Unbound Catalogue Autumn 2020 by Unbound

Autumn 2020

The Coming Age of Imagination / Phil Teer 978-1-78352-593-5 / £10.99

Mud, Maul, Mascara / Catherine Spencer 978-1-78352-813-4 / £18.99

The Fully Charged Guide to Electric Vehicles & Clean Energy Robert Llewellyn / 978-1-78352-858-5 / £16.99

One Hundred and Fifty-Two Days / Giles Paley-Phillips 978-1-78352-770-0 / £12.99

The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya / Reimena Yee 978-1-78352-577-5 / £22.99

Eileen: The Making of George Orwell / Sylvia Topp 978-1-78352-708-3 / £25.00

A Curious History of Sex / Kate Lister 978-1-78352-805-9 / £25.00

SPRING 2020 HIGHLIGHTS

Unbound Unit 18 Waterside 44â&#x20AC;&#x201C;48 Wharf Road London N1 7UX Tel. 020 7253 4230 For a full list of contacts visit www.unbound.com Head of Sales Julian Mash julian@unbound.com Head of Rights Ilona Chavasse ilona@unbound.com Head of Publicity Amy Winchester amy@unbound.com To order any of the books in this catalogue please contact your PGUK rep. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re unsure who that is, contact Julian Mash at julian@unbound.com.

Dear Reader, Welcome to our biannual catalogue, showcasing the books we are publishing between July and December 2020. As usual you will find extracts and interviews in the front half, with a full listing of the books at the back. Compiling this catalogue during the lockdown, amid so much uncertainty, it feels good to be looking forward and sharing some of the wonderful books we have coming up. July sees the publication of The Unwinding and Other Dreamings, from the supremely talented Jackie Morris, truly one of the most beautiful books we have ever published. Following in the ancient tradition of Sei Shōnagon, this book contains fragments of stories, part prose, part poetry: they are catalysts for dreaming. It is designed to be a portal, a talisman, inviting readers to enter its world through word and image. This book could not come at a more necessary moment, and you can see an extract on pages 11–19. From the dreamlike world of The Unwinding to the wild and anarchic imagination of Jim Moir, better known as Vic Reeves, his legendary comedy persona. Jim Moir’s true passion has always been art, and we are thrilled to be publishing Vic Reeves Art Book in September, the definitive survey of Jim’s visual work, collecting more than 200 images, from early pieces to brand-new creations exclusive to the book. Go to page 6 to find out more. For the history scholars among you, we have Stick a Flag in It, out in October. This thousand-year jocular journey through the history of Britain and its global empire takes us from the Norman invasion to the eve of the First World War. From the brain behind the hit YouTube channel Thoughty2, it would make the ideal Christmas gift for history buffs! October also sees the publication of A Guide to Modernism in MetroLand. This essential pocket guide to the modernist architecture of London’s suburbs is filled with maps of each area, tips on what to look out for and nuggets of fascinating information. You can see some examples on pages 26–31. The fascinating Virtual Cities: An Atlas and Exploration of Video Game Cities is published in November. The first atlas of its kind, it documents the rich history and geography of iconic video game settings,

from metropolitan sci-fi open worlds to medieval fantasy towns, contemporary cities to gothic horror landscapes. Through original maps, ink drawings and insightful commentary and analysis, author Konstantinos Dimopoulos brings these imaginary worlds to life. You can take a peek inside by turning to page 38. Our fiction highlights include Jude Cook’s Jacob’s Advice, published in August. Set in the Paris of 2015, the novel follows two cousins, Larry and Nick, as they explore their long-hidden identity against the backdrop of the terrorist attacks of that year. Jude takes us on three walking tours to the book’s main locations on pages 50–51. August also sees the publication of Aidan McQuade’s thrilling The Undiscovered Country. We follow two IRA detectives as they attempt to solve the killing of a young boy during the Irish War of Independence. We have a publishing first in September with Longhand by comedy legend and author Andy Hamilton. The book reproduces 300 pages of handwritten manuscript, which we discover is a letter from protagonist Malcolm George Galbraith. Malcolm is a large, somewhat clumsy, Scotsman who is being forced to leave the woman he loves behind and needs to explain why. The note explains all, telling his whole life story with some startling revelations. These are just some of the highlights from our autumn season. You can find all these books in your local bookshop, and if you are interested in hosting an event, do drop us a line. Happy Reading, Julian Mash, Head of Sales

CONTENTS Vic Reeves Art Book

Wild and wonderful art from the comedian, writer and artist

The Unwinding and Other Dreamings

Jackie Morris’s stunningly illustrated pillow book

The Coincidence of Novembers

Sandy Nairne discusses the legacy of his father, Sir Patrick Nairne

6 11 20

Touring with Fuck Yeah, Video Games

A look back at the hugely popular book tour for the Sunday Times bestselling memoir

A Guide to Modernism in Metro-Land

The essential guide to modernist architecture in London’s suburbs

Henry VIII Hosts Medieval Glastonbury

A thousand-year jocular journey through British History

The Undiscovered Country

An interview with author Aidan McQuade

Virtual Cities

A richly illustrated atlas of video game cities

24 26 32 35 38

Paris, Mon Amour

Walk through Paris with Jacob’s Advice author Jude Cook as your guide

The Little Girl Who Gave Zero Fucks

Elodie-Rose is a brave young girl who one day decides to change the world

Reasons My Cat is Mad

A Brazilian illustrator gives her poorly drawn cats a forever home in this collection

Boundless: Just Civil Partnered!

Emily Jupp on why a heterosexual civil partnership felt right for her

New Titles: Autumn

July to December 2020

New Titles: Digital

July to December 2020

Shelfie: Tom Hodgkinson

A peek at the writer’s bookshelf

58 62 71 91 94

VIC REEVES ART BOOK Though best known for his legendary comedy persona Vic Reeves, Jim Moir’s true passion has always been art. Vic Reeves Art Book is the definitive survey of Jim’s wildly imaginative visual work, collecting more than 200 images, from early pieces to brand-new creations exclusive to the book. Here are just a few of the Dada-esque delights that await you within its pages. . .

Find Vic Reeves Art Book on page 80

THE UNWINDING AND OTHER DREAMINGS Jackie Morris, illustrator of the Sunday Times bestselling The Lost Words, shares an extract from her gorgeous new pillow book, The Unwinding and Other Dreamings. Following in the ancient tradition of Sei ShĂľnagon, this book contains fragments of stories, part prose, part poetry: they are catalysts for dreaming. It is designed to be a portal, a talisman, inviting readers to enter its world through word and image.

THE UNWINDING D I R E C T I O N S : Take one story last thing at night before bed, then tuck the book beneath your pillow. For use in daytime, carry in a pocket or a bag. Extra stories may be taken during times of stress. THERE IS NO DANGER OF OVERDOSE. SIDE EFFECTS: Can cause time to escape, bring relaxation to some, encourage dreams in others. Sharing the stories with others does not reduce potency, but can enrich the eďŹ&#x20AC;ects, especially when spoken aloud. Can be safely consumed by all ages and is also suitable for cats, dogs and other creatures. APOTHECARY nr. PEMBROKESHIRE w e s t wa l e s

shape dreams

of The i

whiTe Bear

When they spoke, the bear and the woman, it was often in questions. ‘What are the shapes of your dreams?’ she asked him. ‘What do you mean?’ he replied. ‘Many things in one question . . . what is the language of your dreams? and, when you dream, do you dream in words, images? and, when you dream, are your dreams colour, black and white, or colours known only to dreamers? are they visions, or something else?’ He asked, ‘Something else?’ ‘Are they chemical, scent, touch? What shape do your dreams take? Do they have narrative, or are they abstract?’ He closed his eyes, became lost in thought. For a while there was silence but for the sound of birds, the soft breath of hares, a stir of winter leaves.

Later, as the moon rose and tangled in the winter-bone branches of thorn trees, she asked, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Can you guide your dreaming? can you move your dreams along pathways of desire? do your dreams shift in the spaces between dreaming and waking? and, when you wake, do you remember the pathways your dreaming mind has walked? or do your dreams dissolve in the light of each new day?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; She could not tell now if he was asleep or awake, if her words were a lullaby. And still she had more questions.

‘Do you dream when you are awake? do you imagine in words, in images? do you wander the pathways of what might have been, what might yet be and all that you might become? what is the shape of your imagination? are dreams important to you, part of the pattern of your soul?’ ‘Why do you wish to know?’ he replied. For a long time she searched her heart for an answer. ‘To better understand the geography of my heart; how it fits with the pattern of yours,’ she said.

Find The Unwinding and Other Dreamings on page 73

THE COINCIDENCE OF NOVEMBERS Writings from a life of public service by Sir Patrick Nairne

Sir Patrick Nairne’s son, writer and curator Sandy Nairne, has assembled an astonishing range of his father’s work, from autobiographical diary extracts to watercolours and meditations on a life in public service. Here he gives us some insight to the significance of his father’s work and the extraordinary life he led. ‘A remarkable collection: moving, wise and informative’ Andrew Motion Who was Sir Patrick Nairne? My father, Patrick Nairne, was a widely admired civil servant who spent many years working in Defence before becoming permanent secretary in charge of the huge Department of Health and Social Security in the turbulent period of the later 1970s. He was appointed Master of St Catherine’s College, Oxford in 1981 and, among other roles, became a member of the Falkland Islands Review Committee, and in 1984 was appointed to monitor consultation with the people of Hong Kong about arrangements for reunification with China. He had fought in the Second World War with the Seaforth Highlanders and was seen as one of a generation of talented public servants determined to rebuild post-war Britain. Pat had wide cultural interests, wrote with a fine italic hand and was a talented watercolourist. In later life he was a trustee of many charities and foundations. Why is this collection of his writings significant? Before settling on a career in the Civil Service, Pat thought he might become a writer. He set down his own accounts of fighting in North Africa and Sicily and later, when ill with tuberculosis, wrote sections of an autobiography. On retirement he picked up this thread and drafted chapters relating to significant elements of his life. It became clear after his death in 2013, as I was sorting through his papers, that there was enough material of wider interest to make a book. I have added an introduction to the book as well as at the start of each section, chronologically ordered, together with a timeline and a bibliography. 20

I was keen to reproduce some of my fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s beautiful landscape watercolours and was delighted that Unbound was enthusiastic about making sections with colour plates. Which three events do you think your father would have picked out as the highlights of his life and career? First, I think wartime service in his twenties. As for so many of his generation, it affected his whole life. His account of the Battle of the Sferro Hills exemplifies this. He was awarded the Military Cross for his bravery in the Sicilian campaign. Secondly, his marriage. He met Penny Bridges, a fellow student, when he returned to Oxford after the war, and they married in 1949. This was a lifelong partnership, with six children (and eventually twelve grandchildren), and a crucial counterpoint to the demands of working in Whitehall. My parents shared a strong Christian faith and a love of literature, but stuck each to their own choice of tea, always making pots of both Chinese and Indian. As for the third, there are various significant events â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from early days in the Admiralty to his chairmanship of the first Nuffield Council on 21

Bioethics – that he might have picked from his working life. But his oversight of the first referendum in 1975 on membership of the European Community stands out. It meant he became closely engaged with all the advantages and disadvantages of holding referendums and how they should be properly regulated – something that feels pertinent in present political circumstances. What does The Coincidence of Novembers mean? My father came to believe that the most significant things that happened to him took place in November. This included proposing to my mother in November 1947. So he invented this phrase ‘The Coincidence of Novembers’ and wrote about these months and their key events; they now form the central spine of this book. How is Patrick Nairne’s legacy seen today? Civil servants work mostly behind the scenes and are rarely prominent in the media. When they do appear it is unusual for them to get positive coverage. Yet they are central to the operation of the country. Although politicians like to believe they are the key players, when thinking about 22

what has (or hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t) made Britain successful a broader historical view should encompass everyone who was part of making change. My father believed passionately in the importance of modernised and efficient public services responding to public needs beyond the whims or shortterm goals of politicians. I hope that The Coincidence of Novembers will underline the importance of integrity as a core value at the heart of public service. Perhaps the book will also promote the idea that the arts should in some form be available to be part of everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives, something about which my father cared greatly.

