming Gothic Evening at Blackwell’s.

The traditional idea of the Gothic novel conjures up images of foreboding manors, ghostly encounters, desolate landscapes, with a dash of dark romance. But Gothic lit - that is, fiction that blends elements of horror and romanticism (the artistic movement that glorified in strong emotion) - need not be so traditional. Today, YA authors are excelling at reinterpreting some of the elements of Gothic literature for new audiences.

Here's a list of some recent Gothic YA novels that we’ve recently read, loved and highly recommend:

1. Dreaming of Amelia (or The Ghosts of Ashbury High) by Jaclyn Moriarty

A bunch of students at an Australian school are given an assignment for their English class – and the topic is Gothic Fiction. Their task is to write a personal memoir incorporating classic Gothic elements and the result is a brilliant epistolary novel about very contemporary issues that reads just like a traditional Gothic novel (or at least like what these student think a traditional Gothic novel should be). This book is terminally clever. You know, Gothically speaking.

2. Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell

Iris is a 14 year old whose summer holiday in a small town in Louisiana turns spooky as she is haunted by the ghost of a boy who disappeared years ago. This is a prime example of a Southern Gothic novel and it is one that fully explores the subgenre’s main characteristics: it relies on the supernatural side of the story to move the plot along while simultaneously providing relevant, contemporary social commentary.

3. The Monstrumologist series by Rick Yancey

This series follows the exploits of Dr. Pellinore Warthrope and his ward-cum-apprentice Will Henry as they confront the very real existence of monsters and the darkness within. The Monstrumologist books are a more traditional example of masterfully written and truly terrifying Gothic fiction, in the vein of Shelley and Stoker.

4. Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement Moore

We both like to think of Texas Gothic as a modern Scooby Doo type of Gothic YA mystery. Starring a family of witches against a southwestern backdrop, Texas Gothic is pure FUN.

5. The Dead of Winter by Chris Priestley

We needed to include at least one Victorian haunted manor story on here, right? And The Dead of Winter by Chris Priestly is a perfect example, featuring the spectral ghost of a murder most foul and the one young man who can set things right.

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Ana Grilo and Thea James are two completely obsessed, sad, sick addicts when it comes to books. Faced with threats and cynicism from our significant others and because of the massive amounts of time and money we spend on books, we resorted to getting them delivered to our offices and then smuggling them into our homes (in huge handbags) to avoid detection.

With The Book Smugglers we found a perfect outlet for our obsession! Reviews, recommendations, and other ponderings are our specialty. You can also follow us on Twitter.

A Sense of Place – Simon Bestwick

2012-03-08T07:00:00.000Z

One of the key things about Gothic literature: the setting is a character. That isn’t exclusive to Gothic literature, of course. You could say that setting’s always a character- we’re all, to a lesser or greater extent, products of our environment.

But in Gothic literature, the setting is an active force- a castle, traditionally, dominating the landscape both visually and psychologically. From The Castle of Otranto to Shirley Jackson’s Hill House (and beyond,) it’s a nightmare place; inside its walls, the rules are very different from outside. Ghosts may walk and terrible things may prowl the shadows, but often the worst danger is from the living, as the house works on individual flaws and weak spots to cause or threaten insanity, violence and self-destruction.

These days, you’ll be hard put to find a castle that isn’t run as a tourist attraction. But the haunted castles are still there; it’s just a case of knowing where to look for them.

Some, like Thomas Ligotti and the late Brian McNaughton, blend horror with fantasy to invent new worlds. Others follow in the footsteps of Algernon Blackwood or Arthur Machen, and find those dark other worlds hidden in the substance of the everyday.

Brad Anderson’s film Session 9 is set in the Danvers Hospital, Massachusetts, a real-life abandoned lunatic asylum. Generations of patients- for genuine mental illness, or for their sexuality, unwed motherhood, pre-marital intercourse, or just being different- lived and died in such places across the Western world. Many were buried in the hospital grounds; others survived only to be released, ageing and confused, into a world they couldn’t recognise. Treatments and attitudes ranged from the compassionate to the appalling; tales of abuse, exploitation and dehumanisation abound.

Wasted lives, burned out, their grief on the walls like soot. Urban explorers have captured the now-disused asylums’ empty corridors and silent rooms in all their bleak glory. Viewing such images, it’s hard not to think that if there were ghosts, they’d be here. And they might not welcome visitors. Or worse, they might.

If you’re looking for present-day Britain’s haunted castles, here they are.

Or were. Most of the asylums are now demolished. Severalls, Cane Hill, West Park, High Royds, Hellingly… even Danvers has been converted into apartments. Still, a few may remain, tucked away in quiet corners- out of sight, out of mind, as they were always meant to be. They’ll serve for a time yet, while the smart writers, the trailblazers look further afield- to abandoned towerblocks and council estates, perhaps- in search of new places where the shadows can make their home.

In the meantime, let me invite you to visit Ash Fell, the First World War veterans’ hospital that plays a central role in The Faceless. Not exactly a lunatic asylum, although there’s some resemblance - some of its inmates were scarred in body, rather than mind. But it’s a bad place alright, filled with years of unimaginable suffering. You enter at your peril.

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Born in Wolverhampton, Simon Bestwick escaped to the wilds of Lancashire aged two, where he remains. He is the author of two novels - Tide of Souls and the just-released The Faceless, the collections A Hazy Shade of Winter (just re-released as an ebook) and Pictures of The Dark, and a chapbook, Angels of the Silences. When not writing, he tries in vain to have a life and catch up on his sleep. He blogs at http://simon-bestwick.blogspot.com/.

The Gothic Weather – Steve Rasnic Tem

2012-03-07T11:44:00.000Z

I think an important aspect of the Gothic we rarely capture (and I include myself) is its transient nature. The Gothic is like the weather—we can feel it coming, the electricity in the air, and we can witness the way it begins to change the quality of the light of our once sunny day, the clouds edging with gray, the shadows racing, and then we’re in the midst of it, the cold and the damp creeping into our clothes and transforming our skin, and we're terrified by its darkness and ferocity. But then it passes, and we find ourselves in a more temperate, perhaps more optimistic environment, where we can better appreciate the differences, where we can understand that, as overwhelming as it was, it was but a piece of a much larger and more complex world.

Or perhaps the Gothic is the ruined, disturbed landscape we have to pass through on our way to our final destination, and we’re forced to spend one night within its borders. Choose your favorite metaphor.

My point is that with some perspective this condition can be seen as transitory. We don’t spend our entire lives there, and I believe the Gothic can be fully appreciated only in context, and in contrast to what comes before and after. Spend all your time there if you like, but I think if you do you may miss its true significance.

I believe that in the Gothic we have two threads of authorial perspective coming together: horror and the weird, both evolving out of our mortal condition and our realization that ultimately we must die. Our fear of this reality drives the horror of it, and the absurdity that we are mortal when we have such strong immortal aspirations drives our sense of the weird, that somehow the impossible can be true. The horror of life terrifies and makes us despair, while our sense of the weird makes us feel such strangeness that we’re just as likely to react with black humor or even delight as with terror to where this experience takes us.

In my new novel, Deadfall Hotel, (out in May from Solaris Books) I’ve tried to create the ultimate haunted resort, a place where our nightmares go, where the dead pause to rest between worlds, a place where our fears can walk about freely and elaborate themselves into fanciful phantasmagoria. It is a locale where the impossible is bound to happen. And yet it is also a funhouse, a setting enabling us to see the humor of our situation from a relatively safe vantage point, and still be thrilled by what we witness.

But it is also a stage where real life occurs, where a single father must make decisions about the well-being of a daughter developing into womanhood, where grief must be addressed and healing attempted, where mistakes are inevitably made and lessons imperfectly learned. And for me, it became a vehicle in which I could explore the roots of fear and society’s fascination with all things horrific.

It is also pay-by-the-night lodging where, after our visit has completed, we can drive away, to experience it again in memory, and quietly contemplate our limited stay.

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Steve Rasnic Tem's 300 plus short stories have appeared in such publications as Asimov's, Black Static, Interzone, and Stephen Jones' Best New Horror. He is a past winner of the British Fantasy and World Fantasy awards. His new novel, Deadfall Hotel, will be published by Solaris Books in May of 2012. In this Edward Gorey-esque, Mervyn Peak-esque novel a widower takes the job of manager at a remote hotel where the guests are not quite like you and me, accompanied by his daughter and the ghost of his wife--"a literary exploration of the roots of horror in the collective unconscious." New Pulp Press will be bringing out a collection of his noir short stories, Ugly Behavior, in August of 2012.

Visit the Tem home on the web at www.m-s-tem.com

Southern Gothic – James Pearson

2012-03-06T07:47:00.000Z

Southern Gothic, it is like a barely tangible dark essence. A flavour that is subtle yet distinct. A spice that you can’t quite put your finger on but adds the zest to the gumbo.

Trying to define Southern Gothic as a genre is damn near impossible. Referring to it as an ingredient or undercurrent is far easier. You can sense the vibe as opposed to out-and-out acknowledging that you are consuming a Southern Gothic-stamped product. All part of the mystery and joy I say!

My first memorable brush with that Southern Gothic spice was as a kid reading the Classics Illustrated version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The sequence where Tom and Becky are on the run from Injun Joe in the dark labyrinth of caves always stuck with me. Considering that Twain was essentially writing a kid’s book, he definitely tapped into some extremely dark places. Shadows, bats, homicidal maniacs and yes…Murder. They all played a vital part in the otherwise innocent world that Tom Sawyer and Huck inhabited. The sun twinkled and sparkled off of the beautiful surface of the grand Mississippi whilst underneath twisted and squirmed a barely hidden grey undertow of menace and mystery. The essence of Southern Gothic.

And boy did that essence lend itself to the medium of sequential art.

Having been an avid and rabid “funny books” reader for the past thirty years, I have been a big fan of Southern Gothic flavoured comics. There is something about the snaking swamp tendrils and its inbred inhabitants that is at once repulsive and alluring. Maybe it is the juxtaposition of those primal elements set against the civilised culture of the Southern Gent and Lady sipping tea on the porch of their plantation in all their finery that strikes a chord.

Artists like Bernie Wrightson and Mike Ploog captured that spice in visual terms just perfectly. Get your hands on an old copy of DC’s Swamp Thing and see what I mean. Alan Moore’s scripts for later Swamp Thing stories further complicated matters by adding a psychedelic twist to proceedings. A good session reading Moore’s Eighties run on Swamp Thing should be a mandatory rite of passage for any aspiring comic book writer/illustrator.

As far as I am concerned Swamp Thing will always be the benchmark of Southern Gothic in comics, but there are some pretty notable more recent efforts. One example that comes to mind is Steve Niles’ atmospheric and excellent Freaks of the Heartland. Captures the mood and the balance between innocence and menace just right. Niles is a clever fellow, he even manages to inject a Southern Gothic twist into his frigid Alaska-set vampire epic 30 Days of Night. He just can’t help himself. That flavour has permeated itself in comics since the early days (have a nosey at some of the old EC Comics horror books to get a taste) and it stands testament to the strength of the ingredient that it still infuses itself onto the comic racks to this very day.

So where does Bayou Arcana fit in?

From all the press surrounding the project (unexpected but very welcome!), one would see this as the comics’ industry’s attempt at rebalancing a gender inequality that has existed for waaaay too long… and that is a big element at play here. Bayou Arcana was designed as a platform to showcase some of that underutilised talent, although that’s not to forget the excellent writing team behind the stories!

However, first and foremost, Bayou Arcana is an exercise in Southern Gothic. Magic swamps, Louisiana Gentry, renegade slaves, bayou princesses, nasty inbreds, voodoo, and One-Eyed Raccoons all feature. What I set out to do with Bayou Arcana was create a unique and brand-new universe for a bunch of writers and artists to play around in and expand (further volumes and spin-offs are already in the works!). It was never a conscious decision to set that playground in a Southern Gothic world. It just happened that way. The story of a group of escaped slaves finding shelter and a new life within a magical swamp that serves as their guardian from the evils of the outside world seemed like a great starting point to let loose all those talented bods involved on. And those talented bods have more than lived up to expectations.

What was unexpected, and maybe this has something to do with the mix of the creative teams, is that they have plumbed another Southern Gothic vein, one I haven’t spoken of yet. An element as vital and essential as all the dark things…

Romance.

More specifically: doomed romance.

Oh yes…In amongst all the gators, snakes, demons and gore there will be heartfelt tears.

And lots of them.

I am really looking forwards to our night celebrating the realms of Southern Gothic at Blackwell’s on the 8th of March. Can’t wait actually. Not only is it an opportunity to do the usual plugging of one’s book; it is an opportunity to explore and share a love of a literary flavour and spice that rarely gets the recognition or attention it deserves!

See all you Swamp Things on the night!

Jimmy Pearson

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Bayou Arcana: Songs of Loss and Redemption is released this May from Markosia.

Something for the Weekend

2012-03-02T16:09:00.000Z

Woman in Black - Susan Hill

This weeks Something for the weekend has of course been influenced by our up & coming Gothic evening in conjunction with the kitschies, Thursday 8th of March! Don't forget. Did you see us in the Stylist? Who are you to argue with the Stylist? Right we'll see you here then.

