National Crime Reading Month: The Big Read

June 2023 is National Crime Reading Month – a partnership between the Crime Writers’ Assocation and The Reading Agency.

I’m delighted to be joining some top crime writers at two events. First up is NOIR AT THE BAR at the Morpeth Arms on Millbank, London SW1P 4RW. It’s easy to find: it’s the pub on the corner a few steps west of Tate Britain. That’s on 11 June from 5–8pm, see my previous post for more info…

Secondly, I’m thrilled to be part of THE BIG READ: AN EVENING WITH TEN OF LONDON’S TOP CRIME AND THRILLER WRITERS, at the King’s Head in Crouch End. Here’s the poster:

Here’s the blurb:

Come and join in the fun at The King’s Head, Crouch End! Meet some of London’s finest crime, suspense & thriller authors – hear them read from their latest books, chat and answer audience questions. We have a brilliant line-up of authors including CWA Historical Dagger winner Vaseem Khan (Midnight at Malabar House, the first in the Malabar House novels set in 1950s Bombay) and Victoria Dowd, author of The Smart Woman’s Guide to Murder series – and many more prizewinning and bestselling authors. Books on sale at discounted prices; please bring cash.

Join us!

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Bloomsday special! From “Monkeys on Typewriters”…

I’m really looking forward to our Bloomsday event in the beautiful restored Keynes Library, overlooking Gordon Square in the heart of Bloomsbury.

Photo © Marianne Magnin, 2015

Here’s the blurb:

From “Monkeys on Typewriters” to “Hallucinating Large Language Models”: What Might Non-Human “AI” Systems Learn from Engagement with Artists and Writers?

Come join us to celebrate Bloomsday 2023 in Bloomsbury, London in the company of pioneering computer artist, Paul Brown and celebrated writer, Tony White, author of novels including The Fountain in the Forest (Faber) as well as editor of the cult Piece of Paper Press. The evening combines performative readings, visual presentation and an ‘in conversation’ exchange between Brown and Dr Joel McKim, Director of the Vasari Centre for Art and Technology at Birkbeck. The event will also feature the launch of the print catalogue for Brown’s current and forthcoming Retrospective exhibition in London and Leicester, published by the Computer Arts Society [CAS]. This is a signed and numbered limited edition publication and will be available for purchase.  Dr Bronac Ferran, contributor of a CAS-commissioned essay on Brown’s work for the catalogue, will introduce the event and moderate the discussion.

When: 16 June 2023, 18:30 — 21:00
Venue: Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PD

Limited space. Booking essential.

MORE INFORMATION, AND TICKETS HERE…

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NEW: to receive invites to forthcoming events and launches, sign up for my *new improved* newsletter…

National Crime Reading Month: NOIR AT THE BAR

June 2023 is National Crime Reading Month – a partnership between the Crime Writers’ Assocation and The Reading Agency.

I’m doing two events so far…

First up, on 11th June I’m appearing alongside a great line-up of authors including Graham Bartlett, Katherine Black, Sheila Bugler, Anne Coates, Chris Curran, Caitlin Davies, Derek Farrell, Mick Finlay, Paul Gitsham, C.S. Green, Stacey Haber, A.J. Hill, Maxim Jakubowski, Kate London, Bonnie McBird, Howard of Warwick, Barbara Nadel, Leigh Russell, Alex Sage, Holly Seddon, Jacqueline Sutherland, Aline Templeton, P.D. Viner, and me…

Join us!

Free event | readings | book stall | murderously good company!

  • Morpeth Arms, 58 Millbank, London SW1P 4RW
  • Sunday 11 June, 5:00pm–8:00pm, FREE

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NEW: to receive invites to forthcoming events and launches, sign up for my *new improved* newsletter…

Coronation Day by Tim Etchells

Piece of Paper Press is delighted to have published Coronation Day by Tim Etchells, on 6 May 2023 in a numbered limited edition of 300 copies (+ 3 signed proofs). Etchells’ previous contribution to the series was About Lisa (POPP.004, 1995).

