Category: Fiction

  • Nice Weather for Fish

    In the last year, thanks to lockdown, I have started playing Dungeons and Dragons again, for the first time in over 30 years. Now, I have also written and published my first role-playing adventure, for D&D or any OSR-type game. Ladies and Gentlemen, please enjoy Nice Weather for Fish. Many thanks to Martin F Bedford […]

  • The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

    The elegance of the hedgehog is a rather beautiful, if flawed, novel which seems to have been dragged down to earth by a rushed and often over-literal translation.

  • He Died with his Eyes Open, by Derek Raymond

    He Died with His Eyes Open (Factory 1) is a stunning, shocking novel which manages to transcend the genre of crime fiction in a similar way that, for example, James Ellroy and Raymond Chandler do. I rate Raymond above either Ellroy or Chandler though: his books, like the very best of literature, hold the reader’s […]

  • What a Revelation

    06/06/06 is coming in a few days (for Europeans and Americans). Given George W Bush’s possible antecedent, this could be something to get worried about.

  • Wooden Heart

    I’m sure I’ve already mentioned here various bits of writing I’m working on. Well, I reached a major landmark last week courtesy of a few hours in Ed’s studio. I blocked out the screech of his lathe by writing mindlessly. Managed to get down pretty all the elements for my first short story. It’s a […]

  • Katherine Mansfield, American Splendour and Hats

    I finally got around to reading some Katherine Mansfield, after reading glowing praise from M John Harrison and others, and spotting Harvey Pekar reading one of her books in a scene from American Splendour. I picked up a pleasingly 1950s-looking hardback “Collected Stories” from the book stall on the South Bank, under Waterloo Bridge. Last […]

  • No one comes here sober

    Quote of the night from Gordon’s novel: No one comes here sober and everyone leaves in a worse state than they arrived.