The Woman in Black has been all over the news thanks to the new film version starring Daniel Radcliffe. A good film it is to, it made me jump a lot & that is what it is supposed to do. Plus it has a lovely sinister Victorian feel to it, it's genuinely creepy and it's a Hammer film! It's so nice to see that name back. Add some good performances from Radcliffe, Janet McTeer & the chubby scouse one from 'Goodnight Sweetheart' & you've got a good night out. But is the book better - of course it is!

The novel (unlike the film) begins with Arthur Kipps telling his tale of woe to his new family at Christmas. The tale itself centres around a job of work Mr Kipps had to do many years ago. He has to go to a spooky old house in the middle of nowhere to sort through the papers of the recently deceased owner. The locals unsubtly try & dissuade Kipps from having anything to do with the house but 'Scooby Doo' like he goes anyway. Sadly Kipp's actions have terrible consequences, but I'll leave you to discover those yourself.

Not a long book it still unwinds at a pleasantly leisurely pace & allows you to luxuriate in it's cosy olde language & manners before the jolts kick in. The lonely house, the eerie moor, the reticent villagers - these are classic staples in the traditional ghost story, but this book has much more to offer. For example the devastating reason for the hauntings is revealed piecemeal alongside Kipps visitations. A book for a cold night in front of a big fire with a bigger mug of cocoa - don't read it on the train on a gloomy night.

Buy it here

Gary

The Gothic in Teen Fiction – Esther Saxey

2012-03-01T19:54:00.000Z

There's a Gothic boom in teen fiction. Black covers. One word titles - Shiver, Linger, Fallen, Silence - like the results of a morbid game of Boggle.

I love the genre – but can you write Gothic fiction today with a clean conscience? It's rooted in fears of the outsider who challenges our identity, and this fear is expressed in deeply dodgy ways: often, it's innocent women being threatened by sinister sexual foreigners. Dracula is a perfect example. (Vampires are also dangerously dual-gendered and queer, having a mouth that both sucks and pokes.) The foundational teen Gothic – Stephenie Meyer's Twilight – uses this age-old tradition, of the appealing menace of sex. It's thrilling! But wrong! The vampire hero struggles with his desires to kiss the heroine and/or rip her head off.

So how can you rethink teen Gothic, so that it doesn't demonise sex, or insult everyone south of Calais?

You could change one of the Gothic's traditions. For example, A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray ditches the swooning girl of the Gothics for a brilliant fierce heroine. But writers who change one negative tradition often end up leaning heavily on the others. Bray's novel, set in Victorian England, uses India as a sinister, snake-eating counterpoint continent. So the sexual politics of the Gothic get tidied up, but race-based desire and revulsion still prop up the plot - not an ideal solution.

Another strategy is adopting a villain of whom you actually disapprove. But the Gothic often makes its villains highly glamorous. Without that tug of fascination and identification, combined with repulsion, it wouldn't be half as dangerous, and it wouldn't be Gothic – it would be simple horror. So Dracula is powerful and magnetically attractive, before he gets the chop.

Some Teen Noir gets round the problem by using only the props of the genre: vampires are everywhere, but they behave like mortal moody dudes or cool kids (see Alex Duval's Vampire Beach series, set in Malibu). Plots are often simple romances or detective stories.

There's another strategy I find more interesting: showing the horrors of normality. The excellent Pretties by Scott Westerfeld and Delirium by Lauren Oliver are both set in conformist societies. The heroines intend to take a pill, or have an operation, that will make them a full and happy citizen. But more and more flaws appear in the plan, and in the society. The heroine begins to think heretical thoughts, of avoiding the pill or the op. But it's their route to adulthood, and they've longed for it for years.

The novels thus explore the tango between attraction and repulsion without using supernatural trappings – they're less obviously Gothic, but they rely on an old Gothic dynamic.

This approach has its own tradition: David Lynch's Blue Velvet with a white picket fence and a severed ear. Jeanette Winterson's short story “Newton”, where a town with freakishly neat routines tries to recruit the protagonist. Or Stepford Wives, in which suburban housewives are so happy that something must be wrong.

Kid's fiction also deals with conformist societies, but in a less conflicted way; the child protagonists hate the rules, fight the system or escape it, and save their society (see The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau or The Wind Singer by William Nicholson). But teen fiction, by contrast, gives more attention to the seductions of conformity, and that's what makes it Gothic.

I think it's a particularly appealing plot for adolescents. Teens don't want to feel completely alone, but they're also struggling to create themselves as individuals.

But the struggle to be oneself, and the temptation of becoming something else – something worse – doesn't vanish with age. I still find the Gothic thrilling. And recent Gothic fiction is a refreshingly long way away from beheading a contagious Transylvanian polygamist.

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Esther Saxey's interests include the supernatural and the queer and how one gets confused with the other. Likes novels by Goths, novels about Goths and novels in the Gothic tradition.

Notes on the Suburban Gothic – Louis Greenburg

2012-02-26T21:09:00.000Z

I’ve long been interested in the manifestations of the suburban Gothic in contemporary fiction, art and architecture. At first glance, there seems to be little to connect a grand Gothic cathedral and strip mall or a box house in any Western city’s suburban sprawl, but aesthetically they are on the same continuum.

Nineteenth-century Gothic fiction and the Gothic revival architecture of the same period – follies, faux ruins and mazes – is a reaction against the scientistic certainty of Enlightenment rationality. By setting their Gothic works in crumbling ruins of medieval cathedrals and in ancient castles, Coleridge, the Shelleys, Byron, Poe, the Brontës, Le Fanu and ultimately Stoker celebrate the invincibility of death and he inescapability of history. The bloody shadows of the Crusades cannot be expunged from Europe by Enlightenment politeness; the Gothic celebrates the rejection of scientific rationality and its neat polarities. In the gory darkness of the middle ages, life and death co-existed, good and evil, sex, love and hatred mingled in a heady, human soup that the clever scientists tried to strain. Enlightenment rationalists tried – and failed – to taxonomise the conflicts and contradictions out of human society. The nineteenth century Gothic delighted in showing how death and entropy would always emerge victorious.

Now instead of the impenetrable wisdom of scientists, we rely on governments and corporations, fashion magazines, websites and advertising agencies to classify us, to affirm the effervescence of life and keep death at bay. But just like a hundred years ago, the cracks always show: the ape – everywhere we look – emerges from beneath the human skin, apocalypse seeps from every crack in the thin pavement.

In the 1950s it seemed like it might work. Cars and unprecedented industrial affluence allowed the creation of suburban paradises where right-minded families could live in health and bliss. But soon those suburbs and the nuclear families they harboured behind their discreet walls became the festering-place of abuse and sexual violence. Once they were hidden from the gaze of the broader community, families could practice their evil power imbalances in seclusion.

This is where the suburban Gothic of recent years emerges. Poppy Z. Brite’s Lost Souls is a definitive portrait of abuse and neglected children wandering lost in the suburban wasteland, just as the flawed Gothic heroes – broken, irredeemable and wandering the wasteland, forever in exile – did a century and two before. And who comes to the rescue? To whom do the lost souls run? To vampires, of course (when modern vampires still had teeth) – that ultimate symbol of sex, death, life, pleasure, torment and irresponsibility – they care nothing for human rules.

Our crumbling cathedrals – the suburban Gothic settings where life and death, love and hate, sex, pain and redemption stew together – are now malls, hospitals and schools; those grandiose edifices where the cant of systemised order and death-defiance is preached. Take a close look at your surgeon, your headmaster, your corporate marketer: they hold your life – and death – in their hands.

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Louis Greenberg is a freelance editor and writer in Johannesburg and half of the horror writer S.L. Grey (@slgreyhorror). Their debut collaboration, The Mall, was released in 2011 from Corvus. The Ward comes out in 2012.

Something for the Weekend

2012-02-24T10:56:00.002Z

The Vesuvius Club – Mark Gatiss

It’s been over a month now and I’m still grieving. None of my colleagues will discuss it with me any more. My partner can’t even bear to hear the music. But my life is empty without the BBC’s Sherlock.

In the absence of more episodes and no resolution on how Mr Holmes faked his death, I’ve turned to Sherlock co-writer Mark Gatiss’ other detective, Lucifer Box, for comfort. There are three adventures featuring the irresistible Box, but The Vesuvius Club is the first and the most fun.

Painter, dandy and secret agent, Lucifer Box romps through Edwardian high and low society whilst saving the world from a ridiculous super-villain plot. There are dangerous pursuits through sewers, amusingly named extras (cute companion Charlie Jackpot is my favourite) and plenty of wisecracking. A detective of dubious moral standards, Box is a witty and decidedly queer hero who will have you sniggering at his antics. A quick, dirty afternoon pleasure best read whilst reclining on a chaise longue, with a box of elaborate chocolates or a willing sidekick to top up your champagne glass. And an excellent way to fill the hours between now and the next season of Sherlock.

Sarah T

Buy it here.

Introducing The Gothic – Jared Shurin

2012-02-23T20:24:00.006Z

For the next two weeks on Charing Cross Read a series of authors and bloggers will help explain the contemporary significance of the Gothic - all culminating in a darkly fantastic live event at Blackwell’s on 8 March.

Given the genre’s ubiquity in books, art, film and comics, this seems like an easy task. This isn’t a niche sub-genre like Steampunk - the Gothic has a long shadow that touches every shelf in the bookshop. In fact, the main challenge with the Gothic is the reverse of our normal task. We know the Gothic is significant because it is everywhere, but we don’t know what it is. If we can see it in romance and fantasy, horror and young adult, where do those genres end, and the Gothic itself begin?

I would suggest that the Gothic is less a genre than a meta-genre: a wriggly overlay of themes that have been adapted by each generation to their contemporary situations. Gothic’s own origin stems more from market-savvy literary artifice than organic development, having sprung forth fully-formed from the head of Horace Walpole in 1764. For Walpole, the Gothic was an experiment in blending two forms of pre-existing literature: the chivalric romance and the modern novel. From the former, he nicked epic scale and intimate tragedy. From the latter, he pulled humour and the crowd-pleasing supernatural. Walpole wasn't aiming for the established aristocracy; he was targeting the aspirational middle class. This is even reflected in the title he selected: his work was dubbed "Gothic" in order to give it a sense of history, of cultural weight.

It’s appropriate, then, that Gothic novels are frequently about the struggle for identity and for place (socially, geographically, emotionally) and the conflict between the old and the new (often represented in terms of class or generation). In the 19th and 20th century, Gothic novels began to discuss race as well, and overseas authors (predominantly in the American South) interpreted those larger themes in terms of their local context. Similarly, side by side with the Young Adult boom of recent years, authors have begun to use the Gothic to examine adolescence as well.

The Gothic is, in a sense, deliberately cheesy: transmogrifying what are ordinarily quiet discussions of class, gender and belonging into something with crumbling towers, angry ghosts and mad wives in attics. The mechanism, then, is to externalise and exaggerate its concerns in order to examine them at arm's length. Inner conflicts become outer ghosts; class issues become vampires, overbearing forebears become collapsing towers and puberty becomes a particularly nasty pack of werewolves.

Aesthetically, the tropes of the Gothic are almost immediately recognisable - cloaks and corsets, towers and vaults, eyeliner and wedding dresses. But the Gothic goes beyond these (slightly hackneyed) elements. In Jerrold E. Hogle's Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction, Hogle identifies three general parameters: "an antiquated or seemingly antiquated space", "hidden secrets from the past that haunt the characters" and elision (to a varying degree) between "the earthly laws of conventional reality and the possibilities of the supernatural".

All three are open to broad interpretation. As S.D. Crockett's After the Snow illustrates, for example, the past could be our present, and that our contemporary society can become antiquated history in a few short years. Christopher Fowler's Hell Train and Jon Courtenay Grimwood's The Fallen Blade are both crafted around dangerous secrets - protagonists struggling with their own repressed natures. Both novels depend on antiquated spaces and buried secrets. Fowler’s protagonists sprinting endlessly between the cars of a blasphemous train, confronting their own sins. Grimwood’s characters stalk the alleys and palaces of an alternate Venice, trying to overcome the nature demanded by both their bloodlines and their politics.

Another modern approach to the Gothic is via supernatual incursion, as with novels by Tanith Lee and Suzanne McLeod. While Lee's body of short stories and novels is so extensive it is impossible to generalise, her work generally tends to include a subtle, deliberately poeticised touch of the supernatural. McLeod's Spellcrackers series also addresses supernatural elements in the real world, but does so more explicitly, with her books focused almost entirely on the integration of the impossible within a contemporary context.

Gothic elements have likewise found a modern expression in the visual arts. The Gothic has been adapted to modern artistic styles (for example, the art of Emma Vieceli or Darren Banks) yet have also stayed true to its original themes (for instance the supernatural glimpsed in the art of John Kaiine and the fading antiquity captured in the photography of Joel Meadows). The great boom of Gothic cinema was, of course, the golden age of Hammer Films in the 1960s and 70s, but the dramatic revival of the Hammer brand and today’s endless parade of vaguely historical and thoroughly supernatural television dramas are both evidence of a new dawn (or is that evening?) of the Gothic in media.

Walpole's experiment has proven to be an unstoppable and uncontrollable force. His literary invention, intended to be populist, has proven timeless as well.

Over the next few weeks, guest bloggers and authors will go into more detail about what Gothic means to them, from Southern to suburban, teenagers to weather patterns. We hope you also have the opportunity to join us on the evening of 8 March, as we discuss even more interpretations of the Gothic in person at Blackwell's Charing Cross. The evening's guests include many of the authors and artists mentioned above, plus other great figures in horror, fantasy and romance.