Etchells writes:

Coronation Day is the second story I’ve done for POPP and it nods back to the first, About Lisa, in a couple of ways; adapting the form and cadence of its subtitle, whilst gleefully extending its gesture of narrative and linguistic reduction. Where About Lisa explored narrative as a sequence of short blank-yet-vivid statements, each page a micro-chapter of urban fairy-tale, Coronation Day ups the ante, eschewing the story fragment in favour of the single letter, placing just one alphabetic sign per page, whilst using the book as an elegant if cumbersome means to spell out its simple imperative statement and call to arms. 

Tim Etchells is an artist and a writer based in the UK. He has worked in a wide variety of contexts, notably as leader of the world-renowned performance group Forced Entertainment and in collaboration with a range of visual artists, choreographers, and photographers. His work spans performance, video, photography, text projects, installation and fiction. Tim Etchells was winner of the Spalding Gray Award in 2016, and the Manchester Fiction Prize in 2019. Forced Entertainment won the International Ibsen Prize 2016.

All copies of ‘Coronation Day’ have now been given away.

BUT I have set aside five copies for subscribers to my relaunched newsletter, which comes out on Tuesday 9 May.

You can subscribe to my newsletter here…

Here is the press release for Coronation Day by Tim Etchells.

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Buy my latest novel The Fountain in the Forest direct from publisher Faber and Faber…

NEW: to receive invites to forthcoming events and launches, sign up for my *new improved* newsletter…

Newsletter news…

Long-time readers, friends and colleagues on here will know that over the past decade or so I’ve produced an occasional newsletter, using the medium to share book news, updates, invites to my events, etc. You may also have noticed that there hasn’t been one for a while.

I paused the newsletter in early 2020 because, in common with many freelancers working across the arts and creative industries, much of my public-facing work dried up during the Covid-19 pandemic. The things other than books – the ad hoc rolling commissions, events, appearances, residencies, etc. – that can with a lot of luck contribute to a writing life, mostly disappeared, more or less overnight.

© David McCairley, 2023

As it happened, when Lockdown hit, I was already in a slightly less public mode than I had been around publication of The Fountain in the Forest, as I was by then well underway with the next volume of the trilogy. More of which anon.

Online events have been a revelation, too; making a huge, positive impact in terms of access for disabled artists, writers and audiences, as well as opening up events across geographical – and economic – boundaries. I hope those opportunities can be maintained and built upon, and I’m a wholehearted supporter of the #keepfestivalshybrid campaign.

But actual live readings in front of an audience are a central part of my work as a writer, and I’ve really missed live gigs. So it was brilliant to do Brixton Book Jam (pictured) last month; amazing to be performing in front of a live audience once again.

Over the past couple of years, while there have occasionally been things to tweet, or to post here or on Instagram, there’s not felt quite the critical mass of outputs to put together in a newsletter – until now.

Lockdown also brought the opportunity to do some modest but essential forward-planning work supported by Arts Council England through the Arts Council Emergency Response Fund: for individuals. I’m truly grateful. That small grant really was a godsend, and it enabled me to devote a little time to bringing my scriptwriting and script consultancy work together in one place, and to do similar for the writing workshops that I offer.

It also allowed me to research a better way of doing my newsletter: to make the service available to more people, to offer more to subscribers, and to find a way around some of the glitches that had grown with the previous format, so that when things started up again, the newsletter could too.

And with several exciting publications and events in the pipeline once again, now seems a good time to do just that, and pick up where we left off.

