The last of the spirits

And here is the cover of my new book for Bloomsbury - published this November. It's called The Last of the Spirits and it is the last in my trilogy of metafictions - books that have been inspired by, and run parallel to, stories that had a big impact on me when I first encountered them.

It began with Mister Creecher, linked to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, then The Dead Men Stood Together, inspired by Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and now there is this book - a story that takes a sideways step out of the world and characters of Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

More about that later....

Peake again

Peake also makes an appearance on my notice board next to my desk at home, with an illustration to stories by the Brothers Grimm, but most of the cards are ones I picked up from the Dickens Museum last year - three illustrations to A CHRISTMAS CAROL and a photograph of the man himself.

I like to have a kind of mood board on the go when I'm writing, and it feels right to have Dickens keeping an eye on me at the moment as I am daring to tinker with the great man's work

The illustrations to A CHRISTMAS CAROL are there to remind me of the impact that story had on me as a young boy - the story and those images (by John Leech) - particularly the cowled figure of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come...perhaps one of the most unsettling creations in all of English literature.

Dickens at last

I lived in London for over ten years and knew the area I walked through last Sunday very well.  I had a studio in Shoreditch and would frequently travel through it by bike or bus, or simply wander through taking photographs.

I have no idea how many times I walked or cycled along Doughty Street and past the Charles Dickens Museum.  But when we live in a place, we always think we will be able to come back tomorrow.  Well on Sunday I found myself once again outside Charles Dickens' house and this time I decided to go in.

I'm really pleased I did.  It was a beautiful day, as I have already said, and so it was tempting to stay outside.  But the house is lovely and is fascinating as much for the glimpse it gives of the vanished interiors of the many Georgian terraced houses that line the streets in Bloomsbury as it was for the Dickens memorabilia.  Though of course, it is very special to stand beside the great man's writing desk.

I am very glad to have finally visited and especially now as I have just written a novel tied to A Christmas Carol.  Maybe it was the right time....

Humbug!

I managed to finish the first draft of my new book yesterday.  It is called Marley's Ghost and is the third of my books (along with Mister Creecher and The Dead Men Stood Together) to be linked to the work of another writer.

As with Frankenstein and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, A Christmas Carol had a huge impact on me when I first encountered it and in writing my book, I want to try and channel that enthusiasm into a new work but also, importantly, to be true to the original and send my readers to the source of my inspiration.

I remember finding A Christmas Carol dream-like when I first heard it.  It would have been my first encounter with Dickens and possibly my first experience of that kind of confident authorial voice.  Dickens is there all the way through, standing with Scrooge and the Spirits and standing with us - a point he actually makes, wonderfully, in the book, saying that he - Dickens - stands beside us as we read.  And so he does.

As with Frankenstein, A Christmas Carol is a story most people know - or think they know - even if they have not read the book.  But the book is much odder than most would imagine.  A lot darker too.

I will be talking more about that nearer to publication.