Find The Coincidence of Novembers on page 72

TOURING WITH FUCK YEAH, VIDEO GAMES Behind the scenes of an Unbound publicity tour, with Head of Publicity Amy Winchester In September 2019, we took author Dan Hardcastle on a whistlestop national tour to support the publication of Dan’s first-ever book, Fuck Yeah, Video Games. A memoir and an ode to video gaming and geek culture, the book attracted over 9,000 pledges on Unbound, crowdfunded in a record-breaking 45 minutes and became a Sunday Times bestseller. Dan is the man behind NerdCubed, the hugely popular YouTube gaming channel that boasts more than 2.5 million subscribers, so we knew there were plenty of fans out there waiting to meet him. Over publication week, Amy took Dan and his partner Rebecca Maughan, the book’s illustrator, to Waterstones and Forbidden Planet stores across the country, from Edinburgh to London. At each stop, hundreds of fans queued for hours (often outside in the cold!) to get their books signed, deliver fan art and meet their heroes. . .

Find Fuck Yeah, Video Games on page 81

A GUIDE TO MODERNISM IN METRO-LAND From Barnet to Richmond, explore the history of London’s Metro-Land

Joshua Abbott’s popular website, Modernism in Metro-Land, has led to this essential pocket guide to the modernist architecture of London’s suburbs. With maps of each area, tips on what to look out for and nuggets of fascinating information, this is an exciting way to explore the city’s modernist heritage. M2

Crews Hill

M25

Bull’s Cross

A1 00 5

Turkey Street

A11

2 kilometres 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Arnos Grove Station Southgate Station Oakwood Station Cockfosters Station Bowes Road Clinic Caretaker’s House De Bohun School, Library and Clinic

Bounds Green

Wood Green 8. Abbotshall Avenue 9. Ripaults Factory 10. Ellington Court 11. Christ the King 12. Grange Park Methodist Church 13. Edmonton Fire Station 14. Queen Elizabeth II Stadium

A105

A406

Silver Street

Bowes Park

Edmonton Green

A10 5

A40

A406

A40

Edmonton

White Hart Lane A1

Angel Road

A1010

1 mile

Palmers Green

10 Arnos Grove 1 5 6

New Southgate

16 A1

Winchmore Hill

A10

A1000

A406

Southgate

Southbury

1 A1

Woodside Park

Friern Barnet

Brunswick Park

Bush Hill Park

A100

East Barnet

A110

A10

Enﬁeld World’s Chase End 3 Oakwood Grange 7 11 Park 12

A105

Totteridge & A109 Whetstone

Enﬁeld

Cockfosters 4

Oakleigh Park

Forty Hill

Gordon Hill

New Barnet

A10

Clay Hill

A101

A11

Hadley 18 Wood

Northumberland Park

15. Enfield Civic Centre 16. St Alphege Church and Vicarage 17. Ridge Avenue Library 18. Bartrams Lane 19. Water Tower

ENFIELD Like many of the other boroughs in this book, enfield has an industrial half and a more suburban half. The industrial area takes in edmonton and parts of enfield, with the more suburban area between Southgate and Grange Park. Until the start of the twentieth century, enfield was quite rural. But with the extension of the railways and the building of the Great Northern Road, factories and houses came quickly to the area. Architecturally, enfield has many interesting modernist buildings, particularly those built for the public good – schools, libraries, health clinics and tube stations. Indeed, in the Piccadilly Line stations of Arnos Grove and Southgate, it has two of the best modernist buildings in the country. elsewhere are great examples of the work of Curtis and Burchett for Middlesex County Council between the wars, of which enfield was the eastern boundary until 1965. Post World War II, Curtis and Burchett’s work was continued by C. G. Stillman, who designed a number of schools in the borough. The pre-1965 edmonton Borough architects’ department under T. A. Wilkinson was also quite radical for its time, building new housing in precast concrete panels with a direct labour organisation, something that boroughs like Camden would take on in the 1960s and 1970s. There are also some good examples of the differing scales of post-war modernism: a monolithic concrete water tower in Cockfosters by the firm of Scherrer and Hicks, and nearby, on a smaller scale, some flat-roofed houses in Hadley Wood by Douglas and Mary Craig.

27 A Guide to Modernism in Metro-land_setting.indd 49

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EN fIEL D

ARNOS GROVE STATION

SOUTHGATE STATION

1932 Grade II*

1933 Grade II*

N11 1AN

N14 5BH

both Charles Holden

A Guide to Modernism in Metro-land_setting.indd 50

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ENfIELD

We start at the top, with two of the best modernist buildings in Britain, let alone Metro-Land. These stations were part of the Piccadilly Line extension to Cockfosters (see haringey p.61) and perfectly illustrate Charles Holden’s balance between modernism and arts and crafts; simple, functional, design with considered use of local materials. Arnos Grove is formed of a circular booking hall on a square base, designed to allow passenger flow and creating an impressive interior space. A single concrete pillar supports the roof, with the original passimeter ticket office still at the base. one of Holden’s most distinctive stations, Southgate is a low circular structure, often compared to a UFo. The roof tapers to a point and is topped with five circular lights that slide open and shut, with a ball on top. Inside, as at Arnos Grove, a single concrete pole supports the roof, with a passimeter at the base. There is an integrated bus station, with a long, curved, shopping parade, allowing buses to circulate into the station from the road. The exterior also features the wonderful masts that were designed to combine lighting, seating and timetables.

OAKWOOD STATION 1933

Grade II*

C. H. James

Initially called enfield West, before being renamed oakwood in 1946, this station was designed by C. H. James in a simple ‘Sudbury Box’ design. It is reminiscent of Acton Town, but with a larger canopy at the front. A bus station had been intended as part of the design but was dropped due to low passenger numbers. The platform features cantilevered concrete canopies, designed by Stanley Heaps. C. H. James was an architect better known for his house designs, especially in Welwyn Garden City. Cockfosters is the end of the Piccadilly line extension, originally

N14 4UT

COCKFOSTERS STATION 1933

Grade II

Charles Holden EN4 0DZ 51

29 A Guide to Modernism in Metro-land_setting.indd 51

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ENfIELD

planned as a much grander terminusstyle building, with towers either side of the road. It is one of Holden’s stations where the beauty is underground, much like Gants Hill. The station features a long low station building, with a subway entrance opposite. The ticket hall and platform areas are often likened to a church, due to the long nave-like shape and clerestory windows. The use of plain, board-marked concrete points the way to post-war architectural styles such as brutalism. The original plan allowed for an extension to incorporate two parades of shops, a staff building, a garage and even potentially a cinema. However the expected passenger traffic did not materialise, and the station remains as opened in 1933.

The Bowes Road complex, which features a swimming pool, library and health centre, was designed and built between 1935 and 1940, designed by Curtis and Burchett for Middlesex County Council. The heavy influence of Dutch architecture, in particular Willem Dudok, can be seen here, especially in the design for the library with its central staircase tower and brown brick construction. The swimming pool is a single-storey building with an oval foyer and a circular concrete skylight. The medical clinic was completed last of the three buildings, and is laid out in an L-shape plan that steps upwards to a tall brick chimney. Just around the corner is the squat brick caretaker’s house to Broomfield School, another Curtis and Burchett design.

DE BOHUN SCHOOL, LIBRARY AND CLINIC 1936–9

Grade II

Curtis and Burchett

— O Oakwood N14 4AD BOWES ROAD CLINIC 1935–40

Grade II

N11 1BD

CARETAKER’S HOUSE 1938

both Curtis and Burchett

— O both Arnos Grove N14 7HX 52

30 A Guide to Modernism in Metro-land_setting.indd 52

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ENfIELD

More Middlesex County Council modernism, with a site that combines a school, library and clinic, typical of the interwar idea of combined services. The school was built first, and has a heavily horizontal emphasis with windows and continuous concrete cornices across the first and second floor. This horizontality is punctured by the ubiquitous staircase tower. Next door is the library and health clinic building (now a nursery school), also in red brick, with stepped floors around the central tower, and heavy overhanging eaves.

Whitehouse Way (actually in Barnet) is another group of flat-roofed, streamline houses probably built for the Davis estates company.

RIPAULTS FACTORY 1936

Grade II

A. H. Durnford Southbury EN1 1TH one of the only remaining modernist examples of enfieldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s many factories and industrial buildings from the first half of the twentieth century. This factory, originally built for the Ripaults cable company, has a sleek, streamlined style with a long horizontal building and a short rectangular tower, along with chrome strips and black trim for decoration. The many

ABBOTSHALL AVENUE 1936

Frank Woodward Arnos Grove N14 7JU A group of nine art deco-style houses designed by Frank Woodward, who along with his brother Charles also acted as developer for the scheme. As with many modernist speculative houses from the interwar period, they were built in brick and rendered white to give the impression of concrete. This was often done as at the time, many smaller building firms did not have the requisite technical expertise to build in concrete. Nearby in

factories and industrial sites that lined the Great Cambridge Road and others have gradually been demolished and replaced with retail parks and offices since the 1980s.