So here’s the announcement: If you don’t already subscribe to my occasional newsletter for book news and invites to events, but would like to, it’s easy! (And you can unsubscribe at any time.) Here’s the ALL NEW sign-up page…

Thank you

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Buy my latest novel The Fountain in the Forest direct from publisher Faber and Faber…

NEW: to receive invites to forthcoming events and launches, sign up for my *new improved* newsletter…

Tony White speaking at Strong Language, Site Gallery, Sheffield for OFF THE SHELF FESTIVAL OF WORDS (Photo: Chris Saunders)

Tony White would like to acknowledge the support of Arts Council England through the Arts Council Emergency Response Fund: for individuals.

Fountain in Tokyo

Thank you to Hiromi for sending through this photo of The Fountain in the Forest beneath a canopy of Tokyo cherry blossom. I love it.

I’m always delighted when friends old and new send a photo of a book of mine that they’re reading, or have spotted in a shop or a library. Thank you so much! It’s an unexpected benefit of social media, and it gives me great pleasure to share them on.

Writing is a solitary activity, and your photos are always a pleasure to receive. These pictures remind me of the network of readers and bookshops; of books passing from hand to hand, and of holding a book in your hands to read. A reminder that books and stories are a real connection, but one that is created by the reader just as much as the writer. And that once they are out in the world, your books and stories have a life of their own, and you never know who will pick them up next.

Thanks, all ;)

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Buy Tony White’s latest novel The Fountain in the Forest via publisher Faber and Faber…

If you’d like to receive invites to forthcoming events and launches, sign up for my occasional newsletter…

‘You have to keep on saying it’

💚#justice4grenfell 💚— 👏👏👏👏 and thank you to whoever wrote this, spotted on a section of temporary cordon near Hammersmith Bridge yesterday.

This has reminded me of something that Dot once said, a useful lesson: ‘You have to keep on saying it.’

I met Dot Donsworth – a campaigner for the preservation of the many beautiful commons around Bournemouth and Poole – while working in the area on a short story commission for the excellent former digital arts agency SCAN.

Dot was also a dog walker, particular on Turbary Common. She hadn’t set out to be an activist, just she said that every few years someone, some chancer, would try and slip something through planning, to build on some corner of these commons. And — she told me — you had to keep on saying No, it’s a common. You can’t build there. You can’t let that through.

You had to keep on saying it. She’d been doing this since the 1970s.

You had to keep on saying it, in other words, because there were always plenty of people, including in positions of power, hoping you’d forget.

I often think of Dot.

She was right.

You have to keep on saying it.

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Read a previous post about Dot, and Tony’s story set in Bournemouth and Poole here…

Listen to ‘A Porky Prime Cut’ with musical accompaniment by Richard Norris here…

Buy Tony White’s latest novel The Fountain in the Forest via publisher Faber and Faber…

If you’d like to receive invites to forthcoming events and launches, sign up for my occasional newsletter…

Alastair Brotchie

On 20 February I joined a large congregation of mourners at Golders Green Crematorium. We had gathered to mark the death and to celebrate the life of Alastair Brotchie, who very sadly died on 27 January 2023. Looking around the garden at one point, an old friend and I reflected that we didn’t think there was anyone else who could have brought such a broad group of fellow travellers together.

The order of service and enclosures (detail)

It was an auspicious event, in the saddest of circumstances. During the service there were a number of very touching and memorable addresses from Alastair’s family, friends and collaborators.

Milie von Bariter of the Collège de ’Pataphysique, spoke of Alastair being ‘Behind the scenes, where he now resides.’

It was a powerful image: Alastair’s longstanding career as a scenic painter offered as metaphor for the persistence of a lost loved one in our thoughts, in face of death’s cruel vanishing act.

Alastair Brotchie’s scene-painting work had continued alongside his more public work as a publisher at Atlas Press, author, collaborator and Oulipo expert, ’Pataphysician, Jarry biographer, and bookseller, in what was a remarkably productive and extraordinarily energetic life devoted to arts and letters, to literature in translation, and the ‘anti-tradition’ of avant-garde literature in particular.