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Jared Shurin is a director of The Kitschies, the prize for progressive, intelligent and entertaining genre fiction, presented by The Kraken Rum. More about the award can be learned at www.thekitschies.com.

Something for the Weekend

2012-02-17T15:35:00.000Z

Hello, this week we are spoiling you with two Something's for the weekend! Lucky you.

A visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan

'Times a goon right? You gonna let that goon push you around?' Inevitably that is exactly what happens to the characters in this beautifully written and subtly moving novel. The circular narrative picks up the characters in different stages of their lives and weaves their stories together to make a hugely satisfying read. Plus a chapter written as a PowerPoint presentation, what more could you want?

Steve

Buy it here

The little Stranger - Sarah Waters

In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, its owners struggling to keep pace. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his. But who or what is the little stranger?

This brilliantly written chiller is definitely the best novel i read in 2010. Everyone will have their own ideas about what has really taken place. Guaranteed to provoke debate.

Steve

Buy it here

Something for the Weekend

2012-02-10T15:57:00.000Z

Wise Children - Angela Carter

Like all of Carter's fiction, Wise Children is brimming with magical realism, fantastical characters and just a hint of the macabre. Twin theatrical sisters Dora and Nora Chance are our leads in a story about chorus girls, questions of paternity, love, tragedy and general familial disharmony. Dora narrates our way through the bright lights of her and Nora's 75th birthday in her light-hearted, sagely tone. The twins' birthday is also the 100th birthday of their father Melchior Hazzard and his twin brother Peregrine; as well as the birthday of Shakespeare, whom Carter admired greatly.

The twins' birthday begins with trademark dramatics when their nephew Tristram calls on them, announcing that his partner Tiffany (the twins' godchild) is pregnant and missing. Soon afterwards, news emerges that a body has been found and it is believed to be Tiffany's. Tiffany and Tristram are an amusing, mismatched couple who bring upon themselves great misfortune. Their story is one of the occasions where Carter appears to be poking fun at their misfortune - with great mischief. As with all of Carter's more tragic characters, nothing too dreadful occurs but there is considerable mishap and the story builds nicely.

Most of the story stems from Dora's memories and regrets of her earlier life. In particular, the subject of paternity is a major occupation for the Chance twins as they are not entirely sure of their parentage until the end of the book. Even then, there is a sense that they will remain rootless and free as they have been all of their lives. As a result, Dora and Nora are two of the more lively and spritely characters of Carter's ouevre. Another element of Wise Children that keeps the readers attention are the names of the characters, i.e Lady Atalanta Hazzard, My Lady Margarine, Peregrine Hazzard, Ross 'Irish' O'Flaherty and the wonderful 'Blond tenor with unmemorable name' all come to mind.

One of the best parts of the book is discovering the seemingly endless melee of identical and fraternal twins in the cast of characters. The sheer volume of characters, coupled with the complexity of their relationships (including incestuous ones) adds to the magical realism that Carter always used so excellently and is still much loved for. If you have a limited imagination - Carter is not for you, or maybe she is, as she could just change your perception of reality and fantasy and the limits of both. Wise Children is an example of just how fine a storyteller Carter really was and should be widely read along with her other titles. Carter's long time friend, Susannah Clapp has recently published A Card From Angela Carter, a collection of postcards from the pairs correspondence that lovingly represents Carter for the mischievous and talented writer she was. We have signed editions (while stocks last!) as Susannah was kind enough to come in and sign for us today. Other titles include The Magic Toyshop, Burning Your Boats and Nights at the Circus.

Buy Wise Children and A Card From Angela Carter here

Michelle

http://www.madameaddams.wordpress.com/

Something for the weekend..

2012-02-03T16:40:00.000Z

Kill your friends - John Niven

This 'Something for the weekend...' is not for the faint hearted, this is humour at it's blackest.

It's January 1997 & the times they are a changing, Blair is about to take over, Brit-pop is everywhere & Stephen Stelfox is struggling; except he doesn't know it yet. Stelfox is the 'star' of the book, i wouldn't say hero as a viler man you are less likely to meet. When we meet this nasty piece of work, he is an A&R man in the music business, so he fits in quite well. He despises all the acts that he has to pretend to love & what's worse (for him) is that he's losing any 'touch' he may ever have had (on his first listen to the new Radiohead single 'Paranoid Android' he gleefully declares they have 'lost it' & are 'finished'). Over the next 12 months he will sink lower than he has ever sunk before, taking copious amounts of drugs & alcohol, backstabbing, bitching, attempting murder purely to further his own career, & worse..

And it's hilarious. Each month is prefaced with a short rundown of what Stelfox deems important. This nearly always includes some bluster from another A&R man (e.g. The Ultrasound deal is really heating up - Simon Williams, head of Fierce Panda, says, 'it is clear that this band will be around a lot longer than 18 months..'). It's amusing to look back on who the 'next big thing' were every month ('Headswim' anyone?)

Imagine Patrick Bateman with a sense of humour & you're beginning to get the idea about Stelfox. You laugh though you shouldn't. My favourite piece of bile comes as a back handed compliment for everyones favourite fame hungry red head. Berating another 'needy' indie band he states Geri Halliwell - "would have risen at the crack of dawn every morning for a year and swum naked through a river of shark-infested semen – cutting the throats of children, OAPs and cancer patients and throwing them behind her as she went - just to be allowed to do a sixty-second regional radio interview''.

If that made you laugh - buy the book. You'll find it in store now on our London Novels table.

For similarly caustic (but less murderous) tales of Britpop i would also point you towards Bad vibes by Luke Haines which is just as funny (& true!).

Buy Kill your friends here

Gary

Something for the weekend

2012-01-27T09:58:00.000Z

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Shop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

This is one of my favourite books because it so perfectly conjures up another time and place. Set in America's deep south in a town (surprisingly enough) called Whistle Stop in Alabama, the book jumps between the depression era and the 80's. The story is told via the memory of Ninny Threadgoode as she talks to the depressed Evelyn Couch about her colourful family and friends.

The story mainly focuses on Idgie Threadgoode, her partner Ruth and Ruth's son, who own and run the cafe of the title. Idgie is an unashamed tomboy and after a terrible bereavement in her childhood, loses her joy of life until the pious Ruth Jamieson comes to live with the Threadgoodes for a Summer. It is wonderful to see her falling in love with Ruth and all of the family teasing her as she denies her true feelings. The book is partly a love story about a couple who are accepted without judgement in a time when attitudes were less liberal than now and it is this relationship/ family which forms the emotional heart of the book.

The cafe becomes a haven for people from all walks of life; from tramps to the white professionals of the town, to the disenfranchised black population of Whistle Stop. Set in a segregated America, the race relations add another, more political, layer to what might otherwise have been a more frivolous novel. The Threadgoode family employed a black maid, Sipsey, who ends up cooking at the cafe with her son, Big George and his wife Onzell. We find out as much about their family as we do about the Threadgoodes as the chapters alternate between the two families, and between the past and the present. It is this structure which makes the book so unputdownable, as you sometimes have to wait a few chapters to find out what happens after each cliff hanger Ninny Threadgoode casually mentions.

In the end, we feel as much as Evelyn does, uplifted by spending time at the cafe in Whistle Stop and meeting all of the wonderful people who are getting on with their ordinary lives- though Flagg does give us a murder or two to keep the pages turning. This book will make you laugh, make you cry, but most of all fall in love with the era and people of times past.

Amelia

Buy it here

Something for the weekend..

2012-01-20T16:23:00.000Z

Motherless Brooklyn - Jonathan Lethem

This weeks 'Something for the weekend' is a cracking hard nosed detective story.. sort of. Our 'hero' is Lionel Essrog, Lionel, at first sight, seems nothing more than a hired goon. But this is a book with many layers & not everything is as it seems. Set in Brooklyn the tale begins in not unusual 'gangster' fashion with a 'hit', Lionel's beloved boss Frank Minna is 'whacked' (alright I'll stop with the speech marks you've all seen Goodfellas right? or the Sopranos at least). As Lionel was supposed to be keeping watch on Frank that night & as Frank was Lionel's Father figure this causes Lionel a great deal of chagrin.

And so Lionel, alongside the rest of Frank's 'Minna men', sets about attempting to discover the identity of the killer & the reason for the murder. The key to the enjoyment of this book however is not the plot (not to say it isn't gripping) it is Lionel, & Lionel's condition. You see Lionel is (as far as i know) the only literary Private detective with Tourettes.

This isn't a caricature of Tourettes, Lethem doesn't have Lionel shriek expletives to get cheap laughs. More, Tourettes provides the rhythm of the pages, it, or rather Lethems portrayal of it, gives the book it's edge & it's propulsion. There is humour here though, Lionel jerks out some hilarious phrases & you can tell Lethem is having a ball forming the mangled sentences ping ponging round Lionel's frustrated skull, but there is always a sadness behind it - people treat Lionel as if he were a performing clown or a 'freakshow' (the reader of course realising his true nature).

Some of Lethems work can be pretty dense (though I've yet to read one i didn't enjoy) & i couldn't wholeheartedly recommend them to everyone. But Motherless Brooklyn is the exception, I challenge anyone not to enjoy this book.

Plus you'll find out why 'Kiss' by Prince is the perfect Tourettes song.

Gary

Buy it here

Something for the weekend..

2012-01-13T15:47:00.000Z

Hello & welcome back to Charing Cross Read - Blackwell's Charing cross road Blog. We hope you had a relaxing & enjoyable Christmas & New Year break & are ready to get back to some serious reading! We have some tempting, tasty & tremendous events on the horizon. But just to ease you back in here's a little something for the weekend..

The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher

Except it's not little it's a whopper! Yes it's another 'Something for the weekend' that you'd have to be a secret robot to actually read in a weekend.

Hensher's Northern odyssey begins in Sheffield 1974 & at the beginning it may remind you of the piquant humour of Alan Bennett or 'Abigails party' - all cocktail sausages & gossipy neighbours. The devil is in the detail for Hensher as we follow his wonderfully well drawn characters through the years. He makes you care about there (admittedly) fairly ordinary lives.

That's not to say it's without incident, but this is more about how the people react to events than the events themselves.It's about how peoples actions can reverberate through time. As the intertwined stories move through the years you will be touched, amused but most importantly you will need to know what happens & that is all down to Hensher's skillfull prose.

A joy from to start to finish - it's one of those books that you just know you will one day read again.

Gary

Buy it here

Something for the weekend..

2011-12-16T16:21:00.000Z

Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

There's a lot of talk about everyones' favourite pipe smoking sleuth at the moment. What with the (excellent) BBC Series returning very soon, the sequel to the (hugely popular) film by Guy Ritchie about to hit the silver screen, and Anthony Horowitz's new addition to the canon just released (House of Silk) it's a boom time for the clever dick.

Deservedly so in my opinion, Holmes' adventures are a cracking read, so in this 'Something for the weekend' I'm suggesting you go back to the original stories. For me it all began in 1982, I wanted to watch the Bbc's 'Hound of the Baskervilles' because this 'Holmes' person looked like Dr Who (see picture). In an attempt to find another vehicle for the incredibly popular Dr, the beeb put him in a deerstalker & sent him off to battle a large dog painted green. Well i liked it. I also enjoyed Jeremy Brett's terrific turn during the 80's & early 90's, it was comparatively recently though, that i actually read the source novels.

If like me you are entering Conan Doyle's world quite late, be prepared - there's less than you think! There are only four novels (& they aren't very long - perfect for the weekend in fact!), the rest of his work is made up of short stories in various collections. Having said that i mostly prefered the short stories, they tend to work better structurally. Indeed the one odd thing that struck me about the novels (except 'Hound') is the curious way Doyle waits until he gets two thirds of the way through before one of the characters will sit Holmes down and explain the back story to him in intricate detail. But it's all part of the fun.

And what fun it is! Holmes is a lovably pompous genius, Watson his loyal dependable sidekick and of course the narrator of 99% of the work. Together (well Watson is there) they solve devilishly clever crimes mostly set in foggy London with a motley collection of ne'er do wells, with a dash of cocaine, simple Policemen to make Holmes look clever and some soothing violins - what's not to like?

So this Christmas treat yourself, watch the TV version, go to the flicks if you like, but most importantly go back to where it all began.

(this was not an excuse to get a picture of Tom Baker on our blog. Honest)

Gary

Buy it here

(Now that would be) Telling - Steampunk Guests

2011-12-13T11:49:00.000Z

(Now that would be) Telling brings together contemporary art, literature and history through a big dollop of imagination. The project features site-specific artwork made by Hayley Lock and texts written by Jessica Hart, Lucinda Hawksley, Ben Moor, Hallie Rubenhold and Liz Williams for five stately homes.

Using the portraits and collections in the houses as starting points, Hayley created parallel worlds through her work. She used the documented histories as much as rumour and hearsay, mining the lives of the people living, working and visiting the houses for inspiration. Hayley has also collaborated with a different writer in each house to bring out a different aspect of the work.