ELLINGTON COURT 1936

Frederick Gibberd Southgate N14 6LB 53

Find A Guide to Modernism in Metro-Land on page 83 A Guide to Modernism in Metro-land_setting.indd 53

31 13/01/2020 14:34

HENRY VIII HOSTS MEDIEVAL GLASTONBURY From the Norman invasion to the eve of the First World War, Stick a Flag in It is a thousand-year jocular journey through the history of Britain and its global empire, from the man behind the hit YouTube channel Thoughty2. I love Britain and I especially love the people – they’re eccentric, occasionally ingenious and at all times fucking bonkers. As you go with me on this journey through the past, you will discover, as I did, that nothing has changed – the people who inhabit this island have always been unhinged, from mad monarchs to mass-murdering lepers. In Stick a Flag in It I will show you how they harnessed that trait to forge the British nation, and indeed the world, that we know today. Or at the very least you’ll discover Henry VIII’s favourite arse-wipe, whether the flying alchemist ever made it from Scotland to France, and the connection between Victorian coffee houses and dildos. *** On a misty October morning in 1517 in the sleepy German village of Wittenberg, a theological iconoclast, Martin Luther, nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the doors of All Saints’ Church. The Protestant Reformation had begun, a mighty tide of ideology that would shake the foundations of Catholic Europe and rip apart its most cherished institutions for many centuries. Little did he know it at the time, but for a recently crowned king in England, this mighty schism would come to define his historic legacy. You may have heard of him, the rock star of English history, Henry VIII. If the infamous king was to star in his own HBO drama, he would be introduced as ‘Henry of the House of Tudor, the eighth of his name, the competitive king of the English, the Welsh and the French, breaker of papal chains, reformer of religion, beheader of wives and consumer 32

of pies’. At least, this is the image we all have of Henry, a reckless tyrant. But truthfully, when we dig a little deeper, we discover a man of unexpected complexity, enormous personal strife, an undulating symphony of remarkable intelligence, shifting loyalties and shocking stupidity. But if there was a single characteristic that was the most influential on all his actions, it was, no doubt, his ego. At no time did he let his ego run so wild as in 1520, only eleven years into his reign, at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. It was a grand diplomatic summit, organised by Henry’s loyal servant Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, intended to improve bonds of friendship and peace between Henry and his most direct rival, King Francis I of France. Both kings may have pretended it was a diplomatic event, but both being of the same ambitious young age, and ruling two of the most powerful neighbouring countries in Europe, they were intensely curious of each other. The secret intention of each man was to get a measure of the other’s might, wealth and personality. The sheer scale and pomposity of the Field of the Cloth of Gold was an ostentatious testament to the men’s insecurities, and it demonstrated to what levels and huge personal expense both men would go to show that theirs was the most powerful nation in Europe. Wolsey choreographed the meeting precisely. It was to take place at the very edge of England’s tiny patch of French territory, south-east of Calais. It was set in the basin of a grassy valley, and the opposing summits were intensively landscaped to make them equally level, at the expense of huge manpower, just so that when each king rode atop their designated precipice, they would both stand at precisely equal elevations, ensuring not an inch of grassy knoll provided either man with a height advantage to look down upon the other, across the pensive gorge of a potential alliance. Over 2,800 tents were erected for the various courtiers and servants to stay in during the seventeen-day summit. Many of the tents were woven with cloth of gold – a fabric of eye-watering cost, consisting of silk and gold thread. Standing above the valley, looking down, the eyes would have been dazzled as the sun bounced relentlessly between the gold tents, the entire landscape glittering with wealth and splendour. Henry, in particular, made extensive efforts to splurge his wealth and demonstrate his manhood. A huge temporary palace was erected to serve only this event: 10,000 square metres, with a large central courtyard, it sat on a specially made brick base, two metres high. On the palace’s porch, two large fountains were built that flowed with red wine throughout the entire event, providing endless heady lubricant to the festivities. 33

The days were long and joyous with a festival-like atmosphere. There was ample music to entertain the jaunty crowds, and they enjoyed limitless wine. There was a flurry of tournaments; both kings were eager to show off their skills on the tiltyard. Henry threw himself so ferociously into the joust that his horse died from exhaustion. If there was ever a medieval version of Glastonbury, it was the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Initially, the event proved successful: it seemed like diplomatic progress was being made and new ties were being steadily woven between England and France. That is, until one fateful evening, when a wrestling competition was held and Henry challenged Francis. The two larger-than-life egos ripped each other to shreds in the dirt, each wrestling for their fragile pride. Francis was victorious, panging Henry’s ego in a way he would never forget. The event was uniquely spectacular: in all of history it has never been rivalled in its opulence and splendour. In strengthening relationships between the two nations, however, it was a complete flop. After returning home, the rival kings grew more estranged than ever before. . .

Find Stick a Flag in It on page 84

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY Aidan McQuade’s debut novel, set during the Irish War of Independence, tells the story of two young IRA members assigned to police a rural village who come across the body of a boy, apparently drowned. Recognising the signs of violence, the reluctant detectives must navigate the savage complexities of a land defining itself to find justice for the murdered boy. Here, commissioning editor Philip Connor asks Aidan about the historical sources that inspired him, and how his background as a humanitarian worker feeds into his writing. Philip Connor: What struck me most about your book was the setting – this very particular moment when the British have left Ireland, but there’s no infrastructure of justice established to replace them. It gives the book a lovely outlaw, almost Wild West feel. Why did you decide to set the story during this period? Aidan McQuade: I was reading Charles Townshend’s book The Republic, which is an account of the second phase of the Irish War of Independence, the guerrilla phase following the 1916 Rebellion. He had a section discussing the work of the Republican Courts and their associated police during that period, which were set up to give some sort of concrete expression to what was only an idea of an Irish Republic at that stage. I mentioned to my wife the idea that had struck me while reading it – what if some of these police had come across a murder in the course of their duties, one that actually fell under their jurisdiction rather than one of the various atrocities being perpetrated during the time? I wondered how they might have proceeded. My wife, Klara, also found it an interesting idea. ‘So,’ she asked me, ‘what happened next?’ And that’s what got me started. PC: Can you tell us where the title comes from? AM: The title comes from Hamlet, the ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy. For Hamlet ‘the undiscovered country’ was death. But for the protagonists of my story it is also the Irish Republic that they are fighting for and the question of what it will become. 35

With retrospect, we can see it did not, at least immediately, become a place that ‘cherish[ed] all the children of the nation equally’ as the 1916 Proclamation promised. So, my protagonists’ investigation into the murder of a child foreshadows the wider subsequent failures of the Irish state to protect its children. PC: I loved how the two men tasked with solving this murder rely on things like Sherlock Holmes to learn detective techniques. What kind of sources did you use as inspiration – both historical and fictional? AM: The Irish War of Independence is a subject of abiding interest to me. In addition to Townshend I drew on Maurice Walsh’s book Bitter Freedom and Tim Pat Coogan’s Michael Collins for background. There was also the strong influence of Ernie O’Malley’s exquisite personal account of his experiences, On Another Man’s Wound. This is widely regarded as the only account by a senior IRA commander in the War of Independence to reach the status of literature. Part of what makes O’Malley’s account important is that, like the work of his friend Graham Greene, there is deep moral complexity to it. Greene has long been one of my favourite writers. I wanted to get into my own book some of the moral complexity that makes Greene’s best work so compelling. I hope I’ve got at least part way there. The idea of the honest investigator in a sea of corruption, of course, is a staple of crime fiction from J. K. Rowling’s Strike and Ellacott books, back at least as far as Raymond Chandler – Dashiell Hammett’s gumshoes were altogether more morally dubious. Chandler was, in turn, inspired by the tales of knights-errant in the court of King Arthur. More recently of course that archetype has reached a new apex with the great, much mourned Philip Kerr’s extraordinary series of novels about the German detective Bernie Gunther and his misadventures in the Nazi era and after. So if I had a literary detective as my guide it was probably Gunther rather than Holmes. PC: At the heart of the book is the question of whether one more murder matters in wartime. How did your work as a humanitarian and human rights worker influence the book?

AM: I suppose the answer to that question – why does one more death matter in the midst of war – is that it must matter. The dismissal of the value of some human lives is at the core of racism, it is at the core of war crimes. And whenever the value of human life is dismissed in comparison to some grand vision of a glorious future, whether that is about setting a new Year Zero or ‘taking back control’, it always presages a squalid chapter in human history. All you can do then is strive to minimise the damage. As a humanitarian worker in war I tried to minimise the damage until the recognition of our common humanity was reasserted and basic human rights protections re-established. These are ideals which my central characters, particularly Sophia, also try to assert even in the unforgiving circumstances in which they find themselves. PC: Friendly cups of tea, pints of Guinness and games of chess provide the arenas where much of the book takes place. Did they play a role in getting the book written too? AM: If you ever come into an Irish home and are not offered a cup of tea, that means you have done something really, really bad. But one of the things that make tea, chess and Guinness great is the opportunity for rumination that they provide. Some of the conversations that Mick and Eamon have over these civilisational staples are certainly echoes of conversations I have had in the margins of wars in Angola and Afghanistan, or in their aftermath in Glasgow and London. But while these conversations grew out of contemplation of real wars and their consequences, I think they have a continuing relevance: currently all of Europe lives in the shadow of war on our borders, and division and alienation within. Until we recognise again our common humanity and desperate interdependence, our future threatens a similar stark bleakness to that faced by my protagonists. So I hope at least some of what I have written will resonate with a wider contemporary readership. PC: What’s next for you, are you writing anything else? AM: A while ago my wife read my final draft of The Undiscovered Country. ‘So,’ she said, ‘what happened next?’ I’m writing that now.

Find The Undiscovered Country on page 76

VIRTUAL CITIES Virtual Cities, the first atlas of its kind, documents the rich history and geography of iconic video game settings, from metropolitan sci-fi open worlds to medieval fantasy towns, contemporary cities to gothic horror landscapes. Through original maps, ink drawings and insightful commentary and analysis, author Konstantinos Dimopoulos brings these imaginary worlds to life.

RUBACAVA Illustrations © Maria Kallikaki, 2020

GrimRUBACAVA Fandango Grim Fandango

You haven’t died until you’ve visited Rubacava. The liveliest, most vibrant place throughout the Mesoamerican Hades; the town that never died. An extravagant, cheerful yet forlorn city where heartbroken lovers await their soulmates and the ancient dead dance wildly through countless nights. Rubacava: a city of long shadows, papier-mâché skeletons, bright lights and unexpected fogs, where the biggest of the bone bands play the finest bebop tunes You haven’t died until you’ve visited Rubacava. The liveliest, most vibrant place throughout

and where jazz and mariachi get married to Andean melodies. This is the great post mortem the Mesoamerican Hades; the town that never died. An extravagant, cheerful yet forlorn city

melting pot. The town where lost souls are bound to be found and hardened criminals can where heartbroken lovers await their soulmates and the ancient dead dance wildly through

watch the occasional embark theofNada towards a restful afterlife. countless nights.saint Rubacava: a city long Mañana shadows, cruises papier-mâché skeletons, bright lights

and unexpected fogs, where the biggest of the bone bands play the finest bebop tunes and where jazz and mariachi get married to Andean melodies. This is the great post mortem his high-life port town of the Land of the Dead long argued whether nostalgia or allure is the main melting pot. The town where lost souls are bound to be found and hardened criminals can is located on the coast of the Sea of Lament, centrifugal force boosting its population. watch the occasional saint embark the Nada Mañana cruises towards a restful afterlife. and thus serves as a crucial waystation on the Sense of loss aside though, this is an undeniably four-year journey to the Ninth Underworld

stunning, intoxicating city. The sea laps mesmerisingly

his high-life port town ofitthe Land ofbraving the Dead and eternal rest. Reaching means

long argued whether nostalgia or allure is the main against lofty bridges, sublime bas-relief decorations

is located the coast of the Sea ofbuying Lament, the Petrified Forest, andonthen, upon arrival,

centrifugal force boosting itsmost population. can be discovered in the unexpected of places, the

and thus serves as a crucial waystation on the

passage across the ocean as quickly as possible; yet

Sense of loss aside though, this is an undeniably

shadows of imposing buildings hold countless secrets

four-year journey to the Ninth Underworld

stunning, intoxicating city. The sea laps mesmerisingly

somehow this almost transient place keeps on growing.

