Adventures With Words

“We are living, in this country, through a golden age of fiction.”

John Sutherland, the Lord Northcliffe Emeritus Professor of Modern English Literature at UCL

Last night, the eight titles selected for Fiction Uncovered 2012 promotion were announced, representing the best of British fiction.

The eight titles are

• Two Cows and a Vanful of Smoke by Peter Benson, Alma Books
• The Light of Amsterdam by David Park, Bloomsbury
• This is Life by Dan Rhodes, Canongate
• Hit and Runby Doug Johnstone, Faber and Faber
• My Former Heart by Cressida Connolly, Fourth Estate
• When Nights Were Cold by Susanna Jones, Mantle
• Lucky Bunny by Jill Dawson, Sceptre
• Crushed Mexican Spiders by Tibor Fischer, Unbound

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A number of authors have become as much renowned for the bloodiness of their stories as for the twists in their plots. But just what attracts us to these grisly novels and why do people choose to read violent crime?

Violent crime and horror books have a lot in common. Both can be challenging reads, testing the reader’s boundaries as much as their stomach. In addition, crime novels are also heavily focused on plot: who did it and why? Often with violent crime, we are asking how they did it and with how much blood… Unlike horror films, books are in one sense distancing us from gruesome events, as you are reading words and not seeing the images, but in another sense they become that bit more personal as you are complicit in creating the horrific experience. It is the thrill of being shocked that attracts many readers to the genre and it is one that is rooted in our own society.

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Here at Adventures With Words Towers, we know that sometimes, while it’s great reading a brand new book from a first-time author, the old ones can be the best. It’s worth taking some time to rediscover a few modern classics once in a while. Luckily, it turns out Hodder agree; they’re promoting some of their established authors - the backlist - to remind us about some of the good stuff already out there. Here are some suggestions to get you started…

Carter Beats the Devil - Glen David Gold
In 1923, the magician Charles Carter found himself implicated in the mysterious death of US President Harding. Glen David Gold takes the bare bones of a biography of a famous 1920s illusionist and escapologist, and fleshes it out into a marvellous and magical life story, as well as a tightly plotted thriller. The way in which Gold ramps up the tension has been compared to Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White. He brings to life the sparkle and temptation of the Jazz Age, as well as the public’s desperate need for escapism in a time of economic turmoil.

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“You can’t really say she sounds like anyone you’ve ever heard before but somehow you feel like you’ve known these songs all your life.”  This neat soundbite perfectly sums up singer-songwriter Hannah Scott.  I first met Hannah at university, where I was lucky enough to get a preview of some of her early work.

Hannah has been writing music, and lyrics, since her early teens but it was a year spent in Tuscany that inspired her to start performing more seriously. She has self-released an album and two EPs, packed with lyrically intelligent songs and her highly distinctive voice. Last year, Hannah reached the final of MOJO Magazine’s New Voice competition, where panellist and legendary BBC 6 DJ Tom Robinson described her performance as “clear, assured, melodic, memorable”.  She gigs extensively in London and East Anglia, including shows alongside Ed Sheeran and supports with folk favourites Cara Dillon and Seth Lakeman.

Hannah took a break from putting the finishing touches to her new EP, Still Static, to answer some questions about what it’s like to write songs…

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Most book-lovers will probably now know that Maurice Sendak, author of Where The Wild Things Are, has died, aged 83, as a result of complications after a stroke on Friday 4th May 2012.  From what I’ve read of him as a grown-up, he was a funny, sharp, cantankerous old curmudgeon, deliberately awkward and critical, as well as incredibly intelligent and perceptive, and determined not to patronise or talk down to children in his books.

He is best known for his picture books - Where The Wild Things Are (1963), In The Night Kitchen (1970) and Outside Over There (1981) - all wildly different in style and, well, wild in nature.  They are dreamscapes, fantasy spaces where children’s imaginations can run…wild.  The thing about these books is that they’re not “safe”.  In Where The Wild Things Are, Max has been bad - he’s worn his wolf suit and done wolf things, naughty things.  So he’s sent to his room without dinner.  In his sulk, he sails away to the island where the Wild Things are.  These are scary monsters but Max is the wildest of all, becomes their king and they celebrate him.  But soon, Max realises it’s time to go home again.  The Wild Things are sad - they roar their terrible roars - but they wave goodbye, and when Max gets back, he finds dinner awaiting him.  “And it was still hot”.  It’s a wonderful metaphor - what child (or grown-up) hasn’t felt like having a wild rumpus once in a while?  The illustrations are stunning; no wonder hundreds of imaginations were captured by this story.

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