"The more politically correct among you can read this as social comment. The rest can just enjoy the ride..." - The Guardian

*** THIS IS AN ARCHIVED "NEWS" PAGE. CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST ***

Hey!

Tuesday, January 18

Did I tell you I was on the cover of a magazine? Yes? OK. Did you believe me? No, thought not. Well get ready to eat those words, sonny boys and girls. Allow me to present WRITING MAGAZINE (Feb 2005)...

Honest to God, I can't leave my house now without people pointing at me and whispering "Hey, there's that guy from the front of Writing Magazine..." And the other day in town, when I went to pick up the mag... ah, I can't bear to think about it. People were following me from shop to shop, quickly hiding behind pillars and letterboxes and things whenever I turned around. But they couldn't fool me. I could feel them...

I knew I had to do something about it. I just couldn't let them get away with it. So I ran back and looked behind the letterbox and confronted the little old lady there, who was pretending to post a letter. "You leave me alone!" I screamed, blowing her blue rinse all over the place. "I have a right to privacy!" Her Yorkshire terrier was yapping like crazy now, biting my shoes. "It's people like you..." I said. "It's people like..." Words were obviously not working, so I kicked the dog hard and ran off, hoping that would send out a message to the public...

It seemed to work, too. For a while. Then the police came after me, chasing me down Friar Street and through Woolworths and onto the ring road...

I shook them by slipping into the multi-storey and hiding under a silver BMW on the top level. It was dark when I came out. No one could see my face in the dark. I drifted out into the night, weighed down by the futility of man's struggle in an indifferent universe...

Jerry Springer - The Court Case

Monday, January 10

Did you see "Jerry Springer - The Opera" on the BBC the other night? Shit, I never thought opera could be used like that. Awesome, awesome stuff. And as for the bible-thumping bullies who are now taking the show to court, all I can say is:

What the fuck?

Other news... There is apparently an interview with me in the Feb edition of Writing Magazine. (I say "apparently" because I haven't seen the mag in the shops yet. Mags tend to come out a month in advance, but I've only seen the Jan issue in WH Smith so far. Have you seen the Feb one? Let me know if you have.) The interview takes a "debut author" angle (inevitably, considering the nature of the magazine), with questions like "How the fuck did you get anyone to publish this thing?" (Just kidding.) Anyway, interviewer Adrian Magson was skilled enough to make it interesting, and I enjoyed doing it.

It's like a jungle sometimes

Thursday, January 6

I'm not obsessed with being "up to date", as far as fiction goes. If I discover a new author ten years after everyone else, so what? At least I discovered them in the end. But there's one author whose novels I get as soon as they come out: Jason Starr.

TWISTED CITY is the latest such novel. Set in Starr's beloved(?) Manhattan, it features a business journo with problems. I'm not talking about the usual noir problems, like owing money to a loan shark, wife having affair, or having one night stand with a babe who turns out to be a psycho stalker. I'm talking about the problems that lurk deep in our psyches, emotional scars waiting to come out and fuck with us when the circs are just right. There's no denying it: we all have mental problems. Most of us are just pretty good at hiding them. Especially in a place like New York, where everyone is moving too fast to pay attention.

Twisted city indeed.

Starr is a king plotter. His books take you down the spiral staircase that just keeps going down, but you have no choice but to hold on, to see just how dark it gets around the next bend. TWISTED CITY is Starr's [counts fingers] sixth novel. With each successive one he has ploughed his chosen furrow of white collar noir a little deeper. This is the deepest he has gone yet.

Buy it here if you're in the States (or don't mind buying from Amazon.com). There's also a UK edition coming out in March from No Exit.

I'd also like to present you with this site I found. Completely unrelated, as Starr's author headshot bears witness. But, you know, time is a great leveller.

There's something else I wanted to say. There always is. As soon as I upload this stuff I'll go "Ah, shit. I forgot to mention about the ____ ______ again. What's wrong with me?" Then I'll go and get drunk, just to wash away the pain of knowing how I always fuck up. Drinking to forget that I forgot, if you like.

Happy Thursday.

Happy New Year

Friday, December 31

Well, that's 2004 nearly done with. What a year, eh? Good in places, shit in others. You know, I haven't heard one person say (or read them write) that 2004 was a great year. Everyone seems to want to clear it out the way and get on with 2005. But come on, it wasn't all bad. Hey - it snowed on Christmas day (at least where I am). How likely is that?

