My book day

Happy World Book Day one and all.  I hope you have had a good one.  Today is all the more special for me because Mister Creecher is out in paperback here in the UK published by Bloomsbury.

An old obsession

I went to my studio today for the first time in a while.  Before Christmas I brought a load of boxes here from our old house and then delivered a stack of folios and so on, delivered to our new house from storage.

I had intended to get on with some writing, but made the fatal mistake of opening the folios.  I had not seen any of this work for five years, but some of it had been in drawers and folios for a lot longer than that.

Before we left Norfolk for Cambridge I had periodic burnings of artwork.  My wife would get upset at this, but there was no way I could keep all of the work I generated at The Economist and The Independent. A lot of it wasn't very good, to be honest.  It was done to such tight deadlines and to such specific briefs that although I could take pride in having delivered something, the result was not something I wanted to live with.  I didn't want to be the curator of some kind of archive of me.

Besides there is something cathartic about such destruction.  I have always believed I have better work ahead of me.  When I stop believing that I will stop creating.

The problem with destroying work is that perceptions change.  What seemed valuable can seem worthless a few years down the line.  The reverse is clearly also true.  I just have to hope I didn't destroy anything I wouldn't destroy today.  I'm pretty sure I didn't.  I'll never know in any case so why worry?

I am pleased I have hung on to this drawing though.  I must have been about sixteen when I did it, maybe younger, but certainly no older.  It is an illustration to Frankenstein and it shows an early eagerness to counter the cinematic image of the creature.

Mister Creecher was being formed in those ink marks.

Japanese Marlowe

I was very pleased to hear that my Tom Marlowe series for Random House is to be published in Japan and very excited to receive an advance copy of Death and the Arrow through the post yesterday.  It is a nicely produced little book - a hardback with illustrations throughout.

I wonder what Japan will make of my tale of 18th Century London?

More German tales of terror

I received copies of the audio book of the German edition of Tales of Terror from the Black Ship before Christmas.

German tales of terror

Here is the cover for the German edition of Tales of Terror from the Tunnel's Mouth.  It is published by Bloomsbury in Berlin and translated, once again, by Beatrice Howeg.  It is out at the end of this month.

Czech tales of terror

Here is the Czech edition of Tales of Terror from the Black Ship.  It is published by Argo.  I don't speak Czech at all but I really like the look of the title.  I particularly like that 'z'!

Stories from the shadows

I really ought to say a little more about Uncle Montague's Stories from the Shadows.

The play is being performed by the OnO Theatre Company and is directed by Gary Sefton who also adapted the script.  OnO are based in Crawley in West Sussex and they have been running now for 11 years, touring schools.

The young cast were excellent, but I think I have to make special mention of Andy Burse who plays Uncle Montague with a physicality that really adds something to his character.  I certainly did not write and Uncle Montague who was capable of leaping about like that, but it worked - it really did.