At Ickworth, Ben Moor wrote Please Wait Here, a contemplative and often absurd tale of a questionnaire writer suffering a block for the remarkable and barmy Ickworth House in Suffolk. Historical novelist Lucinda Hawksley created stories of those In the shadow of Ruskin for Brantwood in Cumbria. Romance novelist Jessica Hart created a bodice-ripping yarn full of torrid affairs amongst the noble classes; broadcaster. Novellist Hallie Rubenhold penned The Johnsonian Mysteries, including an entirely fabricated contents page full of wry references for scholars of Dr Johnson. Finally, science fiction and fantasy writer Liz Williams wrote the lifetime in a day of the Parminter cousins who built A la Ronde in Devon, their octagonal house created to have a room for every function throughout the day.

Hayley's works are densely layered in terms of their references and their facture, with a mix of digitally manipulated imagery, hand drawn and collaged surfaces decorated with intricate lines of glitter, gems, feathers and textiles. The references threaded through the writer's texts too, with tartan squirrels appearing in Ickworth and characters dancing from one form to another. A dark glass appeared in every house and in several stories, a connecting principle with occult undertones. The Claude glass was originally a drawing tool - a darkened convex reflective glass - but became synonymous with the all seeing eye and various connections to another world. We have brought them to the houses as part of a meta narrative and darkened heart showing views of other worlds.

Historical houses offer guided tours and information about what visitors are seeing, interpreting their own histories. Part of our aim is to inspire visitors to create their own versions of history, to see the rich heritage of the UK as starting points for adventures and magic. The stories take different forms - visual, written - and hopefully don't stop with the work created by the artist and writers, but continue with each visitor's imagination.

We are delighted to bring some of these works into a dramatically different context to The Kitchies’ Steampunk Evening at Blackwell’s, an entire event celebrating the folding of history through imagination. We're looking forward to seeing the works on their own and reading the texts in a space where books are king. I suspect that, whilst you can take the work out of the homes, you can't take the homes out of the work, so I like to think we're bringing them too.

Catherine Hemelryk is the Curator of (Now that would be) Telling and is on the panel of judges awarding The Kitschies’ Inky Tentacle.

Something for the Weekend

2011-12-09T13:16:00.000Z

Kobo Abe- 'The Woman in the Dunes'

Kobo Abe's 'Woman in the Dunes', made into a award winning film in 1964, is surreal and often absurd tale of imprisonment and isolation. Jumpei, a tourist visiting the beach, misses the last bus and home and is offered shelter in a nearby village. He is then kept captive with an unnamed woman at the bottom of a vast sand pit, forced to shovel the sand that threatens to engulf the village. As all his escape attempts fail he slowly becomes closer to the woman he is being held captive with and has to accept the horror of his situation.

Written in sparse prose you feel like you are in the pit shovelling the sand whilst reading it. The kafkaesque feeling of being persecuted by unknown people for unknown reasons lends a sense of futility to the story. The sand becomes a character itself, more threatening than those who are holding Jumpei hostage. A powerful statement on what happens when people are faced with nightmarish situations and how the mind can learn to cope in extraordinary circumstances.

'The Woman in the Dunes' is short, I read it in only two sittings, but I was shaking imaginary sand from my hair for weeks after.

Buy it here

Young Adult and Middle Grade Steampunk

2011-12-07T19:14:00.000Z

We were super pleased to be asked to write an article about Steampunk for the site and have opted to do some recommendations for both middle grade (9 – 12 years) and teen (and older) readers.
Our list is by no means exhaustive but shows there is a strong market for books of this genre for a young audience. The books below above are all superbly written and character driven novels; where the setting helps enrich the world but where the world isn’t everything.

Teen & Young Adult
Shipbreaker by Paolo Bacigalupi (Atom)
The Looking Glass Wars, Seeing Redd and Arch Enemy by Frank Beddor (Egmont Books)
Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince and Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare (Walker)Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore (Bloomsbury)
Incarceron and Sapphique by Catherine Fisher (Hodder)
Airborne, Skybreaker and Starclimber by Kenneth Oppel (Faber and Faber)
Arcadia Snips and the Steampunk Consortium by Robert C. Rodgers (Steam Powered Press)
All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen (Tor)
Corsets & Clockwork: 13 Steampunk Romances (Constable & Robinson)
Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories (Walker UK)

Middle Grade

Kaimira by Monk & Nigel Ashland (Walker)
Airman by Eoin Colfer (Puffin)
Monster Blood Tattoo: Foundling, Lamplighter and Factotum by DM Cornish (Corgi / Random House)
The Mortal Engines series, as well as Larklight, Mothstorm and Starcross by Philip Reeve (Scholastic)
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (Scholastic)
The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle, The Obsidian Dagger and The Doomsday Thief by Catherine Webb (Atom)
Leviathan, Behemoth and Goliath by Scott Westerfeld (Simon & Schuster)

More titles are due in 2012, including Tiffany Trent’s The Unnaturalists, which sounds fantastic:

"The City of New London is all Tesla’s fault. If his experiment had not broken the walls between London and Fairyland, New London would not be here at all, and Fairyland would not be in jeopardy. The tear in the fabric of space and time brought things from every era of London—Vauxhall Gardens, the Tower, Nonesuch House. With it also came the belief that Science would cure all ills. Soon, the descendants of Tesla learned how to turn magical energy into power, using a substance called myth. Just as Old London relied on coal and gas, New London relies on myth. It’s in everything from lanterns to sealing wax. It powers machines. It provides heat and light.

But all of this comes at great price.

In the Museum of Unnatural History, fifteen-year-old Vespa Nyx has spent the last two years since her expulsion from Seminary learning to identify, catalog, and mount rare sylphs. Even as the black desert of the Creeping Waste threatens New London, young Syrus Reed seeks Vespa at the behest of the mysterious Manticore. Whether they can learn to trust each other and work together in a race against time and greed is at the heart of this steampunk adventure."

Doesn’t it sound simply superb? We couldn’t be more excited. Long may writers continue creating Steampunk stories to enjoy and talk about. It is one of those sub-genres where it feels like literally anything can happen... and it usually does. All the writer has to do is ask: what if...

Liz - creator and instigator of My Favourite Books. Her tastes in reading material vary from picture books to YA to crime and fantasy novels for adults. She also has a penchant for literary fiction, but don't hold that against her. Find her online as @LizUK on Twitter.
Mark - Mark is an avid gamer who has a penchant for archery, fencing and medieval sword. Mark's reading is as eclectic as his taste in music - he enjoys fantasy, crime, science fiction (and is a Black Library devotee) and historical novels. Find Mark on Twitter as @Gergaroth.
Sarah - Sarah is My Favourite Books' YA guru. As an aspiring YA writer, Sarah has made it her goal to read every single YA book in existence and she loves the challenge. She knows more about vamps, witches and weres than your local priest. Find Sarah online as @esssjay on Twitter.

Cory Gross on Steampunk Part Two

2011-12-05T17:45:00.000Z

If comic books appeal to your beloved Steampunk, then one might invest in Rapunzel's Revenge and Calamity Jack by the team of Shannon and Dean Hale with artist Nathan Hale. Fairy tales fuze with a Weird Western setting, retelling the stories of Rapunzel and Jack and the Beanstalk with a progressive attitude. Unlike many modern failed efforts, these are neither gratuitously perverse nor artificially hip whilst being genuinely stylish.

Not that I am one to slander Disney by any means. I would highly recommend a copy of the two-disk DVD special edition of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. This film almost single-handedly brought Jules Verne back into the public consciousness when it was released in 1954, and 20K collectors Larry and Paul Brooks did a fantastic job working with Disney to extract rare material from the vaults. If one really wanted to go the extra mile, enclose a ticket to Disneyland Paris or Tokyo Disneysea with that DVD, as both themeparks have attractions based on Captain Nemo's exploits. If not that, then perhaps Hallmark's recently-released Nautilus ornament as a consolation.

After Disney's film, perhaps the most critically-acclaimed was Michael Todd's 1956 adaptation of Around the World in 80 Days. Shot on location around the world – from the bull rings of Spain to the Great Buddha of Kamakura to the vistas of the American frontier – this star-studded epic cleaned out the Oscars, including a victory in Best Picture over The Ten Commandments. Warner Bros. has released a very nice two-disk DVD profuse with archival and documentary features.

If aural adventures playing across the mind's eye are more one's style, visit AlienVoices.net to download mp3 dramatizations of Verne, Wells, Conan Doyle and more. Alien Voices was founded by Leonard Nimoy and John de Lancie, employing the talents of fellow Star Trek alumni to revitalize interest in the beginnings of the genre that made them famous. Such talented performers do the source material proud.

A wry commentary on Steampunk is made by Mark Hodder's Burton and Swinburne series of novels. The trilogy begins with The Strange Affair of the Spring-Heeled Jack, continued with The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man, and concludes with Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon. Hodder's history diverges from our own when a time traveller form the future accidentally makes the 1840 assassination attempt on Queen Victoria successful. The result is a wretched, polluted Steampunk age spiralling towards apocalypse, whose heroes desperately search for a way to restore the proper timeline.

If a more obvious satire is to your taste, you might prefer the Larklight trilogy by Philip Reeve. Though he undervalued the young adult novels Larklight, Starcross and Mothstorm in his quite public – and spot on – denouncement of Steampunk's staleness, they are an uproarious and fond riff on the pretensions of high Victorian-Edwardian planetary romances and boys-own-adventure.

There is so much more I could recommend, from James Gurney's fully painted Dinotopia books to Edward Erdelac's stories of a demon-hunting Jewish gunslinger begun in The Merkabah Rider: Tales of a High Planes Drifter to fun mid-century films like Twentieth Century Fox's Journey to the Center of the Earth and Five Weeks in a Balloon to Paul Guinan's Boilerplate. Suffice this list to give a good starting point for explorations beyond the usual scope of Steampunk fashion, into the richness of the Victorian-Edwardian Scientific Romance tradition, its adaptations, and playful responses to it in the modern age.

A quality Christmas, for those wont to celebrate it, is not as well served by culturally bland stories of sterile starships. Humbug! The warm comfort of the Yule log begs for the equally warm stories of pith-helmeted and petticoated adventurers.

--

Cory Gross is a museums and heritage professional from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In addition to working at or volunteering for a number of science, nature and cultural history organizations in the city, he also runs the weblog Voyages Extraordinaires dedicated to Victorian-Edwardian Scientific Romances and Retro-Futurism. It can be visited at http://voyagesextraordinaires.blogspot.com

Cory Gross on Steampunk Part One

2011-12-05T17:42:00.000Z

Ah, Steampunk Christmas... Ash falling lightly like snow, the tree bedecked with gears hanging from each bough, striped stockings tacked on the mantle of a gas fireplace built entirely of brass plumbing fixtures from Home Depot... What a horrible idea!

I am a firm believer that nothing needs to be Steampunk'd that actually existed in the Victorian Era, and nobody perfected Christmas like the Victorians. Christmas became a symbolic victim of the centuries of sectarian squabbling between Puritans and Catholics in the United Kingdom, the latter for it and the former against it. By the beginning of the 19^th Century this had finally calmed down and the Victorians began to rediscover the holiday, looking back nostalgically at the days of Merrie England. The poem popularly known as Twas the Night Before Christmas was composed in 1822. The tradition of Christmas carolling began here, with many songs composed or printed for the first time. Charles Dickens cast a long shadow with his 1843 tale of hearth, home and the redemptive power of human fraternity, A Christmas Carol. Scrooge, his ghosts, and their mid-19th Century winter frivolities have become as central a Yuletide fixture as Santa Claus, Rudolph and the Christ child. The first Christmas cards were printed that same year. As recreationists clamber over each other to lay primeval claims to the Christmas tree, we know for certain that it was Prince Albert who introduced the Tannenbaum to Buckingham Palace, and the rest of the kingdom followed suit. Though presently an act of consumerist gluttony, Boxing Day was originally invented in the Victorian Era as an act of charity to those caught under the grinding wheels of industrialization.

Over here in the colonies, my favourite winter activity is visiting the Banff Springs Hotel. Nestled into the Canadian Rocky Mountains, this Baronial castle completed in 1928 is truly resplendent in its Christmas outfit. Without, silent snow thickly blankets the fir trees and limestone peaks of Canada's first national park, created in 1885. Within, roaring fires in stone fireplaces warm eggnog sipping lovers. Mediaeval battlements constructed by the Canadian Pacific Railway are jewelled with spruce and golden ornaments while beloved carols performed on bagpipes stir my 1/8th of Scottish blood. Such a beautiful experience could not happen without the unique intermingling of European heritage and North American landscape shaping Canada's cultural traditions.

Such a scene is all the better if I can curl up with some Dickens, or Verne, or Twain. The ethos that nothing Victorian need be Steampunk'd is more than a labour-saving convenience: it is a recognition that the very appeal of Scientific Romances hinge on their historicity. It is Science Fiction that is not artificially divorced from the aesthetics and traditions of our history, a tomorrow that does not forget yesterday. Within these pages and between these celluloid frames is the opulence of railway travel raised into the atmosphere, space ships made livable with Persian rugs and potted ferns, and exotic adventure without the loss of civilized comforts. Verne declared his objective to recount the scientific history of the universe with a decadent, French sense of style that can only come from a comprehensive grounding in aesthetic traditions as well as technological innovations. On Her Majesty's Aether-Ship Enterprise, you are guaranteed that the children of Earth have not forgotten to celebrate Yuletide.