and drinking holes, and sudden explosions of scale and

and eternal rest. Reaching it means braving

against lofty bridges, sublime bas-relief decorations

in a better hereafter, byocean being by this passage acrossorthe as swept quicklyaway as possible; yet

shadows of imposing buildings hold countless secrets

somehow this almost transient place on growing. breathtaking urbanistic embodiment of keeps Mayan, Aztec,

and drinking holes, and sudden explosions of scale and

tend tometaphysical linger here in waiting, Toltec andSouls Mexican beliefs. after losing hope

spectacle regularly impress. Add in the blimps’ sky-

Souls tend linger here inand waiting, after arrival, losing buying hope thetoPetrified Forest, then, upon

in a better hereafter, or by being swept away by this

Rubacava, not being a theologically detailed

breathtaking urbanistic embodiment of Mayan, Aztec,

location, Toltec didn’tandalways exist, but is far older than Mexican metaphysical beliefs. anyone remembers. Its being turbulent history has a Rubacava, not a theologically detailed location, to didn’t exist, but is far older the than palpable weight it as always the dead refusing to leave anyone are remembers. Its more turbulent history ones, has a afterlife behind always the intriguing

weight to it as the dead refusing to leave the and theirpalpable city, teetering between a full on mob town afterlife behind are always the more intriguing ones,

and a revolutionary hub, could never be anything

and their city, teetering between a full on mob town

but fascinating. The moon of Rubacava has be definitely and a revolutionary hub, could never anything seen much the tiny The transit by thehas seadefinitely grew butas fascinating. moontown of Rubacava seen much metropolis, as the tiny transit by the seahave grew to become today’s and town geographers

24 24

to become today’s metropolis, and geographers have

VIRTUAL CITIES: RUBACAVA VIRTUAL CITIES: RUBACAVA

spectacle regularly Add in the blimps’ skycan be discovered in theimpress. most unexpected of places, the

GENERAL INFORMATION

GENERAL INFORMATION City: Rubacava

Game: Grim Fandango

City: RubacavaLucasArts Developer: Game: Grim Fandango Publisher: LucasArts Developer: LucasArts

Release date: 1998

Publisher: LucasArts

Genre: Adventure

Release date: 1998

Platforms: Android, iOS, Mac OS, Linux, Genre: Adventure

Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita Platforms: Android, iOS, Mac OS, Linux, Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita

traffic, the gargantuan cat-racing track, an unrivalled

the Dead: the single day of the year when shows, clubs

nightlife, eye-catching sky signs, the lively masses

and slot machines stand abandoned, and when the

of the dead and a thousand promises, and the city’s

overworked masses are allowed a moment of respite.

gravitational pull makes absolute sense. The sights are

Walking the streets on any other day reveals a

countless, the colours dizzying, the music perfect, the

staggering menagerie of characters. Posh lawyers, hip

scope awe-inspiring. And the aesthetic experience of

club owners, exhausted or defiant workers, gangsters,

getting lost is worth dying for – one path might lead to

agents of the Department of Death, artists, sailors and

an abandoned lighthouse, another to a forgotten pier,

gamblers roam the shadows of emblematic skyscrapers

and a third to a cliff-carved elevator towards a new

and gather around stepped pyramids and vast plazas.

section of town complete with massive casino.

Rarely, the occasional former florists researching the

Rubacavan life isn’t confined to holding a job,

forensic side of botany can also be glimpsed. Second

or playing the kitties. Things often get exciting,

death by sprouting is a notoriously flowery and

dangerous and even hopeless in this city of the poor

complex affair apparently, one only florists can analyse,

masquerading as the cosmopolitan town of the rich.

and only mob bosses can turn into macabre gardens.

Demonic bouncers abound, skeletal birds mock,

It is in the harbour district though, in the oldest

and betrayal, passion and passionate betrayal are as

part of town, where the vibrancy of unlife truly

common as tensions and stark divisions. Shattered

explodes. The gigantic Feline Meadows race track

illusions, shady schemes, the occasional miracle, an

effortlessly dominates the area and sets the tone,

unashamedly corrupt police force and the popular

even if locals know that the old town can offer more

desire for post mortem justice make for an explosive

than bets and transit. Hidden in an old Scrimshaw

mix that only temporarily abates during the Day of

tank, for example, lies the infamous Toto’s tattoo

39 FANTASY CITIES: GRIM FANDANGO

parlour, where liquid nitrogen and drills are used

been modestly organised, though, admittedly;

to create stunning tattoos on bare bone, whereas

the sheer fluidity of death’s reality had to lead to

up on the magnificent bridge connecting the two

haphazard implementations, unfinished avenues,

harbour clifftops, under the statue of Justice, hides

labyrinthine alleys and clashing functions. Adding

a morgue. A steep climb down to sea level reveals

to the confusion, Rubacava’s recent explosion in size

the beautiful gold-and-blue art nouveau Blue Casket

has been driven more by speculation and money

club owned by Olivia Ofrenda; the very heart of

laundering than planning forethought, allowing

beatnik Rubacava, and the spot to discuss revolution,

for odd configurations and even unnaturally big

drink coffin shooters and recite poetry, in a building

crocodiles in badly maintained sewers.

nurturing defiance and standing out in an art deco It’s not just architecture that alludes to twentieth-

leisure district remain the city’s core economic hub.

century modernism. As the city grew past its initial

Gambling and entertainment are soaking up the cash

waterfront core it was almost certainly influenced by

produced by the hardy Sea-Bees who are working on

functionalist ideals, possibly even by Le Corbusier’s

ships suspended in thin air and gazing at the well-

Radiant City plans, and it adapted a predominantly

kept docks where opulent ocean liners await their

gridiron structure with regularly spaced diagonal

lucky passengers.

avenues to its needs. Wide boulevards now allow

Just as the harbour is divided between extravagant

pleasures and hard toil, so is the rest of the city.

achieve ludicrous speeds, and they connect pastoral

Death wasn’t the great leveller after all – class

suburbs with a bustling downtown that’s developed

lines are being drawn and tensions rise as the rich

both vertically and horizontally. Activities have

keep on exploiting the poor. Even the pious seem

unreasonably

With the exception of the few newer industrial areas, the labyrinthine harbour and its surrounding

modernist city of gleaming towers.

powerful

demon-driven

VIRTUAL CITIES: RUBACAVA

cars

capable of suffering in this cynical economy when the chief of police is a notorious, bribable gambler, and upstanding crime lords like Hector LeMans can seemingly do as they please. The police are only interested in running protection schemes and arresting striking union members, inadvertently fuelling the flames of the fledgling resistance. And as the Sea-Bees, the workers’ vanguard, come closer to the incendiary ideas of the beatniks, and the name of almost mythical revolutionary leader Salvador Limones keeps on inspiring defiance, it is evident that a revolution is brewing – just as the mob moves on to take over the town.

DESIGN INSIGHTS

rim Fandango’s triumph when it comes to the

mostly on an Aztec reinterpretation of modernist

setting of Rubacava lies in just how grounded

art deco is also particularly apt, considering the

the city feels, how palpable its sense of layered

influence of Mesoamerican step pyramids on early

history is, and how strongly players connect to

twentieth-century skyscrapers.

the place. For once, they aren’t mere wanderers

What’s more, Rubacava provides players with

passing through. Manny Calavera, their in-game

spatial immersion on a grand scale. It feels alive

avatar, gets to breathe this city in, as after a short

and massive; bigger and more important than any

introductory sequence, a full year takes place off-

individual. The achieved sense of scale is helped by

screen in which Manny goes from sweeping floors

the adventure genre’s screen-by-screen navigation

to owning a club. As he establishes a connection to

which allows players to fill in any gaps, while the

the place so do players, and this is key in validating

metropolitan size of this city of towers is mainly

Rubacava and its culture as something real. It is

implied via backgrounds, brief but evocative

indeed excellent game writing that conjures this

cutscenes and dialogue trees.

initial illusion of civic reality. Writing is what also provides the city’s

As every corner of each screen leads to new locations,

Grim

Fandango

intentionally

lets

atmosphere and vibrancy, and is helpfully supported

players get initially lost in order to appreciate

in constant dialogue with clever design choices, an

its size, spectacular vistas, creative architecture,

amazing musical score and Peter Chan’s stunning

intriguing characters and detailed backgrounds,

art. The plot and fiction strongly influence, and in

while simultaneously helping them construct a

turn are influenced by, the place’s sounds, art and

mental map. Rubacava is dotted with landmarks,

locales, and a cohesive whole with a convincing

memorable districts and logical connections

atmosphere is crafted. Well-chosen references

that are easy to understand and remember. The

beyond the narrow world of pop culture and

elevator takes Manny up the cliff, the bridge leads

thoroughly researched inspirations allow Rubacava

to the other side of town, and the harbour’s floating

to present an imaginative mix of classic noir

square connects everything on the sea level. Such

literature and cinematography, Mexican folklore

sensible spatial relations and an abundance of

and Mesoamerican beliefs, masterfully assembled

shortcuts make sure that, by the end of Rubacava’s

in one of the most memorable locations of gaming.

chapter,

Creating a unique brand of architecture based

geography and secrets of the city.

players

feel

they’ve

mastered

the

FANTASY CITIES: GRIM FANDANGO

NEW ORLEANS Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers New Orleans is a sensual, dangerous city. The elegant Louisiana birthplace of jazz may be past its prime, but even if no longer the third most populous US city, this is a place filled with promise and allure. The patina of time has added grace to the crescent-shaped Mississippi port town and mystique to the lasting traditions born of a turbulent history. From its founding as La Nouvelle-Orléans in 1718 by the French Mississippi Company on Chitimacha land, followed by its purchase from the United States in 1803, the American Civil War, the abolition of slavery and all the way to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, New Orleans has always been an explosive melting pot of American, Creole, African and European cultures.