Anyway, everyone have a good old drink tonight (Al - go easy on the orange juice) and let's all join hands tomorrow and make the world a better place. (Hey, you over there - no puking.) (Yet.) My contribution to the new world order will be FAGS AND LAGER. Can't say fairer than that.

Prizes & Jam Sarnies

Friday, December 17

I've posted cursory details of a couple of exciting events for next year. More to follow.

I'm going to start a mailing list, so I can send out the odd bulletin to anyone who wants it. Sign up above. I promise I won't sell your email address to a spam merchant for five pounds. As a special introductory offer, in a week or so I will select a random email address from those subscribed and give it a FREE SIGNED COPY OF DEADFOLK. If you already have that (bless you), I'll, er... Hey, I'll send you a signed copy of FAGS AND LAGER (when it comes out in May). (Or whenever I get it.)

Oh yeah, jam sandwiches... Well, the season of goodwill and wasting company time is nigh, so check out this.

Graveyard of Ambition

Monday, December 6

Swansea, that ugly, lovely town out there on the Welsh coast, was where I got my education (such as it was). Dylan Thomas liked it well enough (with reservations), and personally I love the place. Anyway, if you're in the UK you can get a look of the town in the new TV series "Mine All Mine". I've seen a bit of the show and it's alright. It's just not the side of Swansea I knew. If they had included more alcoholics and small-time drug dealers, shot a few scenes in squats and local police stations, and had a sub-plot about a strange fungus that grows under the kitchen sink and slowly takes over the house, I might recognise the place. Seriously though, Swansea is a special place.

Many thanks to Mark Jones for writing this little interviewish piece on me and the books for the Swansea University alumnus magazine.

Just found this, on Al Guthrie's site. You've got to love those pulp-style covers. Hard case crime do a whole raft of them. Anyway, take in the blurbs for KISS HER GOODBYE and look forward to it in March next year.

Finally, a book I've just read is THE BIG BLIND by Ray Banks, and I'd like to recommend it heartily to anyone who likes one (or all) of:

	noir fiction
	books set in Manchester
	books involving an identifiable central character who loses it and keep on losing it

It's about Allan, a double-glazing salesman (told you it was noir) blessed with one of those bad news friends you just can't shake off. THE BIG BLIND is dirty, uneasy, nasty, compulsively readable. And it's from Point Blank Press, a publisher dedicated to keeping a steady flow of hardboiled and noir on the market. Check it out.

Some Things

Friday, November 26

French rights to DEADFOLK have gone to Gallimard, so expect to see a translation coming out there in due course. (Good luck to the translator.) Gallimard is the publisher of the world-famous Serie Noire imprint, which did the likes of Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson, Chester Himes, James M. Cain back in the day, and more recently Ken Bruen. Hey!

Talking of Bruen, I have written a review of his seminal crime novel RILKE ON BLACK (soon to be reissued by Serpent's Tail). Check out the review here. Also check out the other great new stuff at Noir Originals, including a superb interview with Bruen (conducted skillfully by Ray Banks).

Great film I've seen recently (to borrow Jason Starr's expression): Fitzcarraldo, directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski. You just cannot get away with this kind of stuff anymore. Plot: guy likes opera and is a bit manic, so decides (naturally) that his life's ambition is to build a grand opera house deep in the Amazon jungle. To achieve this, he decides to exploit a tract of plantation land that no one has yet been able to reach. The answer: getting a load of locals to drag your ship up a mountain and down the other side. But forget the plot - the movie looks and feels awesome, and, in a Joseph Conrad kind of way, the journey up the Amazon takes you to a place you don't normally get. Noirish ending too. Other Herzog/Kinski films to check out: Aguirre, Wrath of God, and of course Nosferatu.

A question for you: does anyone know of a subtitled region 2 DVD of Bertrand Tavernier's Coup de Torchon? Or do you have a VHS copy you might want to trade?

Soon I will have some arse-clenchingly exciting news about festival appearances next year, so STAY TUNED.

FAGS AND STUFF

Tuesday, November 16

Allow me to present the cover image of my next novel, FAGS AND LAGER. The book won't be out until next May but I couldn't resist posting this here anyway. Dunno about you, but it makes me thirsty just looking at it. The artist - Sheridan Wall - also did the cover of DEADFOLK. Info and pre-ordering here. Other stuff I'm doing... Listening to... I SEE A DARKNESS by Will Oldham (or Bonny Prince Billy or whatever he's calling himself today); THE WHITE ALBUM, The Beatles; SLEEPING WITH GHOSTS, Placebo. Reading... by . Oh, this is bleak. I think I'm past the worst of it though so I can drive on through to the end. Next up: THE BIG BLIND by Ray Banks. Writing... a novel. I've got a week off to nail the middle section. I'm off to do it now...