It is also guaranteed that something genuinely Victorian looks better than something Steampunk'd. Sepia was the colour of 19th century film stock, not 19th century clothing! Victorians assiduously avoided the crudity of industrial equipment, preferring to adorn their steam engines with gilt rather than themselves with ornamental gears and rivets. One could certainly do worse than place some nice, large coffee table books about Gothic Revivalism, the Arts and Crafts Movement, Art Nouveau, Japonisme, Orientalism or Queen Anne style under the tree. What would I want beneath my tree, however? Or more to the point, what would I recommend for those of you with a Steampunk to buy presents for or a list to give to your non-Steampunk relatives?

My first recommendation is the indispensable gift of an e-reader. With such a marvellous tool, classics of Scientific Romances become easily accessible. The Steampunk in your family will have no excuse not to visit Project Gutenberg and download the works of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Mark Twain, Garrett P. Serviss, Edward Everett Hale, Harry Collingwood, George Griffith, Rudyard Kipling, Sir H. Rider Haggard, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack London, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Edward S. Ellis, Robert Louis Stevenson, John Jacob Astor, Edward Bellamy, and Edgar Allen Poe.

Flicker Alley has compiled two very fine collections of pioneering French film in Georges Mlis: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913) and Georges Mlis: Encore. Between the two, all 199 extant films by the auteur best known for A Trip to the Moon are preserved. The majority of these 15 hours of video are short trick films employing his techniques as a stage magician. However there are many astonishing long subjects drawing inspiration from such figures of French heritage as Joan of Arc, Charles Perrault and Jules Verne.

Speaking of France, the continental music group Dionysos released a tandem concept album and novel several years ago under the title La mécanique du cœur. The story tells of an infant named Jack, born in 1874 on the coldest night in history. To save his life, the midwife stimulates his heart with a clockwork mechanism. The unfortunate side-effect is that the frail boy can never fall in love or else his heart will break. The book by band mastermind Mathias Malzieu, translated into English as The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart, tells the tale in a direct way while the album shines the poetic, musical facet. The enhanced CD also links to a site whereupon one can view the amazing video for the single Tais Toi Mon Cœur, done in the style of a Tim Burton stop-motion film.

I would be remiss not to mention volumes one and two of The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec. Recently republished by Fantagraphics, this French comic by Jacques Tardi is a love letter to Penny Dreadfuls, faithful in style and tone. Fantagraphics also republished Tardi's The Arctic Marauder which painstakingly replicates the effect of illustrated engravings and connects to the Adèle Blanc-Sec mythology.

To be continued...

--

Cory Gross is a museums and heritage professional from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In addition to working at or volunteering for a number of science, nature and cultural history organizations in the city, he also runs the weblog Voyages Extraordinaires dedicated to Victorian-Edwardian Scientific Romances and Retro-Futurism. It can be visited at http://voyagesextraordinaires.blogspot.com

Something For The Weekend - Iron Man

2011-12-02T16:33:00.000Z

It'd be easy to write off Iron Man as a low brow 'man in a armored suit flies around biffing bad guys' if you've only seen the multiplex posters, but Iron Man has always had a depth to him I've found fascinating.

Tony Stark, the billionaire, industrialist, genius weapons designer has plenty of problems. He has little control of where his weapons end up once he's made them, and no say in who uses them to what ends. What he does have control over is the Iron Man suit and the technology that makes it work. Stark doesn't sit well with the title of 'warmonger' easily and there's a real sense of a man struggling to do the right thing (especially in Warren Ellis's Extremis). And there's the fact that Stark is an alcoholic, something Stan Lee wrote into the character way back in 1963.

Extremis is particularly satisfying because it's part character study, part classicsuper hero versus super villain, but also has a strong emphasis on believing in a better future. An added allure to Extremis is the fact that the writer really is straight off the top shelf on this outing. Ellis combines his passion for technology and social commentary with a generous side helping of scathing humour.

Matt Fraction and Salvador Larocca's run on Invincible Iron Man follows on neatly from Extremis and deals with Stark less comically than Robert Downey Jr.s wisecracking version. Stark must not only deal with inventing devices and running his company, but also act as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate or Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, versions differ).

He also dons the Iron Man suit and gets into the thick of it when trouble rears its head. The first six issues (collected as Invicible Iron Man Vol.1: The Five Nightmares) pits Start against Stane, the son of an old business rival. Stane has perfected using parts of Stark's technology to create high yield explosive devices ideal for suicide bombers.

Once again Stark feels his responsibility. He is both part of the problem and the solution, but he can only convince himself that he truly is the solution as long as he stays one step ahead in the arms/technology race. Invincible Iron Man is beautifully drawn and rendered collection that benefits from some grade 'A' writing. Tony Stark might be difficult to empathise with on account of his wealth and privledge, but Fraction imbues him with plenty of humanity, and that's what makes heroes great.

Expect to see more of Iron Man on bookshelves and at the multiplex with the arrival of The Avengers in 2013.

Flip a Switch and Kill a Fairy

2011-11-29T14:54:00.000Z

One of the strengths of science fiction and fantasy is its ability to visualise real-world problems. From metaphors for apartheid (Zoo City) to overpopulation (Stand on Zanzibar), genre fiction’s ability to dramatise issues is part of its eternal relevance.

Steampunk, for all its frills and fripperies, has made inroads into discussions of class and gender politics. (If nothing else, this seems to come with the territory with any fiction based on the Victorian period.) However steampunk has proven itself truly excellent when it comes to the representation of industrialization, and specifically, the consumption of natural resources.

The British Empire lived on coal - vast, terrifying quantities of the stuff. By 1914, nearly two-thirds of the world’s coal was mined in Britain, and one in ten British men were working in the coal industry. Although many books (from many genres of literature) have looked at the impact this made on working conditions and class struggles, what steampunk has done is investigate the underlying issues by actually anthropomorphizing the coal.

Jonathan’s Stroud’s Bartimaeus Chronicles tell the story of Nathaniel, a young magician in an alternate Victorian London. The trilogy follows his relationship with his summoned djinni, the titular Bartimaeus. Their interactions are alternatively charming and funny, with Nathaniel ambitions tempered by Bartimaeus’ cheek. The core of Stroud’s world, however, is surprisingly dark. The Empire is powered by magic. Magic, in turn, is the essence of the ‘demons’ (the broad term for all the spirits like Bartimaeus). Bartimaeus and his kin aren’t just slaves, their very being, their essence, drains away with every day they work. They’re both the miner and the coal, and the arc of the series develops as the demons grow more and more desperate.

The His Dark Materials trilogy adds a religious subtext into the mix as well. In Philip Pullman’s beautifully detailed world, children are connected to their shape-shifting animal familiars by invisible, magical bonds. The bond ostensibly represents their state of innocence. It also represents a possible power source. Throughout the books, children are kidnapped and severed from their familiars in order to harvest the strength of that bond. In this case, the children become representations child labor - losing their innocence (or metaphors thereof) in the magical workhouses. The religious (or irreligious) metaphor is obvious, but the sacrifice of adorable fuzzy magical creatures on the altar of mechanical power is equally striking. Would you still burn coal if it had big soulful eyes and a bushy tail?

Tad Williams’ The War of the Flowers goes a bit further down the slippery slope. Half the book is set in the contemporary ‘real’ world, the other half is in the kingdom of Faerie, a magical world with distinctly Victorian style. The ruling houses (all named after plants, in the best flower fairy tradition) have seen our world and are keen to match our technological prowess - at any cost. Of course, Faerie isn’t a realm with traditional power sources. Instead, the magic comes from the fairies themselves. The ruling families run the factories figuratively, the fairy proletariat literally. Although structured as a traditional high fantasy novel (down to the lost prince, back to claim his throne), the book’s industrial underpinnings merit a closer read.

Steampunk enables authors to examine the costs of industrialization from a previously unvoiced perspective - the fuel itself. Be it fuzzy-tailed, fairy-winged or filled with bad puns, these are three different representations of both the social and environmental costs. And nor are these the only ones - Ian MacLeod's Light Ages, Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mister Norrell, Michael Swanwick's The Iron Dragon's Daughter all take place in alternative Victorian histories where the Empire is powered by the consumption of magic... and magical creatures.

So make sure to turn the light off when you’re not using it - you’re wasting the fairies.

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Jared Shurin is a judge for The Kitschies, the prize for progressive, entertaining and intelligent genre literature – now presented by The Kraken Rum. Jared is also part of the team at the geek culture blog Pornokitsch and the new genre imprint Pandemonium Fiction.

Something for the Weekend

2011-11-25T11:20:00.000Z

Ernest Hemingway- 'A Moveable Feast'

Paris between the wars became for many writers and artists the only place to be. Among the scores of Americans who crossed the Atlantic seeking a place at the epicentre of western culture was a young Ernest Hemingway. He had recently quit a promising career as a journalist to dedicate himself to writing fiction, was newly married, and he was skint. 'A Moveable Feast' is his memoir of those years.

I say 'his memoir' because all sorts of things are inaccurate or unfair. He wrote it towards the end of his life and there is a fair amount of score settling (with the Fitzgeralds and Gertrude Stein in particular) as well as the customary Hemingway bluster. All that is entertaining knockabout stuff, but not a good enough reason to write the book. On closer reading Hemingway seems to be settling scores with himself, trying to comfort himself that he was not always the man he had turned out to be: a man he couldn't stand.

His evocation of Paris life, the characters, cafes, apartments, is extraordinarily powerful. He and the reader both feel its pull still. In a jocular, paternal tone he encourages the romantic and idealist in us all that romance and idealism have integrity, and that being poor doesn't have to be the end of the world. Of course nostalgia colours his view, and in those years the dollar allowed Americans to live very cheaply in Europe but that is not the point. It is a wonderful book. It will cheer you up. It is beautifully written, very entertaining, and it is very short so can be read easily on a Sunday afternoon.

Buy it here

Bulgarian Steampunk: A Brief History in War By Harry Markov

2011-11-24T16:22:00.000Z

Speculative fiction fuels itself with war. The most dynamic stories are born in troubled times. Epic fantasy and its sprawling military campaigns, urban fantasy and its back alley wars and science fiction with its fleets are all examples of large scale conflict establishing tropes and traditions in genre. Steampunk is no different. It runs on war. That's the 'punk' part. It's the mechanical force that propels the cogs of the genre onward. It's why I consider steampunk and Bulgaria to be a fruitful pairing.

It's impossible to discuss Bulgaria and not mention war. Bulgarians know war. We breathe it and live it. Through history we have conquered and we have fought to keep our land. We've lost battles. Fought for freedom. Fought to found our country again and we continue to fight, even though the wars we lead today are against our circumstances and each other.

Queen Victoria's rule coincides with Bulgaria's most turbulent historical period. During her reign, Bulgarians started upheavals, organized a resistance, fought wars for liberation and then unity. After centuries of slavery and slave mentality, a transition in this mentality was forced from two sides. The perseverance of Bulgarian culture and religion and the subsequent fierce oppression from the Ottoman empire, which went as far as to kidnap first sons and train them as Muslim soldiers with no trace of their heritage and no compassion for Christian slaves. The subsequent establishment of the Apostles of Freedom and the Freedom committees, whose aim was to mobilize all Bulgarians for one massive rebellion, can host a cat and mouse game between Bulgarian revolutionaries and Ottoman lawmen.

Bulgarian Steampunk could sit comfortably against the backdrop of political and military unrest after our first insurrections. The April Uprising - a planned nation-wide rebellion, which failed when the Ottoman Empire discovered the plans before the scheduled date - could be the best setting for a story of betrayal. On this note, I can recommend Under the Yoke by Ivan Vazov as an example of how preparation for the April Uprising in Bulgarian villages ran and the demise of a village, which managed to join the rebellion.

Under the Yoke is a book every child in the Bulgarian school system has to read and study twice, once in middle school and once in high school. Vazov captures the spirit of the time, the mentality and the way the Bulgarian spoke and behaved at the time. If you want to have a glimpse into how an enslaved nation battled a century long fear, then this is an appropriate read and it has been translated in more than thirty languages worldwide.

Although I haven't read any papers in this field, I know there are many of these. My own knowledge about Bulgarian history comes mostly from my high school history textbook, History and Civilization, written by Ivan Lazarov, Ivan Tytyundjiev, Rumyana Mihneva, Luchezar Stoyanov, Milko Palangurski and Violeta Stoycheva. (I doubt there is an English translation yet.)

Now imagine if all these events occurred in a world of zeppelins, mechanical mounts and automaton armies. Where revolutionaries swing swords along with steam-powered rifles. The adventurous motives are already present and provide fertile ground for a multicultural reimagining of a genre that preoccupies itself with aesthetics - though I imply nothing negative with it. The Balkan passion, as well as the patriotism that accompanied this Bulgarian National Revival, would provide soul and fire for the characters.

For more reading suggestions on this topic, please see 'War, Steampunk, Bulgaria' at Beyond Victoriana.

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Writer, reviewer and columnist, Harry Markov has most recently become the official minion of one Jaym Gates, publicist extraordinaire. His personal soapbox is Through a Forest of Ideas, and you can follow him on Twitter @HarryMarkov. You can find Harry Markov's non-fiction at Innsmouth Free Press, Beyond Victoriana, The Portal, Pornokitsch and The World SF blog.

Kim Lakin-Smith on Dustpunk

2011-11-22T13:08:00.000Z

'We live with the dust, eat it, sleep with it, watch it strip us of possessions and the hope of possessions. It is becoming Real."