Tellingly, the rich Creole, descendants of the old

Royal Street. Other downtown neighbourhoods include

slave masters, still consider themselves the only

the Faubourg Marigny and Bywater, whereas uptown

true Orleaners in a city where class and race

ones – beyond Canal Street – include the Warehouse and

divisions are consistently stark and destitution

University Districts, the Irish Channel, Fontainebleau

crushing. The recent deindustrialisation and

and the Garden District, with its majestic mansions of

an increasing dependency on tourism have further

old powerful families. City Park with its historic oaks

suppressed wages; poverty rates are soaring, the

is also worth exploring, as is Bayou St John, an in-city

population is declining and violent crime has reached

bayou arranged into a narrow, leafy park ideal for

unprecedented levels, but, just like floods, deep-rooted

couples seeking privacy and for colourful rituals on the

social problems must remain hidden from paying

Magnolia Bridge.

visitors. Tourists are thus kept busy and entertained by the vibrant streets, regional delicacies and jazz parties, while poverty is masked by the world-famous Mardi Gras and the beauties of the historic French Quarter. The French Quarter is known for its centuriesold gridiron plan, traditional Creole architecture, wonderful balconies and wild nightlife focused around the celebrated Bourbon Street. To its southwest, just beyond Canal Street, lies the American Quarter, the city’s Central Business District. Interestingly, every road crossing Canal Street into the French Quarter changes its name, with St Charles Avenue, for example, becoming

100

VIRTUAL CITIES NEW ORLEANS

GENERAL INFORMATION City: New Orleans

Game: Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers Developer: Sierra On-Line Publisher: Sierra On-Line Release date: 1993 Genre: Horror

Platforms: Mac OS, MS-DOS, Windows

From bayou residences and shotgun houses to bungalows and remote swamp houses, New Orleans’ districts are rich in architectural delights. Creole cottages, double-gallery houses, townhouses with large courtyards and intricately wrought-iron balconies line the streets of the emblematic French Quarter and house the Museum of Death, the Napoleon House and mystery novelist Gabriel Knight. St Charles Avenue, on the other hand, is famed for its large antebellum mansions, and, since the very first towers in the 1960s demonstrated the viability of the Orleanian skyscraper, the city’s skyline was redefined along Poydras Street funk and eventually hip hop, embedding them in the

and the CBD. Adding to the ambience are European-style Catholic

culture that birthed the jazz funeral.

cemeteries and lush parks, among which the Louis

Also marrying death to music and born of the

Armstrong Park proudly hints at the town’s musical

terrors of slavery, voodoo is a deeply rooted pillar of

traditions. The Jazz and Voodoo Fests are excellent

New Orleans’ culture, and has for centuries provided

showcases of New Orleans’ unique musical heritage,

the downtrodden with strong communal bonds. As

born of brutal colonialism and a fusion of European

slaves and their customs began pouring into New

instruments with African rhythms. Being the only US

Orleans following the Haitian Revolution they bonded

city allowing slaves to gather and publicly play their

around the grassroots religion of voodoo, worshipping

music in Congo Square – nowadays within Louis

ancestral spirits, snakes and the Great Zombi. Artists’

Armstrong Park – New Orleans gave birth to its own

renderings of voodoo dances on the Congo Square

indigenous music: jazz. The local sound was further

date back to the early 1800s, though depictions of the

influenced by Cajun, zydeco and the Delta blues, only

hidden, less refined meetings in the Bayou St John and

to eventually embrace rhythm and blues, rock and roll,

on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain are much rarer.

FAMILIAR CITIES: GABRIEL KNIGHT: SINS OF THE FATHERS

101

Despite brimming with Catholic imagery, Orleanian

above selling tickets for her events to the curious. Her

voodoo always terrified plantation owners.

daughter, Marie Laveau II, took over as Widow Paris

The ritual knives, whips, dolls, and Sekey Madoule

when Laveau got old, and encouraged the notion they

coffins currently on display at the Historical Voodoo

were the same individual, leading many to believe that

Museum offer a glimpse of the city’s hidden practices,

the original Marie Laveau continued to rule. Only a

and were never paraded in public view. They were

select few ever suspected that both Maries were nothing

meant for vodooiene eyes only; for powerful bokors,

but mere puppets of a real queen.

mamaloa high priestesses and the faithful to use

Regardless of rumours, Marie’s tomb in St Louis

in unseen honfours and for holy rituals. According

Cemetery No. 1 is incredibly popular with tourists and

to voodoo beliefs the loa, powerful spirits, could

the faithful, even if no one really knows which Laveau is

effectively possess humans during rituals performed

buried there. Gruesome offerings and Xs on and around

around bloodied altars made of exotic materials such as

the tomb are common, as is customary with all voodoo

elephant skulls and dedicated to gods like Damballah

graves. It is far from surprising that New Orleans’

or the dreaded Ogoun Badagris. The voodoo kings

ornate, maze-like cemeteries are filled with significant

and queens of yore set up totems, drew veves, and the

voodoo tombs, and thus also with a menagerie of bull

faithful danced wearing animal masks, soothing their

hearts, candles and bloodied flowers adding to their

shared hardship.

disturbing ambience. As for the aboveground tombs,

It was around 1830 when a woman known as

102

those are mostly due to the high water table.

Widow Paris and Marie Laveau emerged to rule and

Voodoo, initially a desperate sanctuary for the

popularise voodoo in all of New Orleans. A hairdresser

oppressed, has witnessed its influence grow to enthrall

for rich Creole ladies, she employed a spy network of

popular imagination and even reach the former slave

servants to provide her with secrets used to intimidate

traders. Fearing curses, walking around with hidden

and blackmail the affluent, while simultaneously

gris-gris, searching for love spells, drinking good luck

organising phantasmagoric rituals. After emerging

potions and consulting with fortune tellers are practices

as the sole voodoo power in the city, she redefined

embedded in everyday culture, defining the local

voodoo into its uniquely New Orleanian version. She

identity. Establishments like the Dixieland Drug Store

invented hundreds of charms, spells and potions, held

specialise in selling supernatural protection in the form

dramatic ceremonies by Lake Pontchartrain, and wasn’t

of cures, spells and advice regarding ghostly pests,

VIRTUAL CITIES NEW ORLEANS

while the Sister Cross radio ads promise to leverage the power of Jesus against curses.

to the dark powers flowing through the city. Especially in the Old Quarter, and around the

On the fringes of voodoo folk and pop culture

inconspicuous St George’s bookstore, one can’t help but

whispers of a dark, necromantic cult are stronger than

feel an ancient story unravelling, as Rada drummers

ever, as some of the city’s daily murders come with

play louder and more passionately than ever. Their

flamboyantly ritualistic aspects very similar to the

ominous sound seems to almost convey meaning, and

killings of 1810. There are still old people alive who

could be connected to Tulane University’s recent interest

claim to have witnessed deadly rituals by real voodoo

in African religions or the increase in cultist gatherings

queens, and will happily explain to anyone willing to

on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. These days even

listen that a cabrit sans cor – a goat without horns – can

looking at Jackson Square and its pattern of concentric

only refer to a human sacrifice, and that human blood

circles conjures strange feelings and raises suspicions

has always been the guiding power shaping the city’s

regarding the secrets buried beneath St Louis Cathedral

fate. Actually, overlaying voodoo over the town map

and the former La Plaza d’Armas; suspicions that all

transforms New Orleans into a very particular haunted

the square’s Cajun bands, tap dancers, merchants and

space, where every locale hides dark puzzles alluding

mimes cannot dispel.

DESIGN INSIGHTS

s is the case with most great game cities, Gabriel

city changed it into a scary, haunted place,

Knight’s New Orleans is part of an excellent,

whereas retaining a believable civic texture was

innovative game; the first in a trilogy of well-

supported by a treasure trove of information on

loved, well-researched adventures aiming to tell

local history and customs. Allowing players to non-

mature stories. Setting it in the city of voodoo,

violently interact with their surrounding and piece

Mardi Gras, blues, jazz and whiskey was thus a very

together its history helped further establish spatial

apt, very adult choice. The masterful realisation

immersion, as did the demand for frequent revisits

of the urban setting and its strong ties with the

to the game’s locales and the thorough questioning

plot and puzzles were achieved by embedding

of characters who were ready to comment on the

an abstracted, supernatural version of an existing

place, its stories, problems and legends.

place into the game; by socially, urbanistically

Being a game that expected players to look

and culturally grounding Gabriel Knight in 1990s

at everything allowed for details and historical

Louisiana.

tidbits to be organically revealed. Countless short

Designer Jane Jensen famously hadn’t visited

descriptions added layers of depth, while exploring

New Orleans before tackling it, categorically

the city’s legends, architecture and lore provided

showing that first-hand experience is not always

crucial puzzle-solving hints. There were hundreds

necessary. It is thorough research and great writing

of hotspots to interact with, dozens of characters

that imbued Gabriel Knight with its unparalleled

to talk to, and two lovely maps allowing access to

sense of authenticity. Realism backed by first-rate

hotspots in the French Quarter, and select locations

production values allowed players to immerse

within wider New Orleans. Perusing said maps

themselves in a game world of accurate Lucky Dogs

revealed street and location names which were

stands, the Times-Picayune newspaper, beignets,

only there to support the illusion of complexity and

and Spanish moss hanging from trees. It was this

weave game screens into the fabric of a greater city.

thoughtful attention to detail that added a concrete

Immersion was further served by each in-game day

sense of locality.

opening with a paperboy delivering the paper, and

Superimposing an over-the-top but essentially realistic version of voodoo on the fleshed-out

Grace arriving at St George’s bookshop as the sun rose above the French Quarter.

FAMILIAR CITIES: GABRIEL KNIGHT: SINS OF THE FATHERS

103

49 Find Virtual Cities on page 89

PARIS, MON AMOUR Set in the Paris of 2015, Jude Cook’s Jacob’s Advice follows two cousins, Larry and Nick, as they search for their Jewish identity against the backdrop of the terrorist attacks of that year. While the novel is set during a time of increased extremism and nationalism and the resurgence of antisemitism, it is also a love letter to Paris. Here, Jude Cook takes us on three walking tours to the book’s main locations, from world-famous landmarks to more off-the-beaten-track treasures. PARKS Begin at the Jardin du Luxembourg, where Nick often walks to meditate on his health issues, his estranged wife and his beloved son back in London. Here, Nick finds comfort in the busts of Flaubert and Stendhal, plus the supine statue of Galatea, the ‘sexiest sculpture in the world’. Two minutes away, © Jude Cook opposite the north door of the Sorbonne, is the tiny, secretive Place Paul Painlevé, where Nick comes every day before work to contemplate the statue of Montaigne, with its polished right foot, and the ubiquitous ‘mysterious resting men in sunglasses’. Cross over the Pont Neuf, continue along the Rue de Rivoli to the Marais, and you’ll eventually arrive at the palatial Places des Vosges, with its tumbling fountains, where Larry lives in high style with his girlfriend, Ariel, and her parents. BOULEVARDS Nick’s apartment is high over the Boulevard SaintMichel, with great views of Paris at sunset, where he often stands on his balcony, marvelling at the © Jude Cook

City of Light, or at dawn, watching the sun ‘rise over the Place Edmond Rostand like a slice of molten peach’. Continue south on Saint-Michel and you’ll find yourself at the Place Denfert-Rochereau’s famous lion on its pedestal. Here Nick contemplates the ‘underworld kingdom’ of the Catacombs below his feet – ‘those other streets of femurs and skulls’ – where his father took him on boyhood visits to Paris. Take a right onto the Boulevard Raspail, then walk along the Boulevard du Montparnasse, and you’ll end up at the Rue de Vaugirard, where Larry works at the Institut Pasteur, and where he has a climactic showdown with Ariel’s parents. RESTAURANTS AND BARS Head to the Rue des Rosiers at the heart of the Jewish Quarter for a lunch of falafel and chickpea pitta at Chez Hanna, where Nick, Larry and Ariel meet to talk about the mystery of their ancestors. Flâneur the day away in the Marais, and then saunter north to the Rue de Bretagne and Chez Omar for cous cous and merguez sausages, the location for Ariel’s celebratory dinner. Finally, head back over the river to the Rue Royer-Collard and Le Pantalon, Nick’s local bar, ‘one of those dark dives that accepts only cash, and where the Pernod drunks still prop up the bar all day’.