Sherry Wood Finish

Tuesday, November 9

Hey there. Not much to report news-wise or event-wise. There's something festivally pencilled in for earlyish next year, but I don't want to mention it here in case I end up not getting invited. Shortly after that (May) will see the publication of my second novel, FAGS AND LAGER. There's already an Amazon page for it here , in case you want to pre-order. No cover image yet but there's a little synopsis there.

While you're on Amazon you might want to consider Deadfolk, if you haven't already. If you have, allow me to shake your hand. Feel free to drop a quick Amazon review on that page, if you feel like it. Or the Amazon USA page if you're over that way. End of plug.

Hey, a little ambition of mine has been achieved. A short story of mine - "alt.fan" - has got an "honourable mention" in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. I wrote it few years ago but it only got published last year in the now-defunct Roadworks magazine. I think of it as my David Bowie story. Obviously it would have been better if the whole story got a reprint in there, but hey. As the scousers say, I'm fuckin' made up!

Whisky etc

Friday, October 22

Here's a photo of the Birmingham Book Festival event at The Glee Club last night. It was great, and I got a bottle of whisky out of it (soon to be deceased). Cheerses to everyone who went.

By the way, the bloke on the right is Andy Newsham, who has a collaboration book called Dreams Never End coming out shortly from Tindal Street Press (edited by Nick Royle). The launch party is on November 4th at The Custard Factory, Birmingham. So try to make it if you're around Brum that day. I'll be there. If you need more info, mail me. The one in the middle is of course Mark Billingham, who is nearly as tall as me. His latest book The Burning Girl is in a bookshop near you.

Readers Respond

Tuesday, October 19

As of now, readers of this page can respond to the shit I write here. (Not that you necessarily will. But you can.) Yes, I have worked out how to get those little things, which you will see at the foot of every post hereafter. Smart eh? I still can't work out how to get a proper blog on here though.

Brum

Friday, October 15

Anyone in the vicinity of Birmingham (England) next Thursday (21 October) - do try to pop along to The Glee Club (not far from New Street). Mark Billingham and myself will be there as part of the Orange Birmingham Book Festival, reading from our books, talking about crime and the like, and drinking whisky.

Yes, whisky. There's apparently a whisky sponsor. I'm not sure what that means to you, but to me it means I'll be drinking a lot of the stuff that evening. After my commitments have been fulfilled, you understand.

More about it here. Hope to see you there.

Silverware

Wednesday, October 13

A big, big congrats to Ken Bruen and Jason Starr, who brought home a Barry and a Shamus award respectively from this year's BoucherCon. Mucho deserved in both cases.

(And about fucking time.)

Twat

Tuesday, October 5

Did you see that? Probably not, but you might have. (I posted the wrong home page here for a few hours - hence the title up there.) Anyway, while I'm here I might as well say a few words on what I've been up to. Well, yesterday I went to France on a booze cruise, which was laughs aplenty, but not the same as the old days.... days... days...

When I was younger and at Kent Uni I went on a booze cruise with a friend, taking the train down from Canterbury. We were drinking hard and relentlessly from the moment we got on that boat (about 10am). I'm not going into details (and my memory of the escapade is shaky anyway) but let's just say I broke a lot of laws that day (French readers - don't worry, they were mostly on the way home) and I still can't believe I didn't spend some time inside for it. But law-breaking is nothing compared to the emotional damage you do to hearts and minds when you get back to Canterbury and your shit-faced mate (who is actually way beyond shit-faced but still seems reassuringly sober to you) persuades you that Girl X fancies you and you should go round her place RIGHT NOW and SEIZE THE DAY.

If he dies, he dies...

Wednesday, September 22

I have nothing to report. Nothing to do with me anyway. I'm only posting this now because someone shouted at me and said I ought to update the site, otherwise people will start worrying about me and wondering if I'm OK.

Well, I'm OK. Thanks for worrying. But what about you? Are you OK? You sure? You're not, are you. Well relax - I've got just the thing...

In a jam? Bullied at school? Council planning to shut down the local youth centre? Call on Mr T.

