Adrian Slatcher Online
Adrian Slatcher writes poetry, fiction and criticism, and lives in Manchester.
China Mieville
I first read China Mieville in an anthology of new “fabulist” writing (Conjunctions 39) and he stood out for me. I was surprised to find that he was a London-based writer, and also that his best known works were “fantasy” as its a genre I usually avoid. Reading “Perdido Street Station” his vast second novel was a revelation. Although his imagination is second to none, his books always feature strong characterisation and seem oblivious of the usual genre boundaries. This ability to rethink genre fiction was most apparent in his fascinating noir detective SF story “The City and the City”. Since that book he’s written a young adult novel “Kraken” and a new novel “Embassytown”. Unusually, Mieville is also a political theorist, and active in left-wing politics, and this adds a further dimension to his multi-layered work. Increasingly popular amongst a non-fantasy as well as a fantasy audience, he’s one of the most exciting talents in British fiction.
My review of “The City and the City”
Art of Fiction – Blogging About Literature
- 20 Years AgoThis weekend sees the students returning to Manchester and local kids giving up their summer jobs to head to other cities. It suddenly struck me that twenty years ago I was also starting at University of Manchester, for my M.A. in novel writing.In truth, I'd been prompted to memory by the documentaries about Princess Diana's death. I'd left my […]
- Day of the Locust by Nathanael West"Day of the Locust" is a novel that I've always been meaning to read, and despite its short length never quite got around to. A novel about Hollywood, by one of American fiction's sharpest literary observers, it didn't disappoint, though it wasn't the novel I'd been expecting.For in "Day of the Locust" published i […]
- 7 Towns in 7 DaysThere's an oft used cliche about southerners never venturing north of Watford, but there is, of course, the corollary to that, the northerners who've never ventured much further south than Euston. Take a look at the map of England and there are whole chunks at the edges, we're a geographically bulbous nation, and each of those bulges is a pote […]
- Last Days of the Midland by Adrian Slatcher
- Filling the Creative SpaceAs is my wont, I have been sidetracked from one of the many projects I should have been finishing, into a new little project that reached up and grabbed me last weekend. I started recording a long instrumental using just my Roland Juno 6 Synthesizer, and it ended up as a 25-minute piece reminiscent of the multiparted Tangerine Dream influenced electronica I […]