Find Jacob’s Advice on page 75

THE LITTLE GIRL WHO GAVE ZERO FUCKS Amy Kean’s inspirational tale of a little girl who decides to break rank and change the world, illustrated by J. Milton.

£9.99

Some days, the world was meant to change. Your thoughts go bang, your eyes turn strange

Like a magnificently coloured kaleidoscope lens, No matter the hows and the whys or the whens As the mountains have peaks and the seas have their waves, Some days you just know you were born to be brave.

Elodie-Rose was a girl on a mission In a town where girls act like obedient kittens,

Sing soft the same tune and dance neat the same jigs, Wear the same flowery dresses and pretty blonde wigs.

But Elodie-Rose vowed to change this old world Because Elodie-Rose isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like other girls.

In this town, each morning’s the same as before. Girls wake up and wash, take their socks from the floor, Eat breakfast, brush teeth, make the messy old bed, Pack their lunchbox with snacks for the long day ahead, Jump quick through the Lego, the dolls and toy trucks, Open the wardrobe, grab their basket of fucks. Wait: ‘What are fucks?’ you might suddenly cry As you halt to attention and rub your wide eyes! Well, fucks are the things that girls keep in their basket And must give away when somebody asks it. Fucks are their blues, their esteems and their happies, Sat in their basket ever since they wore nappies.

Fluffy or bouncy or filled with slime, Fucks have existed since day one of time. Unparalleled energy runs through their veins, Lively curious creatures each basket contains. As unique as the way your own tongue says your name No two peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fucks are ever the same.

All girls bear the burden of fucks every day. For when someone is mean or throws nasty their way, If strangers start trouble or cause an upset Their palm is outreached and a fuck they will get. In the morning girls’ baskets are full and stand tall, But by bedtime there’s no fucking fucks left at all.

When the sun sets, girls sleep, have the brightest of dreams Of giraffes and quad biking and jelly and cream. Becoming an astronaut or rich CEO – To unlimited magical places they go. Such sweet thoughts replenish their baskets of fucks, So they rise once again, feeling up on their luck.

Yet with a new day, forever can start With fire in your belly, such hope in your heart. So Elodie-Rose made a plan not to care: Those fucks in her basket were going nowhere! Friends might call her crazy, a terrorist too, But Elodie-Rose Had wondered And pondered And thought it important

That when you have fucks, Those fucks should belong to just you.

Find The Little Girl Who Gave Zero Fucks on page 74

REASONS MY CAT IS MAD Three years ago, illustrator HeloĂsa Nora was inspired to draw her first feline after seeing a photo of a cat with a piece of bread on its head. Since then, she has sketched hundreds of illustrations for cat-lovers all over the world via her hugely popular Twitter account, Poorly Drawn Cats. Reasons My Cat is Mad collects the very best of these drawings into a chronicle of all the wonderful ways our furry companions try to show us exactly what theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re thinking.

My cat is mad because: she will not be cooed at and treated like a pet when she is an apex predator, capable of destroying everyone in her path.

My cat is mad because: bath time.

My cat is mad because: I touched his beans.

My cat is mad because: heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not familiar with birthdays. Or candles. Or fire.

My cat is mad because: he shouldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve bought that boat.

My cat is mad because: I kept booping her nose.

My cat is mad because: boots. Find Reasons My Cat is Mad on page 86

JUST CIVIL PARTNERED! Newly engaged writer Emily Jupp on why a heterosexual civil partnership felt like the right choice for her. Suddenly I was Engaged, like a toilet cubicle. Or would we say occupied, like a nation? And if I were Engaged, did that mean I had been Vacant before? In which case, what was it that had filled the void? Something soft and fluffy, like marshmallow? And if the vacancy had been filled by the engagement, was I now whole, like an iced cake? Finished, like a painting? Ready to be consumed or hung prettily on a wall and covered with a fine layer of dust as the years passed? It was the word that bothered me. You see it printed on cards with bottles of champagne and golden hearts, but when do you say it out loud? Rarely. I tried: Engaged. We are Engaged. Engorged. Endgame. In the end, we both opted for: ‘We’re getting married!’ which aroused the requisite smiles and hugs. We didn’t say: ‘We’re probably getting Civil Partnered, legal requirements permitting.’ It didn’t quite have the same ring to it. Sometimes it was a positive word. I was Engaged! Like a rocket ready to launch, or like something from Star Trek. Scotty, engage the cloaking device! Make me stealthily invisible until W-Day, when I shall become visible again, and exit my chrysalis as a Wife. But that didn’t sound quite right either. A Wife. It conjured images of aprons, baked goods, tidiness, boredom, domesticity, loyalty, commitment, sacrifice. Although of course in the modern world that’s not what it has to mean at all. Still, history sticks. So many other words spiralled out of that one noun. Was I those things? Would I become those things? Did I have to live up to them? It took a bit of getting used to, is all I’m saying.

December 2017. It was my birthday, the day we landed in Bangkok, the day of The Proposal. We had flown a quarter of the way around the world – Jamie wanted to ensure optimum conditions for my comfort for The Proposal (I hate the cold).

He took us to a place that served crab curry for supper – thick morsels of crab and a mild yellow sauce – then we walked until we found a bar with coloured fairy lights and a guitarist playing cheesy Americana. We sat sipping coconut milkshakes, facing the hawkers selling locusts on sticks and friendship bracelets, when he said those magic words: ‘Were you aware that civil partnerships for mixed-sex couples might become legal in the UK in the next couple of years?’ ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Would you like one?’ ‘Yes,’ I said. He already knew that. We’d discussed it several times. ‘Oh good, because. . . I’ve ordered the ring you like.’ It took a moment to sink in, and then we hugged and kissed, somewhere during the excitement I actually said the word yes and he said I love you. It all happened in some tumbling state of disorder. And then the waiter asked us to move tables, to make room for a larger party. We moved, still smiling, to a table further from the excitement of the street; its centrepiece was a dirty metal ashtray, a cigarette still wafting grey, acrid plumes. ‘And what if civil partnerships don’t become legal for us?’ I asked. ‘Then I suppose we’ll just be married!’ He smiled. I smiled back. I was happy, of course I was happy, but there was another feeling, of shifting identity, of being converted or transformed against my will. The next day, Jamie noticed it. He’s perceptive like that. ‘You don’t seem particularly excited,’ he said as we walked round the reclining Buddha temple in Phra Nakhon. ‘It’s still sinking in,’ I said, stopping by a coconut stall on the pavement. ‘I had a slight out-of-body experience when you proposed,’ I said, deciding these coconuts were not quite as fulsome-looking as the ones at the stall we had passed two blocks earlier, ‘and I think I’m still having it, to some extent. I just need to adjust. You knew it was coming, obviously, but for me, it was a surprise.’ He nodded and we continued our temple tour. It took two days, then I was back in my body again, thrilled and excited and euphoric to be marrying, or partnering, the love of my life, law depending. We bought a ring in a market for 150 baht (about 80p) and I wore it with pride, we WhatsApped a picture of it to our friends and got a little endorphin buzz every time they replied with warm congratulations. We glossed over the CP bit, and let people assume what they wanted. 63

But there was still a small niggly something wriggling about in my tummy. It was the W-word. WIFE.

IT WOULDN’T STOP ME FROM MAKING A COMMITMENT TO JAMIE. IT’S JUST THAT I WOULD MUCH RATHER BE HIS PARTNER THAN HIS WIFE. In subsequent discussions, Jamie has explained to me that at that point, in 2017, it looked like civil partnerships were likely to be introduced for opposite-sex couples. If it hadn’t looked likely, he might have waited another year to propose. But while we both would prefer a civil partnership, his desire for one isn’t as strong as mine. He would be almost as happy, I think, with a marriage, whereas I want a partnership more than I want a marriage. That’s not to imply any judgement for those who do want a marriage, I wish you all the best! It’s just not the right decision for us. When we told family and friends we were engaged they were delighted, but when we told them that we wanted a civil partnership, they mostly looked puzzled, and said variations of ‘Well, what’s the difference?’ We would then say, ‘Actually there isn’t much of a difference, the legal protections are the same. . .’ And then the reply inevitably came: ‘Well, why not just get married then?’ ‘The history, the baggage. . . we want a clean slate, our own version, a fresh one.’ And then, somehow, without meaning to, we were offending people with our personal choice: ‘Marriage was good enough for us, why do you object to it?’ they said. ‘You can make it your own, it’s between you as a couple, so why do you need a separate piece of paper with ever-so-slightly-different words on it?’ Why did we? I hated that our choice seemed offensive to those we cared about, the people we wanted to be happy for us. How could I rationally explain that pit-of-the-stomach feeling that a civil partnership just felt right for both of us? I couldn’t explain, yet most people we told about it felt they were owed an explanation as to why we weren’t doing the ‘normal’ marriage – and so we did some research. We both looked at the arguments for having a civil partnership. We followed the case of Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan, the heterosexual couple campaigning for the right to a civil partnership. Ministers spent £65,000 fighting Keidan and Steinfeld’s case. Why? To maintain patriarchal values? To push for the residual, watered-down version of religious marriage exemplified by the civil marriage? Why? 64

Why oppose modernity and equality? Did they feel something was being lost? But what? I remembered an old column by Lucy Mangan about how mothers were – and still are – being written out of history by the archaic tradition that only the father’s occupation be included on a marriage certificate, not the mother’s, and noted that both parents’ occupations are listed on a civil partnership certificate. The government still hasn’t got round to changing the marriage certificate to include the mothers’ professions, even though David Cameron agreed it in principle in 2014. ‘It is only a small thing,’ wrote Lucy Mangan. ‘But societies are made up of small things. And they are made up of symbols, and the absence of your mum’s name on a landmark day is a big symbol. So let’s change it.’ I also remembered Lucy’s description of her own church marriage, and how she wanted to speak traditional vows with ‘words hallowed by time’ (even if I don’t have the faith out of which they were forged) and the sense of occasion they create. And I thought about the power and significance of those words. And the acts of hypocrisy some atheists make in order to include those words in their wedding ceremonies, because of the power of tradition. There are rules about not including hymns if you aren’t having a religious ceremony, even though everyone, God-fearing or agnostic, enjoys a rousing chant of ‘Jerusalem’. I wondered if our choice to have a civil partnership was making other people think about the compromises they made when getting married. A civil partnership will be a new document and therefore it is scrubbed clean of those ‘words hallowed by time’, and also of the nineteenth-century ideals of romance – and associated expense – that have been foisted on it over the centuries. You don’t need a meringue dress, or thousands of roses; you just need a willingness to commit to each other, and to share your assets. I remember reading an extract from Alain de Botton’s unsentimental 2016 book The Course of Love, which witheringly dissects and destroys the principles of the romantic ideal of love but still proposes that, on balance, it’s good for you and good for a functioning society to be in a long-term relationship. He refers to it, tongue-in-cheek, as ‘the cage’ of marriage. Although now that they are going to be made legal, he might recommend the cage of the civil partnership instead. ‘Rather than some notional idea of perfect complementarity,’ he writes, ‘it is the capacity to tolerate dissimilarity that is the true marker of the “right” person. Compatibility is an achievement of love; it shouldn’t be its precondition.’ 65