Avis D. Carlson: The New Republic magazine, 1935

The dust storm is one of Nature's deadliest, rising up from the wastes to suffocate the landscape. But alongside the devastation, there is something captivating about dust's dark beauty, from the apocalyptic streak of grey at the horizon to the quiet drift of motes in the atmosphere. Despite its natural origins, dust has a creepy, alienesque quality which appeals to me as a reader and a writer. The dustbowl is the perfect setting for offbeat, character-driven narratives. Dust speaks of poverty, barrenness, vigilantism, lone gunmanship, makeshift mechanics, and the endless search for hydration aka salvation.

In literary terms, dustpunk is a grittier, desert-based alternative to steampunk. The term is sometimes applied to stories set in 1880s America, specifically the Wild West. For me though the subgenre borrows from 1930s American dustbowl narratives. The landscape is bleak, the people forced to colour it with travelling shows, miracle elixirs, sit-up-and-beg trucks, tumbledown farmsteads and religion. Think Carnivale, The Wizard of Oz's pre-twister Kansas, and John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, but with a generous dose of the science fictionally weird and mechanically corroded.

In many ways, dustpunk is less akin to steampunk than the dystopian ecopunk of Mad Max. Fuel is a scarcity fought for and fought over. Alternatively, old tech mechanics are adapted to suit new fuels derived from minerals or self-sustaining plant life. Either way, dustpunk is not a genre suited to gleaming brass, well-greased pistons and an elegant turn of the ankle; this is a violent wasteland of make-do and subsistence. Which is not to suggest these are stories without hope or wonderment, only that the dust narrative is a rawer breed of 'punk'.

Inside its own barb-wire boundaries, dustpunk varies wildly in tone. The Book of Eli is an exquisitely dark narrative, the focus being on an epic quest through an often deserted, sometimes violent, setting. In contrast, Tank Girl is a gutsy, girl-with-gun riot laced with humour and the downright peculiar. Solipsist Films have recently brought the rights to a vampire story set in the dustbowl of 1930s America - the as-yet-unpublished graphic novel, In The Dust, written by George Mahaffey. My own stories range from the dustbowl mining planet of Cyber Circus to the desiccated coral bed of Deluge. Both are themed around scarcity, corruption and geological wilderness.

Steampunk is often accused of superficiality, in particular of aesthetics taking priority over substance. But this is where it is important to emphasise the 'punk' aspect of these alternative histories/other worlds. Dustpunk's edginess is quite literally grounded in its sore earth. Stories should be a darn good yarn, but they should also make readers think and feel. Just like the dust of Avis D. Carlson's 1930s America, they should become Real.

Kim Lakin-Smith's latest book, Cyber Circus, was released in September 2011 from NewCon Press. Kim lives on the first floor of a Victorian gothic mansion house with her mini demon of a daughter and dark lord of a husband.

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Join us on 8 December at Blackwell's for our exhibition & exploration of this fascinating sub-genre of fantastic literature. Guests include Adam Roberts, China Miéville, Kim Lakin-Smith, Jonathan Green, Lavie Tidhar, Philip Reeve and a host of amazing artists and craftspeople. Plus, Plarchie!

Turning Up The Heat – Steampunk at Blackwells

2011-11-20T15:15:00.000Z

‘So what is this steampunk business then?’ asked one of the managers. And with those simple words a can of worms was opened and those worms will remain wriggling until our steampunk night on December 8^th. And beyond.

The books chosen for the steampunk promotion aren’t necessarily classic definitions of the genre, but are designed to invite discussion. Which trappings and tropes have particular authors picked to adorn their imagined worlds? Is steampunk merely about top hats, dirigibles, or moral values of a bygone age? Do steam engines and goggles get in the way of examining Victorian society, and what does this glimpse back into our Imperial past tell us about the world we live in today?

For me, personally, steampunk is lovable mutt. Not a thoroughbred like traditional Hard SF or High Fantasy, but a weird stew of influences. Which other genre mixes historical fiction with SF, frequently adds a dose of ‘boys own adventure’ and dares to examine how society functioned in a bygone age? Steampunk, like all good SF, holds a mirror up to the way we live now, not by reflecting back the possible future, but instead comparing us to an impossible past.

Let’s take a look at some of the promoted titles:

Even a punch-drunk navvie who’d fallen face-first from a Zepplin (beg pardon, dirigible) would know that William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s The Difference Engine (1990) is the birth of this contentious sub-genre. The Difference Engine is an alternate history novel set in 1855. Much of the novel focuses on a missing set of computer punch cards, used by Charles Babbage’s analytical engines. Sterling and Gibson explore (often through the protagonists, but sometime through vignettes) how the computer-aided steam age has changed Britain and her Empire.

Heart of Veridon (2009) on the other hand is not set in this world. The City of the Cog is a vast industrial affair, and the inhabitants have learned how to fuse technology with their bodies. The protagonist, Jacob Burn, is a failed airship pilot and now spends his days among the criminals of the city. However, it is his noble birth that places him at the heart of a conspiracy and he is deceived and hounded by the authorities at every turn. Heart of Veridon is followed by Dead of Veridon, making up the first two books of Tim Akers; Burn Cycle.

Gail Carriger’s Alexia Tarabotti novels fuse steampunk with paranormal romance. Soulless (2009) is set in an alternate history where werewolves and vampires are functioning members of society. Much of the novel is concerned with etiquette and decorum, but there’s also plenty to get your teeth into, including the mystery of several missing vampires. Carriger’s other novels in this series include Changeless (2010), Blameless (2010), and Heartless (2011).

The Windup Girl (2009) is set in Thailand during the 23^rd century. It focuses on the fate of Emiko, the titular Windup Girl. In a world controlled by calorie companies, beset by bio-engineered plagues, Emiko finds herself amid seething conspiracies and ambitious agendas.

Other titles on our list include:

Perdido Street Station (2000), The Scar (2002) and Iron Council (2004) by China Mieville.

Retribution Falls (2009), The Black Lung Captain (2010) and The Iron Jackal (2011) by Chris Wooding.

Swiftly (2008) by Adam Roberts

The Diamond Age (1995) by Neil Stevenson

Fever Crumb(2010) and The Mortal Engines Quartet by Philip Reeve

Cyber Circus (2011) by Kim Laikin Smith

The Bookman (2011) by Lavie Tidhar

Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus (2010) Jonathan Green

What titles would be on your list? Are there novels listed above that don’t fit your definition of ‘steampunk’? Let us know in the comments or come and discuss it with us on 8^th December.

Den Patrick is full-time bookseller, part-time writer and lover of all things Geek.

Something for the weekend..

2011-11-18T16:06:00.000Z

How I escaped my certain fate (the life & deaths of a stand-up comedian)

By Stewart Lee

Hello & welcome to 'Something for the Weekend', a weekly post where one of us Blackwellians gives you an idea of a weekend reading treat. (That introduction was for all the Steampunk fans/haters busily scrolling down to find the more steamy & punky stuff ).

I've always liked Stewart Lee, from his early duo days with (the also very funny) Richard Herring, to his solo return of smallish venues to his more recent BBC2 television series. He is to put it very simply an extremely funny man.

At first i thought this book was a straight biography & (as i like biographies) I was at first disappointed to realise it's only partly that. The majority of the book is taken up with transcripts of 3 of his shows (direct transcripts so you get the 'er's & pauses etc). Aah well I thought those will still be very entertaining. But they are much more than that - Each show is littered with hilarious & incisive notes (some so long they take whole pages up), so basically it's a book with a commentary. Now I know that will put some of you off but give it a try, some commentaries are great! (e.g Ricky Gervais, Kevin Smith).

There is some biography here too, but again that is full of Lee's trademark dry, self deprecating wit. There are also lots of nice indie music references for the over 30's, and some entertaining appendices. All in all it's a quick, revealing, entertaining & most importantly very very funny read.

buy it here

Gary

An Introduction to Steampunk

2011-11-17T13:52:00.000Z

Steampunk. The inexorable tension between corsets and brass-banded blasters; the tug-of-rope between Victorian themes and Victorian images; the tightrope act involved in balancing present-minded respect and past-minded romanticism while negotiating the vanishingly-thin line between. Love it or loathe it, steampunk has become an indelible feature of modern geek culture.

It seems that almost anything with some sort of Victorian-y trappings is accused of steampunkery these days – from the obvious (Gail Carriger!) to the arguable (China Miéville) to the unsustainable. (Alexandre Dumas?) And, occasionally, not even that. (see e.g, Regretsy's list of 'Not Remotely Steampunk' Etsy offerings.)

And, as with anything wildly popular, steampunk has its own faction of vocal detractors.

An informal internet poll has led to this sweeping and likely wholly unfair generalization: the anti-steampunkers have two bees in their bonnets. One: they don’t think there’s much Quality Writing in steampunk. Two: they’re just tired of steampunk.

To address the second issue first: yes, there’s a lot of steampunk around right now. A lot. And it can be exhausting – cons are drowning in steampunk panels, made up of the begadgeted and attended by oceans of the becorsetted, all waggling their brass-bound pith-helmets and solar-powered x-ray goggles back and forth at each other in a fervid mutual appreciation society. If you’re tired of steampunk, you’re not alone in that feeling. But you are, I’m sorry to say, unfortunate in it. Steampunk is everywhere, and it’s not going away anytime soon.

The other anti-steampunk argument, however, is worth considering in some detail. There is a lot of steampunk writing out there, and it’s not all great. Steampunk has rife with lousy characterization, bad science, plot holes within plot holes, and derivative ideating. Of course, the same is true of any subgenre – or, you know, all writing in general. Not all the writing in any one genre is going to be great. Or even very good. But that doesn’t mean it’s all terrible, either.

Author Catherynne Valente for example, has argued that steampunk novels are just adventure stories, not "astonishing novels that pluck the strings of the soul, [books] that make you clasp [them] to your chest and love [them] because [they] say something real and authentic about your life… books that you put in your sig file, that you quote endlessly because they said something you just couldn’t say any other way."

The fact of the matter is, most books aren’t capital-a astonishing. That steampunk hasn’t produced one person's"burst into tears at the thought of it" book yet? I’d be willing to put money down that most subgenres haven’t produced that book yet. I'd also be willing to argue that there are readers out there who have found that book, and that, in some cases, that book is a steampunk novel.

The fact of the matter is: most books aren’t astonishing. That shouldn’t devalue what those unastonishing books are.

But let’s accept,for the sake of argument, that there is not a lot of astonishing steampunk writing out there. That steampunk hasn’t had its Nabokov or its Proust, its Hammett or its Sayers, its Brontë or its Woolf; that it isn’t well-written or it isn’t thoughtful or it isn’t this or isn’t that or isn’t the brass-bound other.

That's an awful lot of isn't.

So let’s stop talking about what steampunk isn’t. Let’s start talking about what steampunk is.

My first submission: steampunk is fun. It’s about adventure, excitement, invention and derring-do. Fun is okay. Fun is fine. Fun is great. Fun is awesome, you guys. There is nothing wrong with fun. It’s time to stop bashing on unabashed escapism.

Secondly, steampunk is modern. Steampunk has given authors and readers a new way to approach older, tiresome, even moribund subgenres. Historical romance novels, for example, are a dime a dozen. But drop a dirigible and a steam-powered personal flying apparatus into your novel about Lord Thaddeus Lovejoy and the plucky middle-class second-daughter who loves him, and suddenly the creaking old romance novel is interesting again.

Third, steampunk is progressive. It walks the line between fantasy and science fiction in ways older subgenres don’t. As the boundaries between science fiction and fantasy crumble away, steampunk rides their erosion into the future – that marvelous, not-so-imaginary world where it’s okay that sci fi and fantasy have a lot in common. And steampunk can be a way of writing about society, about social structures and class and gender and race and imperialism and modernity. Those were real problems in the real nineteenth century, so pulling them out and examining them under a twenty-first century lens – which can be steampunk goggles as well as scanning electron microscopes – is as valid a way of interacting with them as any other.

Fourth, steampunk is intelligent. No, not all of it – because not all of anything is ever everything. But it contains the seeds of its own potential within its very name. Steampunk definitionally requires some sort of science to operate within its own ambit: it’s about the nineteenth century, roughly, and the great technological advances of that period, both real and imaginary. Do some steampunk authors just make stuff up and drop it into their books irrespective of whether or not that technology would work? Of course they do! Exactly like science fiction authors have been doing for a century.

Fifth, and finally: steampunk is young. Not young in the sense that it’s read primarily by a youthful demographic, or written by under-25s. Young in that it hasn’t been around very long. All the arguments laid out here are worth having – they’re not just important, they’re vital – but it’s always worth remembering that they’re about a subgenre that, in the final analysis, people are just really starting to explore.

In sum, steampunk is one of the most robust things to happen to genre in decades. Steampunk is here. It may not be here forever, but it’s here now. So let’s start talking about it like it matters.

Because it does. Steampunk matters.

Anne Perry talks the big talk over at Pornokitsch. She's supposed to be working on a Ph.D., even though she seems to spend most of her time thinking about monster movies. She recently edited Pandemonium: Stories of the Apocalypse.

The Kitschies are an annual award for those books which best elevate the tone of genre literature.

Christmas is coming...

2011-11-16T18:42:00.000Z

and here's a little taste of what we're up to.

