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POSTHUMOUS MEMOIR OLIVER POSTGATE Seeing Things: A Memoir (Canongate) ●●●●●
When Charlie Brooker delivered a heartfelt five- minute tribute to Oliver Postgate in his Screenwipe show last year, his trademark acid-tongued sarcasm went right out the window. Instead, Mr Cynical looked like he might tear up as he remembered the ‘bloody lovely’ work of Postgate, one half of the tiny two- man team Smallfilms, which painstakingly produced The Clangers, Bagpuss and Ivor the Engine out of a shed in Kent.
Postgate’s autobiography, published a year after his death, reveals someone as modest, charming, downright wholesome and quirky as his kids shows were. Dreaming up musical trees, saggy cloth cats and grumpy professors to entertain a generation of now thirtysomething kids, there was an innocence and comforting kindness to his lo-fi work: a stark contrast to the screeching hyperactivity of corporate cartoons from this era. A wise and warm book from Britain’s favourite surrogate uncle, proving he’s just as good at storytelling for adults as children. (Claire Sawers)
NOIR PREQUEL JOE GORES Spade and Archer (Orion) ●●●●● It’s a tall order writing a prequel to one of the greatest American hardboiled crime novels. But if anyone was going to pull off a forerunner to Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon it was Joe Gores, like his predecessor, a war
zombie story with our protagonists holed up in a fire station in Oxford as the undead amass around them in a fairly generic apocalyptic scenario, but Grant packs in enough personality and action to keep interest high.
The art is particularly striking: as you’d expect from Bisley this is pretty graphic stuff with limbs, guts and gore filling the panels as zombies eviscerate our heroes. Bisley has always been at his best when depicting wholesale violence and The Dead really plays to his strengths. Fun, fast- paced and with an open ending which leaves you hungry for more. (Henry Northmore)
ALSO PUBLISHED
5 CHICKLIT PAPERBACKS Kate Harrison Old School Ties A reality TV show about the perfect school reunion gets the green light, but not everything goes according to plan. Orion. Evelyn Cosgrave Can I Tell You a Secret? From the Desperately Seeking author comes this tale of three sisters, each with something to hide, all descending on their gran. Penguin. Sarah Duncan A Single to Rome A dumped girl goes speed dating and ends up borrowing a guy’s flat in the Italian capital where she falls in love with more than just the ancient city. Review. Nia Pritchard More Than Just a Wedding In this follow-up to More Than Just a Hairdresser, an undercover sleuth finds it tricky juggling all her balls in the air. Honno Press. Zoe Barnes Return to Sender A woman gets massively broody when she goes to the christening of her sister’s kids, but could time have already run out on Holly Bennett? Piatkus.
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veteran, former private eye and celebrated crime writer. And then there’s Gores’ bio- fictional book Hammett, which was made into a film by Wim Wenders. Spade and Archer
opens in 1921 (just as Sam is setting up his own detective agency) and closes in 1928, shortly before the black bird makes its appearance. In those seven years we learn about Spade’s service in WWI, how Miles Archer stole his girl and then became his partner, the daily grind of his sleazy profession; in short, how Spade became the ruthless dick of the Falcon case. Gores makes a good stab of aping Hammett’s pared- down writing style and he peppers his pleasingly convoluted plot with plenty of knowing literary and biographical references. (Miles Fielder)
HORROR COMIC ALAN GRANT & SIMON BISLEY The Dead: Kingdom of Flies (Berserker) ●●●●●
Belfast comics label Berserker has managed to secure three of Britain’s major talents – writer Alan Grant, artist Simon Bisley and Glenn Fabry for covers – or their first title with the opening four issues of The Dead collected in this new trade paperback. Unsurprisingly, this is a
CRIME NOIR CATHI UNSWORTH Bad Penny Blues (Serpent’s Tail) ●●●●●
The raw materials of its storyline may sound well-worn, but there’s something about the textured layers of Cathi Unsworth’s third novel that effortlessly draw the reader into the dark and disturbing environment she creates. Using 1960s London as her backdrop, chapters oscillate between the turbulent consciousness of up-and-coming fashion designer Stella, and the keen detective nous of young policeman Pete Bradley, with remarkable narrative ease. Slowly the tension escalates until we find ourselves embedded in a world in which prostitutes are viciously slain while fascists and immigrants come nose to nose, as Pete and Stella try to make sense of the troubled capital in a new decade. In Bad Penny Blues, Unsworth lives up to her growing reputation as one of the UK’s stars of noir crime fiction, combining hardboiled prose with vivid characters and a lucid sense of place. Here, her previous work as a music journalist comes to the fore, with each chapter named after a song from the era while due attention is paid to the musical and artistic experimentation for which the 1960s is well known. Occasionally the convincing cityscape that Unsworth paints threatens to be undermined by the odd hackneyed phrase, but the unblinking confidence of her writing means that she not only creates a genuinely chilling atmosphere but is even able to leave loose ends hanging at the novel’s conclusion without the reader feeling unsatisfied. The end result is a wholly absorbing thriller, heralding an accomplished author who could soon become a stalwart of the British crime scene. (Yasmin Sulaiman)
CRIME THRILLER CJ BOX Three Weeks to Say Goodbye (Corvus) ●●●●● He’s a rising star of crime writing in the States, but it’s only a matter of time before CJ Box explodes onto the UK’s radar, thanks in no small part to this storming British debut. Three Weeks to Say Goodbye is a smart place to start for any newcomer to the award-winning author’s work, as it tells of a
These splendidly rendered characters are irrevocably changed by a series of traumatic events; trouble brews and ultimately unfolds through tense, punchily written paragraphs to reveal an even more sinister undercurrent. It’s family and friends versus power and money here, as the lines between right and wrong are blurred in the most clever and intoxicating of ways, time running out with each frantic turn of the page. (Camilla Pia)
plucky young couple’s attempt to take on the power and might of the corrupt US justice system in a bitter fight to keep their recently adopted daughter.