It’s this modern view of partnership and commitment that respects each individual as a separate entity, that doesn’t try to unite two bodies with one soul, which admits to fault, to bad days and good ones, to bad years and good ones, this pragmatic union that doesn’t expect one personality to be subsumed into the other; this is the ideal to which Jamie and I aspire. Interested, I explored the Botton-founded School of Life’s alternative wedding vows: a new set of ceremonial acts intended for the modern marriage or partnership ceremony. One of the suggested acts is that on their wedding day, the couple share photos of themselves as children and vow to treat each other as children when they are upset or angry – not by belittling them but by treating them with sympathy and kindness. There’s a YouTube video that demonstrates some of these new rituals. It begins with admitting you are, like all humans, ‘a failed, broken human being’. I showed it to Jamie and he burst out laughing. It was a bit sombre, but what I liked about it was the idea of creating new traditions, free from the framework of the usual, traditional ceremony, so I signed us up for the School of Life’s ‘Make Love Last’ class, claiming to offer a practical toolkit merging philosophy and psychology to help your long-term relationship last. It was one of the most excruciatingly awkward evenings of our life together thus far. Botton’s mind is an interesting place.

THE LONGEST FIVE MINUTES OF MY LIFE INVOLVED LISTENING TO A MAN TELL ME THAT HIS SEXUAL FANTASY WAS ACTUALLY HAVING SEX WITH HIS WIFE While conventional, religious pre-marriage counselling might encourage you to make sure you were on the same page with each other regarding your future, establishing mutual hopes and goals, the School of Life’s class focuses on your petty arguments, sexual fantasies and ‘how to not sulk’. The class was led not by Botton but by the School of Life’s content editor, and the most bizarre part of this group session was her telling us to share our sexual fantasies with another stranger. The longest five minutes of my life involved listening to a man tell me that his sexual fantasy was actually having sex with his wife, just straightforward hanky panky, with his wife, because they hadn’t done it for a long, long, long time. ‘We have kids, two young boys,’ he said with a sad shrug. His wife was sat next to him, facing in the opposite direction and telling her stranger her own sexual fantasy, which probably wasn’t too dissimilar to his. Aware of this, his confession came in a hushed, despairing whimper. Why was confessing to a stranger conducive to establishing a healthy 66

relationship with his wife? Or establishing an enduring relationship between me and Jamie? I have no idea. So the School of Life wedding style wasn’t right for us either. But there’s no avoiding the fact that the historical symbolic meaning of the marriage ceremony treats a woman as a possession, passed from her father to her new husband. There’s a white virginal dress, the veil © Charisse Kenion on Unsplash shrouding the bride’s face, the ‘giving away’ – where the father literally hands over the financial burden of the bride to another man who will take on ownership of her. To some people, that doesn’t matter one jot, and that’s wonderful for them – go for it! I personally love attending a traditional wedding and seeing the same theatre that’s played out in hundreds of rom-coms come to life before your eyes – but the more Jamie and I looked into it, the more we disliked it for us. The weight of that history of subjugation and misogyny pressed heavily on us. We didn’t want to be associated with it. Time for a new ceremony, a new, more equal ceremony. But in the end, we decided our CP ceremony and vows won’t be too radically different from the norm. The format works well, why mess with it? There will be dancing, cake, lots of food and plenty of booze. But we have tweaked it: I won’t be escorted down the aisle, instead we’ll meet at the top of the aisle, my dress will be off-white, without any constricting bodice and no puffy encumbrances, so that I can walk, dance and breathe freely. I will give a speech, we will keep our own names. We will both wear a wedding ring. In fact, Jamie also wears an engagement ring now as well. I didn’t want a veil, until my mum pulled out her old veil from her first marriage, from before she married my dad. It had been stored lovingly in the loft for a future daughter: me, if I ever materialised. I wanted that thread of connection to my mother, who married, hopeful, aged just twenty-one, and I wanted to carry that hope that she had then into my ceremony – even though life has proved that with the best will in the world, life and relationships don’t always turn out as planned. But we agreed (me and my mum) that I won’t wear it over my face and I’ll remove it after the ceremony. 67

I always find it interesting that some white, Western, vocal opponents of the Muslim hijab chose to wear, or their other halves wore, a veil at their wedding. The symbolic meaning of both types of veil is pretty similar: the adult wearer is preserving themselves for just one man – their husband – and the veil, in both cultures, implies virginity, purity, modesty, piety and devotion to tradition. Surely if you wore one for your wedding you at least begin to understand the reasons for a woman choosing to wear the hijab? Aside from me wearing my mother’s veil, everything in our ceremony will be as fair and equal and balanced as possible, as a symbol of our future intention to treat each other as equal partners: a team. That’s not to say I would judge anyone who did want all the traditional, conventional elements and who is excited about becoming husband and wife. Partnership is just our choice, it’s what feels right for us. When we told some friends about our CP ceremony plans, they cooed sweetly, ‘But a marriage ceremony is traditional, isn’t it? It’s niiice.’ Others said, more bluntly, ‘Why can’t you just do it properly?’ And others, perhaps more assertively, more loudly, said, ‘Of course you don’t have to do any of that traditional stuff. You can wear polka dots! Make up your own vows! Change as much as you like! That’s what we did! But we still had a marriage!’ But then, if you’re changing every single aspect of the ceremony to suit your own tastes, why not go one step further and actually disengage from that ceremony altogether? And instead choose a ceremony that is actually more aligned with your beliefs? The rights and protections for both marriage and civil partnerships are the same; the difference is in the language. I return to reading Peter Brook’s The Empty Space, a seminal text on theatre. After all, the ceremony is a performance, of sorts. ‘We mustn’t allow ourselves to become the dupes of nostalgia,’ he writes in his chapters on ‘Holy Theatre’, or the ‘invisible made visible’: ‘The best of the romantic theatre, the civilized pleasures of the opera and the ballet were in any event gross reductions of an art sacred in its origins. Over the centuries the Orphic Rites turned into the Gala Performance – slowly and imperceptibly the wine was adulterated drop by drop.’ Our feeling was that marriage was a re-enactment of halfremembered, old-fashioned traditions; it was what Brook might call ‘deadly theatre’ – a faded facsimile of what it originally meant, lacking in relevance to modern relationships. Like Peter Brook, I believe in the power of ceremonies. I believe in the symbolic power of standing up in front of a gathering of your friends and family and declaring a lifelong commitment to another person. I also believe 68

in words and symbols and want the words and symbols that we use and say to be as honest and true to what we really mean to each other. The most difficult discussion about our choice was with very close friends of ours, a same-sex male couple who chose to get married once it was made legal for them to do so. Their choice, aside from being what felt right for them, was a celebration of social and legal equality with heterosexual couples. While some same-sex couples didn’t want marriage because of its patriarchal connotations, for them it was the right choice. They wanted a marriage. The civil partnership was originally introduced as a halfway house in the UK before marriage was made legal for gay couples. Marriage still holds status in our society, and offering gay couples the CP but not marriage was considered by some members of the LGBTQ community as a way of diminishing their relationships in the eyes of wider society. When those friends discovered we wanted a CP they couldn’t understand why. They had got married in a very wonderful, modern way and ‘created their own’ version of a marriage, so why couldn’t we? The only argument I could think of to try to explain our perspective was that Jamie and I are different genders, not the same gender, and so assumptions about our roles within a marriage, even a civil marriage, are assumed to conform to gender norms, whereas by being of the same gender, that was not a hurdle they had to face. But even as I said it I felt as though we were somehow ignoring their struggle, and the decades of fighting that the LGBTQ community at large had undergone in order to finally achieve marriage equality. When we made our choice to have a CP, we didn’t even know if the law definitely would change. This was before Theresa May announced that opposite-gender civil partnerships will be made legal in the UK, so that heterosexual couples will have the same options as gay couples under the law. At that point we were offending people by arguing for something that we might not even end up being legally allowed to do. It was a strange position to be in, but the more we came up against these conflicts with friends – and strangers – the more it helped clarify our stance. So what’s the big deal? It isn’t a big deal. There are more important things happening in the world. Marriage is just a word, at the end of the day. So is partnership. But as someone who cares about the power of words and who makes a modest living from using the right words in the right place, the difference between those two words – marriage and partnership – matters a great deal. I believe words influence thought and thought influences behaviour and I’d rather speak the words that are the right ones for me and 69

Jamie than hack a difficult path through a forest of words we don’t believe in. In linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf’s 1950 essay ‘Science and Linguistics’, he says, ‘All observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless their linguistic backgrounds are similar.’ In many ways this is bollocks. You can conceive that there are ten different words for snow in the Inuit language even if you don’t actually know what they are. But then you can also understand how a society that doesn’t have a word for ‘I’ might make for less egocentric communities.

WORDS HAVE POWER. CEREMONIES HAVE POWER. RITUALS AND OBJECTS AND INCANTATIONS ALL HAVE POWER. ‘A Happening is a powerful invention,’ writes Brook. ‘It destroys at one blow many deadly forms, like the dreariness of theatre buildings, and the charmless trappings of curtain, usherette, cloakroom, programme, bar. A Happening can be anywhere, any time, of any duration: nothing is required, nothing is taboo. A Happening may be spontaneous, it may be formal, it may be anarchistic, it can generate intoxicating energy. Behind the Happening is the shout “Wake up!”’ When we really dig down, into the dark swamp of the soul, perhaps the real reason why I don’t want a marriage isn’t to do with my belief in fairness and equality, but more an instinct that I’ve tried to intellectualise. I think it might be to do with seeing my parents successfully navigate their marriage, while knowing they only married after years of cohabiting because they wanted a child and they felt it was the ‘right’ thing to do back then. My dad says he understands why we want a partnership. My mum is supportive, but she doesn’t understand it. I try to explain to her: a CP is a tabula rasa, you can etch a new beginning onto it. We will have the same protections of a marriage, but without the patriarchal associations of a marriage. ‘But why not just get married?’ she says. And in the end I say, ‘I don’t know. It just feels like the right choice.’ Emily Jupp is a features and arts writer, TV writer and playwright. She has a decade of experience writing for newspapers, websites and magazines. She is currently writing her first novel. This essay originally appeared on Boundless, Unbound’s online literary magazine: unbound.com/boundless 70

Autumn Titles

July to December 2020

July

THE COINCIDENCE OF NOVEMBERS

Writings from a Life of Public Service by Sir Patrick Nairne SANDY NAIRNE (ED.)