If you've been into our shop recently you may have noticed there's a distinct flavour of Christmas happening at Blackwell's. We've decked the halls with garlands, the Christmas trees are twinkling, and we have tables groaning under the weight of exciting and beautiful books.

We've decided to get an early start on the celebrations of Dickens' birth (February 2012 is his 200th), by stocking up on a range of Victorian treats for that traditional festive feel. So we have a table of Victorian novels past and present, which includes all the classics (Dickens, Collins, Hardy) and some of our favourite modern novels set during the period (Sarah Waters, Michel Faber, Angela Carter). We've also got great books on Victorian London and social history.

Most thrilling of all we have two special late night events in December. December 8th sees the launch of our Steampunk night in partnership with the Kitschies.

There will be literary and artistic goodies galore at this special evening, including tasters of Kraken Black Spiced Rum to warm us up. More about this event can be found here and on Facebook.

Don't know much about steampunk? Our guest bloggers will be posting scintillating articles here over the next few weeks to tempt you in, so keep on checking the blog.

The second of our late nights may appeal more to those who are not into fantastical machines and leather corsets. Historians Kate Williams (Becoming Queen, England's Mistress) and Louise Raw (Striking a Light) will be celebrating women's lives in Victorian Britain, from queens to fallen women, over some free wine and mince pies.

Both events are free and anyone can come and get into the holiday spirit with us while browsing our incredible books. We'll be dressing up in bustles and top hats, you are welcome to join in with that, too! Watch this space for more information...

Something for the weekend..

2011-11-11T15:43:00.000Z

An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson

As a reader with an addiction to detective novels, I wish Golden Age crime writer Josephine Tey had written more than a handful of books, and for years have hunted unsuccessfully for a biography of the author. It seems I am not alone! Upson set out to write a biography of Tey (one of several pen names of Elizabeth Mackintosh), but found it so difficult to uncover information about her that she ended up writing a series of crime novels which star Tey, interweaving fact and fiction.

The result is a fun, engrossing series which begins with An Expert in Murder. Set in 1930s Theatreland, Josephine's play Richard of Bordeaux is in its final week. But what should be a celebration of the play's success turns sour when a young woman is murdered. Josephine's detective friend, Archie Penrose, sets out to solve the case with Josephine and a cast of intriguing characters caught up in the drama.

This book's vision of 1930s London is glamorous and sordid at once, with a real sense of the devastation of WWI still hanging over the city and the characters.

One of the things I love about Tey's novels is the whisper of a queer subtext that can only be hinted at during the period, and Upson does a brilliant job of making this more overt for a modern reader. All this, plus I failed to identify the murderer before the end of the novel. A weekend treat.

Sarah T.

Buy it here

Something for the weekend.

2011-11-04T14:45:00.000Z

Keith Richards - Life

It's been a long time coming, with too many unauthorized Rolling Stones biographies to mention, but finally we have the ultimate, and at times shocking, first hand account of Keith's experiences in what he would lovingly refer to as "the crossfire hurricane".

Hands down THE music biography of the year, Life is awash with Keith's affectionate matter-of-fact honesty and reads like an endless roller coaster of Jack Daniels-fueled adventures. Great rock autobiographies are a rare species, but this book by Richards (amounting to almost 600 pages!) is an absolute joy to read.

No stone is left unturned (excuse the pun) and the amount Keith actually remembers is phenomenal. The book meticulously covers everything from his childhood in Dartford, Kent and every misadventure in between, ranging from the famous drug bust in Fordyce, Arkansas to the awe inspiring and now infamous Exile On Main Street recording sessions, through to Keith's ability to stay awake for nine days straight (when under the right influence) and his enormous admiration for buddies Gram Parsons, Bobby Keys and shepherds pie.

At the core of the book is the Jagger/Richards relationship, which has gone through phases of almost tender brotherly love to intense visceral hatred, and ends with Keith simply dismissing Jagger's ludicrous knighthood and deciding to let things be (as long as their dressing rooms are at least a mile apart).

Life is a surprisingly fast paced and exciting book, and probably the only biography this year to include an in depth and personalised recipe for bangers and mash.

Graham Bywater
Buy it here:

Something For The Weekend: Tales of the Ketty Jay

2011-10-21T16:35:00.000+01:00

There are few books that defy categorisation quite like Chris Wooding's novels about Captain Darian Frey and his crew. Not classic Science Fiction (no space ships, no colonists, no zap guns), not Fantasy (no wizards, no elves) and not Steampunk (no Zeppelins here, the aircraft are instead powered by aerium gas) -- so what are these strange stories?

Fun. In a word. Wooding's books are fast-paced, teeth-rattling affairs full of sky pirates, dysfunctional rogues and down-at-heel nobles. With breath-taking dog-fights, brutal brawls and desperate shoot-outs there's plenty to keep a reader on the edge of his or her seat. That the Ketty Jay novels have plenty of easy charm doesn't hurt either.

Retribution Falls (2009) introduces the reader to the foolhardy, womanising and down-on-his luck Frey. The crew of the Ketty Jay are hardly a tight-knit bunch though. From the boozy Malvery to the mysterious Navvie, Jez, the ship really does serve as a portable rogues gallery. And their luck takes a turn for the worst when they are framed for destroying a ship during a heist gone wrong. Captain Frey has to draw on every resource to prove his innocence.

The Black Lung Captain (2010) presents the crew with a dangerous mission far away on a remote island, working with Captain Grist. Forced to take the job out of desperation, Captain Frey quickly regrets accepting the assignment and realises there's much more at stake than a a lost artifact, including the lives of his crew, who he has grown rather fond of. The Black Lung Captain twists and turns and the chapters end on the sort of cliffhangers that will keep you up long after bedtime.

This year Wooding gives us The Iron Jackal (2011). Captain Frey has plenty of reasons to feel good about himself: his ship has been patched up extensively, his crew have laid to rest their demons (mostly) and he's even a little famous. And for the right reasons. So why is he so far from home in Samarla, the land of their ancient enemies? And why has he taken a job from the dread-pirate Queen, Trinica Dracken (his ex fiancee)?

Each book can be read alone, but it really is worth taking the time to read them in order and see the crew bond together as Captain Frey denies his more self-destructive urges.

The Iron Jackal is out now.
The Black Lung Captain is part of Blackwell's 3 for 2 promotion.

Something for the weekend...

2011-10-14T15:36:00.000+01:00

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Are the increasingly cold and dark evenings making you feel like Winter is looming with nothing to brighten up the season except Christmas, still more than two months away? Settle in on the sofa this weekend with a book that will cheer the blackest of hearts.

An American humourist who revels in human frailty without ever being cruel, this is a great introduction to David Sedaris. In this collection he explores the difficulties of communicating successfully with other people. These include his high school speech therapist (brought in to train him and other 'future homosexuals of America' out of their lisps), his large and hilarious family, a writing class in Chicago and the French class he attends in Paris.

I laugh out loud every time I re-read this book, which can have its drawbacks on the tube. But for a light read that will fill you with glee, immerse yourself in Sedaris' world and revel in his joy when he finally understands enough French to decipher his teacher as she tells him, 'Every day spent with you is like having a cesarean section'. She is utterly wrong.

Sarah T

Buy it here

Peter's Booker round up!

2011-10-07T14:32:00.000+01:00

Julian Barnes - The Sense of an Ending

A short novel, almost a novella, but beautifully written. A meditation on memory and history. If all history is subjective then how much more so are our personal histories, what we choose to remember as fact and what facts we choose to remember.

Carol Birch - Jamrach's Menagerie

Starting in Victorian London then launching out into ever darker turns, the plot is impossible to second guess. The writing has been compared to Dickens and Melville but I would add Joseph Conrad to the list.

Patrick deWitt - The Sisters Brothers

The first 'western' to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize is also a bleakly comic novel. Imagine Cormac McCarthy meets 'Bottom'. A bizarre cast of eccentric outcasts thrown into deconstructed western cliches. The most likely of the short list to be filmed.

Esi Edugyan - Half Blood Blues

Set in Paris and Berlin just before and during WWII, it tells the story of jazz musicians, German and American, black, white and mixed race, caught in up the mayhem. A novel full of historical detail and atmosphere but a bit predictable in plot, when they tell you on the cover that it's a story of betrayal you pretty much know where you're going.

Stephen Kelman - Pigeon English

This story of life in a high rise housing estate in London, full of organised crime, gangs and violence, could have been another soul crushing excursion into social commentary, what saves it is it's narrator. Harrison is an eleven year old school boy recently arrived from Ghana with his mother and sister, his fascination and enthusiasm for everything around him make it a joy to read. Asweh, funniest book ever!

A. D. Miller - Snowdrops

Early 21st Century Moscow, corruption, depravity, crime. 'Capitalism with the gloves off'. The author has obviously lived in Moscow and the novel is full of depressing atmosphere and lurid detail but the story of a naive English abroad being done over by wily Russians has been attempted before, as in James Hawes' "Rancid Aluminium".

This year the short list has been much criticised for being 'light weight' but at least it is more eclectic than usual taking in adventure, thrillers, comedy and even a western. If the thrillers run a little to type, the adventures are big, the settings brilliantly evoked and the comedy funny. Julian Barnes is the most likely winner, as this is the fourth time he has made the shortlist and his prose is perfectly honed but only over 150 pages (Ian McEwan's "On Chesil Beach" was criticised for making the shortlist at a similar length). The novel that I'd love to see win is Stephen Kelman's "Pigeon English", a first novel whose narrator allows you to see the world through innocent, wonderous eyes.

Peter Marsh

Something for the weekend

2011-10-07T10:52:00.000+01:00

How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran

If you're a fan of Caitlin Moran's writing (or more precisely, her wit) then How To Be A Woman is a winner.

Having read and studied many different books on feminism, I was excited to hear that Moran had decided to tackle the subject. A diptych of a book, Moran has infused snippets of her own life alongside her efforts to adopt feminism into said life story. As a fan of Moran’s writing and critiques, I hoped she would bring her usual panache and wit to How To Be A Woman – and she didn’t let me down. There are brilliant stories concerning Jordan, Lady Gaga, a Berlin sex club, bra fittings at Rigby and Peller, rising through the ranks at Melody Maker and a much needed discussion on why pants are getting smaller.

How To Be A Woman gives laugh out loud moments (as I did whilst reading it on the tube) and some more sobering thoughts on growing up, sibling rivalry, bullying, falling in love and a slightly comical, if excruciating, account of childbirth. Through it all, Moran's philosophy remains that she is a feminist without having to be the next Germaine Greer and if she can do it, so can every other woman.

Essentially, How To Be A Woman is a great introductory text to feminism and leaves the reader open-minded to their own ideas about what being a woman is for them. My favourite section, perhaps controversial, was the chapter about abortion, where Moran details not only her own experience of abortion, but also the stigma that is still attached to it. I think in the present age, it is high time a woman stepped forward and declared that ‘actually on this occasion, this is the right decision for me’. In no way is this advocating constant use of abortion, but it is refreshing to read a perspective such as Moran’s. Well worth the read.

Buy it here

Michelle

Something for the weekend...

2011-09-30T17:06:00.000+01:00

AHAAAA..

'I Partridge: We need to talk about Alan' by Alan Partridge (with help!)

Ok, I know I'm preaching to the converted here and if you're not a fan of the TV series/radio shows then you won't enjoy this book. I'm really here to reassure any fans that this is a worthwhile purchase. I can confirm that. And I am confirming it. Now.

Coogan's greatest creation is brought brilliantly to life in all his pompous, arrogant splendour. This is not a cheap cash in (we can leave those to Peter Kay) it's a genuinely laugh out loud continuation of the legend that is Partridge (as we wait for the film!)

What I especially like is that although he talks about 'The day today', & 'Knowing me knowing you' as if they were real shows he doesn't acknowledge the existence of the 'I'm Alan Partridge' shows. This means 'Alan' can lie about things he doesn't think we know. So his meeting with Tony Hayers in the BBC cafe (the 'smell my cheese' scene) is hilariously re-played as a triumph for our hero & Chris Feather (Hayers replacement) warns Alan (just before he signs the contract) that he's trapped his hand that morning so his signature might look a bit 'weird & shakey' (for those who haven't seen it - Feather dies just before signing & Partridge fakes his signature). I also like the way he calls Lynne simply 'my assistant' through the entire book.

You hear Alan as you read & that makes it all the funnier, honestly I can't recommend it enough. He's done it, he's bounced back (again).

buy it here

Gary

Super Thursday!!

2011-09-29T14:03:00.000+01:00

It's Super Thursday!!

You may be asking 'What's so super about it?' Good question (if not a touch cynical), what's super is that there were 200 books released today! Today is the day that the books you & your aunts & your brothers & your aunts brothers (or is that you again?) will wake up to on Christmas morning hit the shops.

I've picked a few of titles to highlight what a 'Super Thursday' this is & I've even put them in categories to make it double easy:

Biography

Every year some comedian or other likes to tell us their life story & this year is no different

Lee Evans, James Corden & Alan Sugar all have hilarious titles released today - that Sugar cracks me up. But for me the highlight has to be the long awaited (in East Anglia) publication of the follow up to 'Bouncing Back' (now sadly out of print), yes 'I Partridge: we need to talk about Alan' by Alan Partridge is released today 'AHA!'. Seriously though this looks brilliant, I've had a sneaky look & it's hilarious (expect a SFTW of it very soon)

Thrillers

Maybe your relatives are of a more serious bent? Maybe they don't give a tinkers cuss for the trials & tribulations of some pampered fop! Well in that case there are eagerly anticipated new books out today by Lee Child (The Affair), Robert Harris (The Fear Index) & Peter James (Dead man's grip'). So they can get their teeth into to some top drawer thrillers.