Read Peter Blegvad’s obituary of Alastair Brotchie here…

Von Bariter’s words reminded me of a couple of visits I’d made to see Alastair, literally behind the scenes, in his studio. (Click-through to see these hi-res images in magnificent detail.)

© Chris Dorley-Brown, 2023

In September 2013, Alastair invited me visit the ‘paint frame’, his studio in the stage house of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. At that time he was painting a gauze for the Verdi opera, The Corsair.

A paint frame is a special type of theatrical scene-painting workshop, as tall and wide as the stage itself, but with deep drops either side. Here, cloths and gauzes can be stretched onto large wooden frames, and those frames raised and lowered at will, so that all parts of the cloth can be reached from a fixed ‘ground’ level. At the time of that visit, I was in the very earliest stages of writing what would become my novel The Fountain in the Forest. I had been looking for a way to write about a revolution in policing that had happened in the immediate aftermath of the UK Miners’ Strike of the mid-1980s, and also riffing on Oulipo, performance, the Battle of the Beanfield, and the French Revolutionary Calendar. I was immediately struck by this huge space, and the deftness with which the frames could be raised and lowered; like great lumbering wooden guillotines. And by the magic of theatrical gauzes, which can conceal or reveal depending how you look at them. I realised that this paint frame, on a historic, theatrical site that predated the French Revolution by a century or more, would make an excellent crime scene.

If there was a murder here, I figured, there would need to be a detective to investigate it. And so Detective Sergeant Rex King of serious crime at the nearby Holborn Police Station was born.

The Fountain in the Forest would not exist in the form it does without Alastair’s friendship and generosity. The opening chapters feature a lightly fictionalised version of both theatre and paint frame (see in particular pp5–11).

After that first visit, Alastair and I went for a pint in the Coach & Horses on Wellington Street, where we traded gossip and stories of largely forgotten artists and writers; forgotten by most, that is, but not by us. Something of the pleasure and velocity of that chat and the setting also made it into the novel, in the character of scene-painter and raconteur Terence Hobbs, closest friend and confidante of DS Rex King:

Terence Hobbs had a good memory, too, which coupled with his raconteur’s knack for spinning out epic tales involving local names and faces long forgotten by the rest of the world, made him very entertaining company. A Mark Twain of the Thames, you could buy him a pint or two and Terry would pick up this Aldwych Iliad where he’d left off last time, whether that had been a week ago or a couple of years. […] Terry’s stories conjured up a pre-regeneration Covent Garden that, if they were to be believed, must have been populated almost exclusively by legendary drunks, entertainers and artistes both celebrated and forgotten. It was different now. Gone were the days when you’d more than likely bump into Danny LaRue walking his ‘golden palomino’ chihuahua in the Phoenix Gardens of a morning. The props men, the wig-makers and costumiers, the makers of fake noses and other prosthetics had all left.

From The Fountain in the Forest, Chapter 1

These two photos were taken by Chris Dorley-Brown on a later visit, in 2016. With the novel finished, I had asked Alastair if I could come to the paint frame again, but this time take some photos. Chris is known among other things for his extraordinary photographs of East London architecture, and I thought that the rare opportunity to see this highly unusual and historic space in central London would appeal to him. I’m grateful to Chris for going back into the files now, to find these two wonderful extra photos from that shoot in 2016.

Welcoming us in, Alastair said that he needed to continue working while Chris took the photos, so we were not to get in the way. He was on a tight deadline, this time painting an enormous theatrical cloth for what was a then highly-anticipated forthcoming production of Blood Brothers. The imagery was commercially sensitive at the time, so Alastair also asked that the cloth not be shown if we used any images from the shoot before the show opened.

I still find it awe-inspiring; not only the paint frame itself, this archaic, cathedral-like space, and the centuries-old tradition of scenic painting on this site, but also the sheer visual virtuosity at scale of Alastair’s paintings, produced by hand and eye alone. The scenic artist’s unique perspective; their ability to work on a cloth so close-up, but to also see it as if from ‘the gods’, the highest, farthest, cheapest seats in the auditorium.