Other exciting news... Check out this guy's idea for Rocky VI. Class eh? He's got it all covered.

Sylvester - if you're reading this (and I know you are)... please please please... just make Rocky VI. Don't worry about not getting a Hollywood studio involved - just go with an independant. Rocky needs to get out there one more time. People need to fight the fight through him. Rocky Balboa has the capacity to change the world for the better. Just look at Rocky IV - he single-handedly engineered the fall of communism. Who knows what he could do now? Actually that gives me an idea. Sylvester, I'll be in touch...

All-star Line-up (and Charlie Williams)

Saturday, August 28

I've been lucky so far with reading events. I got to read with John Williams last weekend. In October I'm lining up alongside Mark Billingham. And then this other gig comes along out of the blue, and it's rather special (to put it mildly).

If you're in London in early November (date to be confirmed) you WILL NOT want to miss this.

OK, details.... The venue: The Boogaloo in Highgate, North London. The line-up... This guy. This guy. And then me, pulling up the rear so to speak.

I shit you not.

As far as I'm concered Ken Bruen is right at the top of the crime fiction tree. And David Soul... the guy is a fucking LEGEND. THEY ARE BOTH FUCKING LEGENDS. David will be singing. Ken will be reading from The Dramatist or American Skin. I will of course be doing my Deadfolk thing.

Call me the support act, that's fine by me. I'll announce the firm date here when I hear it myself, so keep checking this site if you're interested. And, come on, WHO WOULDN'T be interested? I'd be there as a punter even if I wasn't jammy enough to get on the bill. David Soul and Ken Bruen? Come on...

And remember - you get the free pint if you turn up at the Boogaloo and tell me you heard it here.

Stuff

Friday, August 20

Many thanks to Sarah Weinman for letting me have a go on her blog for three days last week. It was an education, and really quite knackering.

I have a new policy regarding public reading events. If you come to one of these things, mention this website to me and I will buy you a beer (or whatever). Can't say fairer than that can I? If it's in a non-alcoholic venue we'll just have to find a workaround. There are three chances left this year to call me on this. Two are listed on the events page (one being tomorrow). The other is in London and hasn't been arranged yet. Let's just say I will be the guest of two rather special individuals.

Intrigued? You flipping well should be. More details when I have them.

Blogging and another festival

Friday, August 6

Sarah Weinman has graciously invited me to guest at her fabulous crime fiction-oriented blog, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind. I'll be taking the reins Wednesday through Friday next week (11-13 Aug), so do drop in. Currently crime novelist Robert Ferrigno is having a crack at it. Check him out. And look out for other guests there this month.

I will be reading at the Green Man Festival, which is held near Hay-on-Wye on the weekend of 21/22 Aug. I'll be on the first day. Also appearing will be John Williams (read a great interview with him here). More details when I have them.

Reviews and events

Tuesday, July 20

Deadfolk has been getting some nice press. "He makes the insipid heroes of lad lit look like a bunch of big girls' blouses," says Rachel Hore in The Guardian, of Deadfolk narrator Royston Blake. Read more reviews here.

Also there's a new entry on the events page: the Birmingham Book Festival, a double-header with crime novelist Mark Billingham.

Signed Books

Friday, July 2

Anyone in the UK wanting a signed copy of Deadfolk can get it from Ottakars in Worcester (The Shambles), or Murder One in London (Charing Cross Road).

Alternatively you could go to the Big Chill Festival at the end of July and I'll sign one for you there (after you've heard me read from it).

And while I'm here, well done Greece. You've done yourselves proud.

Win Deadfolk

Sunday, June 6

Serpent's Tail have put up a Deadfolk Pub Quiz (along with a nice shot of a Ford Capri standing by a lake). Five copies of the book in question are up for grabs. And all you have to do is answer one little question. Piece of piss eh?

Reading Events

Wednesday, June 2

Details of a couple of reading events posted up in the events page. One at Ottakars Bookshop in Worcester on the 29th June (no footy that day), the other at The Big Chill Festival at Eastnor Deer Park in the Malvern Hills on 1st August. I expect people to travel from all over the world to get to these things. MAKE SURE YOU ARE ONE OF THEM.

CharlieWilliams.net goes online

Friday, May 14

For now there is really only one bit of news : Deadfolk - my first novel - will be out on June 3rd.

I'll be back with more news in the none-too-distant. So BOOKMARK THIS SITE. (Oh go on.)