Cookbooks

Or perhaps they just like a nice cake, who doesn't? If so, today sees the release of new titles by Jamie Oliver (Jamie's Great Britain), Martha Swift (The Primrose bakery book) & Lorraine Pascal (Home cooking).

Miscellaneous

Other notable titles to part you from your pennies are Max Hastings epic 'All hell let loose' & Bernard Cornwell's 'Death of Kings'. Or how about Jacqueline Wilson's 'Sapphire Battersea' (one for the kiddies there), or last but not least - Darren Shan's 'Palace of the damned' (for slightly older kiddies).

So, basically on 'Super Thursday' there is something for everyone, Christmas is closer than you think (& that's a good thing) get your thinking caps on - what would your Aunt like? (It's Alan Partridge by the way).

Aha!

Gary.

Shakespeare

2011-09-27T14:08:00.000+01:00

I think that Shakespeare is the greatest writer this country has ever seen. I’m sure I’m not alone in this opinion, so I thought I would share with you my selection of the best Shakespeare books and what I think makes him have such enduring appeal.

There are obviously different angles from which you might want to read about Shakespeare. I think the very first thing you need to do is read the plays. Maybe not all of them, but certainly some of them. In terms of The Complete Works, for scholars the best edition is the Norton Shakespeare, edited by American scholar Stephen Greenblatt. The Arden editions are also excellent if you want lots of accompanying notes. Arden should also be noted for publishing separately the different surviving versions of Hamlet: the Second Quarto and the First Quarto and First Folio together. If you just want a basic version of the plays, you can’t go wrong with Penguin or Oxford. It is also worth noting that there are 2 versions of Shakespeare’s ‘lost’ play, Cardenio. Arden published Lewis Theobald’s 18^th Century version, Double Falsehood and Nick Hern have published the RSC's reimagining of the play which was staged for the first time this year.

You could look into his life (well, what little is known) to inform your reading of the plays. I have just finished reading 1599 by James Shapiro, which manages to enlighten the reader about Shakespeare’s character, the times in which he was living and his writing and the reception of his plays all through looking in depth at one year. This was no ordinary year: he wrote Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and Hamlet. Shapiro cleverly uses the seasons of the year as a structure, which allows him to bring in the historical context of each section of the year without it feeling forced or like you’re reading a history book. I have a few books on my ‘next to read’ list, including The Lodger (Charles Nicholl), The Genius of Shakespeare, Soul of the Age (both by Jonathan Bate, who wrote the brilliant play Being Shakespeare), or Will in the World (Stephen Greenblatt). Any recommendations?

You could also read some Shakespeare criticism, to see themes and patterns and contexts you might not otherwise know about. I recently read Looking for Sex in Shakespeare by Stanley Wells. Originally delivered as 3 lectures at Shakespeare’s Globe, Wells has converted what must have been excellent lectures into excellent essays. They are very readable and I found myself being disappointed I had not been lucky enough to hear them spoken out loud originally. The 3 sections covered relationships between men, the relationships in the Sonnets and ‘lewd interpreters’, i.e. people who see more sex in the plays than there is or ever was. I think next I want to read some of Andrew Gurr’s work on the Elizabethan play-going world (The Shakespearean Stage 1574-1642, The Shakespeare Company 1594-1642 and Playgoing in Shakespeare's London).

One of my all time favourite books is about Shakespeare. I have an interest in acting and am interested in studying the staging and performing of Shakespeare as that’s what they were intended for. If you are likewise interested in acting, I cannot recommend highly enough Exit, Pursued by a Badger by Nick Asbury. Asbury is an actor who was involved in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2 ½ year Histories Cycle. The same company performed the 8 history plays from Richard II to Richard III. The book started its life as a hugely popular blog documenting the life of a stage actor, from forgetting lines to corpsing to being attacked by a badger one night! Following on from this format came Something Written in the State of Denmark by Keith Osborn about his time playing in the season that produced David Tennant and Patrick Stewart’s Hamlet as well as Love’s Labours Lost and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Also worth a mention is Antony Sher’s Year of the King about his experience of playing Richard III in 1984. He gives so much detail about how he created the role and the psychological impact of playing such a major role, especially coming off the back of a major injury, which gives him a unique insight into Richard's disability.

So this is just a tiny selection of the massive amount of literature about Shakespeare. If you have any particular favourites or think I've missed out something, please feel free to leave me a comment.

Amelia

Something for the weekend...

2011-09-23T12:15:00.000+01:00

The Tiny Wife by Andrew Kaufman

This is the first 'something for the weekend' that you could actually read in a weekend (easily). Clocking in at 87 pages it certainly doesn't outstay it's welcome.

Andrew Kaufman's first book was 'All my friends are superheroes' (2003) another short one it sold very well, mostly through word of mouth (I thoroughly recommend it, it's 'something else for the weekend'). He followed that with 'The Waterproof Bible' which is, shall we say, his 'difficult 2nd album', (his charming, quirky style is better in short bursts - but it's still worth a read).

The tiny wife begins with a bank robbery, but the mysterious, enigmatic thief isn't stealing money. Instead he takes one emotionally resonant item from each customer in the bank (''51% per cent of their soul''). The book then follows the victim's post robbery lives as strange & inexplicable & even fatal things occur. The 'Tiny Wife' Stacey begins to shrink very slowly & the book is based round the reasons for this & the attempt to stop this happening.

Now, Kaufman is not subtle, (Stacey is literally shrinking due to a loss of self worth/love from her marriage... a baby excretes cash until it becomes a choice between the baby's life & the money..) however he is funny & engaging & very easy to read (ideal for the weekend!). Plus in this book he has delightful silhouettes drawn by Tom Percival which add to the grown up fairy tale feel of the whole thing. (All in all it would make a lovely little gift). So if you're a fan of 'Amelie' (the Jeunet film), or the works of Tim Burton or any kind of magic realism - give Kaufman a go.

Gary

Buy it here

Something for the weekend.

2011-09-16T09:15:00.000+01:00

The Somnambulist by Essie Fox

While I’m not normally a fan of writing set in the Victorian era, this is an exceptional book. A well written gothic tale of young Phoebe who lives under the heavy strain of her sanctimonious and puritanical mother, Maud and her vivacious, glamourous aunt Cissy. Phoebe suffers one of the biggest tragedies of her young life only to find out that she has been lied to about where she comes from, who she is and most things about her life so far. The characters are excellently moulded, particularly Cissy and one gets a vivid impression that the character is based on someone the author may know/have known. Set in Victorian London’s East End in real locations such as Tredegar Square near Mile End Station and up the road in Bow, there are very believable situations constructed in the book dealing with racism and in particular, anti-semitism as well as sexism. Fox has crafted a tale unlike any other I’ve read here and having just finished it I want to read it all over again! A dream to read, this is an absolute page-turner and I recommend you read it if you’re a fan of the Victorian era, or just generally good writing.

Michelle

Buy it here

Lauren Beukes - Zoo City

2011-09-13T14:15:00.000+01:00

Lauren Beukes's Zoo City is set in a contemporary alternate reality to our own, where the guilt of crimes manifest themselves as animal familiars. The books's protagnonist, Zinzi December, has a sloth. However, the bad tempered fuzz ball is the least of her worries. She's a recovering addict with a large debt to pay off to a local crime boss who specialises in scam emails.

This is a novel that roots the weird firmly in the pedestrian. Zinzi is forced to live below the radar of society, facing prejudice daily on account of being a 'Zoo'. Having a sloth on her back does come with certain advantages, however. Each familiar bestows a mashavi, or spirtiual gift. In Zinzi's case this allows her to find lost things, passports, wedding rings and so forth. However, when her client ends up dead she's forced to take on an altogether more serious job -- to find a missing person.

Told in the first person, Beukes seamlessly fuses a hardboiled detective noir sensibility into a tale of life lived on the fringes in a hostile and frequently violent South Africa. The prose is direct and unvarnished, Zinzi has no illusions about how wretched her situation is, only that she won't go down without a fight.

Beukes makes good use of her journalistic experience, and shows a dark underside of South Africa that is rarely (if ever) mentioned in SFF. Zoo City is also notable for having a female black lead, a rarity in fiction but doubly so in the Speculative Fiction genre.

This is a gritty, no-nonsense novel that relies on the reader to go with the flow of exotic terms and colloquialisms of South African street life.

Zoo City is one of the titles in our Women in SFF section. It won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2010. For a deeper review check out this site HERE.

Buy it here

- Den Patrick

Something for the weekend.

2011-09-09T14:54:00.000+01:00

One Day

I might be the last person in the world to read One Day but read it I did last week. The fact that I read it in a mere 3 days of commuting is testament to David Nicholls's brilliant writing. I have read his other two novels (Starter For Ten and The Understudy) and thoroughly enjoyed them so thought I would jump on the band wagon of people that love One Day.

I liked the structure of the book, where you see the lives of Emma and Dexter on the anniversary of their first meeting for 20 years. When I heard that this was the format, I thought it meant that they arranged a reunion on their anniversary each year, but actually sometimes they are together on that day and sometimes they are apart. I'm not sure if anyone else felt the same, but on some of the days I wished it had gone on to the next day as I wanted to find out what happened next, but you then jump ahead another year. Where Nicholls is clever, though, is by mentioning important events we've missed because they have happened in between these anniversaries. It didn't seem forced or over the top, however; just the right balance of finding out what you've missed and discovering what they do next.

I liked the character of Emma very much - I'm sure a lot of us can relate to her wanting to change the world but instead taking a job, any job, to pay the bills. I didn't like Dexter so much to begin with - but I don't think you're meant to. He is likeable all along (despite all of the things he does) because of how much he cares about Emma. You get the impression that she makes him a better person - maybe even the best version of himself. I liked, also, that their success seemed to happen inversely - his all straight out of university and hers after years of slogging away, but they find a balance in the end.

I'm not sure if I had too high expectations, but although I liked the book, it didn't blow me away as it seems to have done a lot of people. I would recommend it as a nice, easy, modern fiction book to read during the first weekend that feels like Autumn.

Buy it here

Amelia

Something for the weekend.....

2011-08-26T11:29:00.000+01:00

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

This book is more likely to be something for several weekends as it comprises of 656 fantastically well written pages, deservedly winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001.

I had just finished reading Chabon’s ‘The Yiddish Policeman’s Union’ (anyone partial to a bit of ‘Noir’ should definitely give this a try) & was looking for something engrossing to read on holiday, so ‘Kavalier & Clay’ seemed to fit the bill nicely.

The story begins in 1939 & centres on two cousins, Sam Clay & Josef Kavalier. Josef, amateur magician & gifted draughtsman, has escaped to New York from his native Prague to live with Sam just as the Nazis are tightening their grip on Europe. His main concern is to earn enough money to bring the rest of his family to America. Together Sam & Joe create a comic strip featuring ‘The Escapist’, a Houdini inspired, Nazi-busting superhero, who aims to liberate the oppressed of the world.

What follows is a brilliantly realised portrayal of the Golden Age of the comic book in America, which serves as a background to the very human drama unfolding in the lives of the main characters. Chabon is able to combine humour with moments of real poignancy while maintaining a narrative which will keep you turning those pages.

This is an adventure story, a love story, a story about real heroes as well as the caped variety. Read it & weep.

Steve Orchard

Buy it here

Something for the weekend...

2011-08-19T14:47:00.000+01:00

In the first of our books recommended for a weekend read...

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Stockett’s novel about the lives of African-American maids and their white employers is one of the best books I’ve ever read and one I will pick up many times in the future. The subject of affection between white and black people in times of segregation, is rarely handled with such skill and elegance.

The characters are all so well written, from the maids and white employers to their children and husbands that each one becomes deeply ingrained in the readers imagination. Before long, one feels as though they know each individual intimately. Their struggles and fears, hopes and dreams become those of the reader and subsequently readers can only be better for knowing these characters in all their idiosyncrasies and habits.

Whether or not Stockett can surpass The Help remains to be seen particularly with the lawsuit she is facing over her debut novel from her brother’s maid as of February 2011.

The subjects covered in The Help are indeed risky topics for a white author, even with Stockett’s experience of being raised by a black maid herself, but a good novel is a good novel in my opinion and Stockett has accomplished a fine piece of writing if nothing else from this. A wonderful account of the struggle against the KKK and white supremacy in 1960′s segregated America, The Help is a classic of its time. Stockett has achieved something truly moving and important with this book and will hopefully go on to further her talent.

Buy it here

Michelle

The first post.

2011-08-02T17:08:00.000+01:00

Hello! and welcome to the new blog for Blackwell's Charing Cross Road, London.

Why do you need a blog for Blackwell's Charing Cross Road? Good question. Here are two excellent reasons: we love books & we want to tell you why we love & why you should love the books that we love, and we have loads of great events where the people who write the books we love turn up & sign them & we want you to know when & where these signings are happening.

Otherwise we will be waffling & quizzing & showing you pretty pictures & ugly pictures &.. well we don't know what else yet as this all very new & exciting!

So thanks for reading & we hope you enjoy.

Gary.