Vale Alastair.

Alastair Brotchie, 20 July 1952–27 January 2023

© Chris Dorley-Brown, 2023

Today: Foxy-T at the Modern Cockney Festival

The event is part of the Modern Cockney Festival (March 3rd to April 4th) featuring a programme of events, academic lectures, and family fun.

Free to attend. Book via this Eventbrite link: https://evolvingcockney.eventbrite.com Once registered you will receive a Zoom link.

The Modern Cockney Festival 2023 is organised by Cockney Cultures, a partnership between social enterprise Grow Social Capital and the Bengali East End Heritage Society.

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More about Tony’s events and bookings…

Buy Tony White’s latest novel The Fountain in the Forest via publisher Faber and Faber…

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Post-Lockdown: my first gig IRL for three years

It was a great pleasure to read at Brixton Book Jam on Monday 6 March. Along with compere Dennis – a poet in the Ranting Poetry tradition – the packed audience enjoyed readings from featured authors Rose Servitova, Eamon Somers, Deidre Shanahan, Adam Connors, Zelda Rhiando, and me; plus music from Alex and the Wonderland.

Held in Brixton Book Jam’s usual venue of The Hootananny – once-upon-a-time the George Canning, and more recently The Hobgoblin pub on Efra Road in Brixton – this Book Jam was dedicated to the Irish literary tradition and diaspora. I read my short story ‘Plain Speaking’, which was written to mark the 110th anniversary of the birth of Brian O’Nolan, aka Myles na gCopaleen, aka Flann O’Brien. First premiered at David Collard’s online salon Carthorse Orchestra, the story was first published by 3am Magazine, and the Irish Literary Society, and is now collected in Nicholas Royles Best British Short Stories 2022 from Salt Publishing.

At some point in the evening, I realised with a shock that this Brixton Book Jam reading was my first gig or appearance IRL (‘In Real Life’) since February 2020. I usually do lots of live readings and appearances, and I have really missed that part of my work. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the various UK lockdowns and their aftermath, all of my talks and readings have been online — until now. I don’t know if this is other people’s experience, but I’ve also felt that the live literature scene has not quite bounced back for prose fiction in the way it has for poetry. This is partly why I started the irregular radio programme Literature Live, which we piloted on Resonance a few weeks back, to provide a spoken word gig on the air: live literature with the emphasis on authors reading live from their fiction. See more of my event archive here…

I really enjoy doing online gigs, David Collard’s wonderful weekly online salons A Leap in the Dark, Carthorse Orchestra, and Glue Factory, kept many of us going over the past three years. I am also a fervent supporter of the #KeepFestivalsHybrid campaign, as I know all too well that an online component to an event makes it more accessible to both authors and audiences.

Hyrid and online-only events have made it possible for me to attend book launches and memorial events at City Lights in San Francisco, or e.g. to give the opening lecture in the American University Sharjah’s Ramadan Lecture Series without the costs (in every way) of air travel.

But the performer in me really relished the immediate contact and feedback that came from sharing a physical space and human connection with the audience. It was great to be back.

My old friend the photograph David McCairley came along. These are his photos.

You can see more of David’s photos of last night’s Brixton Book Jam here…

Dave is an old friend and former Hackney neighbour of mine from Beck Road days. He took the incredible photo of the fire artist that was used on the cover of my first novel Road Rage!

I can’t think of a better gig to celebrate a return to real life performances than the wonderful Brixton Book Jam.

What a great night. Thank you to my fellow authors, compere Dennis, to Brixton Book Jam’s Zelda Rhiando, and everyone who came along. Thanks all!

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More about Tony’s events and bookings…

Buy Tony White’s latest novel The Fountain in the Forest via publisher Faber and Faber…

If you’d like to receive invites to forthcoming events and launches, sign up for my occasional newsletter…