One of the great British civil servants recounts his first-hand experience of some of the most significant events in recent history Foreword by Peter Hennessy Sir Patrick Nairne led a remarkable life with a ringside view of history in the making. He fought with the Seaforth Highlanders in North Africa; worked in the post-war Admiralty and Ministry of Defence; organised the first EU Referendum in 1975; led the Department for Health and Social Security; contributed to the Falkland Islands Review Committee; monitored the consultation process in Hong Kong before the territory was handed back to China; and served as the first Chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. Here, Patrick’s son – curator Sandy Nairne – assembles the full range of his father’s writings, from autobiographical pieces to meditations on a life spent working for the public good.

Title: The Coincidence of Novembers Pub Date: 09/07/2020 Format: Hardback ISBN: 978-1-78352-830-1 Price: £30.00 Rights: World/Audio/TV & Film

‘Moving, wise and informative’ Andrew Motion

NON-FICTION Sandy Nairne CBE FSA is a curator and writer. From 2002 to 2015 he was Director of the National Portrait Gallery and before that Director of Programmes at Tate. He is a trustee of the National Trust and the Samuel Courtauld Collection, and is also a member of the Bank of England Banknote Character Advisory Committee. 72

July

THE UNWINDING JACKIE MORRIS

A highly illustrated pillow book to prompt dreaming and creativity, by Kate Greenaway Medal-winning artist Jackie Morris Over twenty years of creating beautiful illustrations and paintings, Jackie Morris has amassed a collection she calls her Unwindings â&#x20AC;&#x201C; pieces where she allows her mind to run free, calming any anxieties she might be carrying, in a visual landscape of bears, priestesses, goddesses, foxes and a host of other gentle creatures. Alongside the paintings are verse and stories that gently lead the reader into a world of magic and quiet. Also available is The Silent Unwinding (978-1-78352-961-2), a companion volume in which the tales are not pinned down with words, instead leaving space for the reader to dream, write and draw.

Title: Pub date: Format: Price: ISBN: Rights:

The Unwinding 09/07/2020 Hardback ÂŁ14.99 978-1-78352-935-3 UK & Comm (ex. ANZ)

FICTION Jackie Morris is an author and illustrator. The Lost Words, co-authored with Robert Macfarlane, won the Kate Greenaway Medal 2019. @JackieMorrisArt

July

THE LITTLE GIRL WHO GAVE ZERO FUCKS AMY CHARLOTTE KEAN AND J. MILTON

An irreverent, feminist fairy tale for adults that teaches us to care less about what others think This is the story of a brave young girl, Elodie-Rose, who one day decides to change the world and keep all her fucks in her basket. Wait a minute. You’re confused. What are fucks, you ask? It’s quite simple, really. Fucks are her self-esteem; all the happy, sad and wonderful thoughts that sit in her basket. That sit in every girl’s basket! And every girl must give these fucks away every time someone asks.

Title: The Little Girl Who Gave Zero Fucks Pub Date: 23/07/2020 Format: Paperback ISBN: 978-1-78352-946-9 Price: £9.99 Rights: World/Audio/TV & Film

One day Elodie-Rose decides to break rank and find out what happens if those fucks stay where they are. . .

FICTION Amy Kean is an advertising strategist, writer, columnist and lecturer from Essex whose short stories, poems, rants and reviews can be found littered across the web on professional and unprofessional websites. @keano81 J. Milton is a comic artist and illustrator living in Glasgow. @jmiltondraws 74

August

JACOB’S ADVICE JUDE COOK

Two cousins search for their Jewish identity in the Paris of 2015 Larry Frost, a British pharmacologist living in Paris, is exuberant, charismatic, wildly opinionated. He’s also convinced he’s Jewish – or at least he’s long had his hopes. But his search for his true identity produces more questions than answers. In early 2015, following the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo, Larry is joined by his sceptical older cousin, Nick Newman. Divorced, separated from his son and desperately trying to understand his own place in the world, Nick is drawn inextricably into Larry’s slipstream. Then, in November, terrorism strikes the city again. With Paris and the cousins still reeling from the trauma, Larry receives the information he’s urgently been seeking: a long-held family secret that will change both their lives forever.

Title: Jacob’s Advice Pub date: 20/08/2020 Format: Paperback Price: £9.99 ISBN: 978-1-78352-899-8 Rights: World/Audio/TV & Film

FICTION Jude Cook is the author of Byron Easy, published to acclaim in 2013. He regularly reviews fiction for the Guardian, Spectator, Literary Review, New Statesman, TLS and the i paper. In 2017, he was longlisted for the Pin Drop RA short story award, and in 2018 for the Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award. He lives in London. @judecook_ 75

August

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY AIDAN McQUADE

Two IRA detectives attempt to solve the killing of a young boy during the Irish War of Independence 1920, the Irish War of Independence. Amid the turmoil of an emerging nation, two young IRA members assigned to police a rural village discover the body of a young boy, apparently drowned. One of them, a veteran of the First World War, recognises violence when he sees it – but does one more corpse really matter in this time of bitter conflict? The reluctant detectives must navigate the vicious bloodshed, murky allegiances and savage complexities of a land defining itself to find justice for the murdered boy. Neither of them realises just how dangerous their task will become. ‘One is struck by its mordant wit and fierce intelligence’ Martin W. Sandler, National Book Award-winning author and historian

Title: Pub date: Format: Price: ISBN: Rights:

The Undiscovered Country 20/08/2020 Paperback £8.99 978-1-78352-807-3 World/Audio/TV & Film

FICTION Dr Aidan McQuade was CEO of Anti-Slavery International from 2006 to 2017, and prior to that worked extensively in development and humanitarian response for thirteen years. He comes from South Armagh in Ireland and now lives in London. @the_mcquade 76

September

LONGHAND ANDY HAMILTON

This novel by comedy legend Andy Hamilton is a publishing first, reproducing 300 pages of handwritten manuscript Malcolm George Galbraith is a large, somewhat clumsy, Scotsman. He’s being forced to leave the woman he loves behind and needs to explain why. So he leaves her a handwritten note on the kitchen table (well, more a 300-page letter than a note). In it, Malcolm decides to start from the beginning and tell the whole story of his long life, something he’s never dared do before. Because Malcolm isn’t what he seems: he’s had other names and lived in other places. A lot of other places… As it gathers pace, Malcolm’s story combines tragedy, comedy, a touch of leprosy, several murders, an insane tyrant, two great romances, a landslide, a fire and a talking fish.

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Longhand 03/09/2020 Hardback £16.99 978-1-78352-941-4 World/Audio/TV & Film

FICTION Andy Hamilton is a comedy writer, performer and director. He regularly appears on the BBC TV panel show Have I Got News for You and on Radio 4’s News Quiz and I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue. His television writing credits include Outnumbered, Drop the Dead Donkey, Not the Nine O’Clock News and many others. For twenty years he has played Satan in the Radio 4 comedy Old Harry’s Game, which he also writes. 77

September

THE PHILOSOPHER QUEENS

The Lives and Legacies of Philosophy’s Unsung Women REBECCA BUXTON AND LISA WHITING (EDS.)

How many women philosophers can you name? The first-ever illustrated guide to women philosophers, from ancient history to present day We all know about Plato, Kant, Nietzsche and Locke – but what about Hypatia, Arendt, Oluwole and Young? The Philosopher Queens is a much-needed and long-awaited profile of women in philosophy by women in philosophy, featuring original fullcolour portraits by artist Emmy Smith. The first of its kind, it brings to centre stage twenty prominent women whose ideas have had a profound – but for the most part uncredited – impact on the world. Learn about Ban Zhao, the first woman historian in ancient Chinese history; Angela Davis, perhaps the most iconic symbol of the American Black Power Movement; Azizah Y. al-Hibri, who examined the intersection of Islamic law and gender equality; and many more.

Title: The Philosopher Queens Pub Date: 17/09/2020 Format: Paperback ISBN: 978-1-78352-801-1 Price: £12.99 Rights: World/Audio/TV & Film

Non-Fiction Rebecca Buxton is a DPhil student at the University of Oxford, working on political philosophy and forced migration. Her research looks at the political rights of refugees and migrants. @RebeccaBuxton Lisa Whiting is completing her master’s in Government, Policy and Politics at Birkbeck, University of London. She currently works for the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation. @lisababblings 78

September

SONG OF THE GOLDEN HARE JACKIE MORRIS

A reissue of the classic book by the Kate Greenaway Medal-winning author and illustrator of The Lost Words This beautifully illustrated book tells the story of a boy and his family who hold the secret of the song of the golden hare. While others hunt the hares, his family search for leverets orphaned by the hunt and keep them safe. When the hares begin to move across the land, the boy and his sister know they must follow and wait until the time comes for the old queen to leave and her child to reign in her place. But others are searching for the golden queen of the hares: a hunter with two hounds, one silver, one black. Can the two children, on their own, keep the golden queen safe?

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The Song of the Golden Hare 17/09/2020 Hardback ÂŁ9.99 978-1-78352-885-1 UK & Comm (ex. ANZ)

FICTION Jackie Morris is an author and illustrator. The Lost Words, co-authored with Robert Macfarlane, won the Kate Greenaway Medal 2019. @JackieMorrisArt

September

VIC REEVES ART BOOK JIM MOIR

The definitive collection of art by Jim Moir, aka Vic Reeves Vic Reeves Art Book is an expedition through the mind of Jim Moir, aka the comedian, writer and artist Vic Reeves. The first collection of his visual work in a decade, this book is a wild ride through subjects and media, ranging from sketches to paintings. Whether he’s depicting Sooty and Sweep unzipped and on the toilet, or grotesque versions of beloved TV personalities, Jim’s unmistakable humour shines through in every brushstroke. Featuring more than 200 images, this is the definitive compendium of Jim’s art, covering early work, some of his best-known pieces, and brand-new creations exclusive to the book.

Title: Vic Reeves Art Book Pub date: 17/09/2020 Format: Hardback Price: £25.00 ISBN: 978-1-80018-002-4 Rights: World/Audio/TV & Film

NON-FICTION Jim Moir, more commonly known as Vic Reeves, was born in Leeds. He is most famous for his work alongside Bob Mortimer on TV shows including Vic Reeves Big Night Out, The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer and the comedy quiz Shooting Stars. Jim’s artwork has featured in his television shows and he exhibits regularly around the world. He lives in Kent. @JamesMoir10 80

September

FUCK YEAH, VIDEO GAMES

The Life and Extra Lives of a Professional Nerd DANIEL HARDCASTLE

The Sunday Times bestselling memoir through video games by YouTube star DanNerdCubed As Daniel Hardcastle careers towards thirty, he looks back on what has really made him happy in life: the friends, the romances… the video games. Told through encounters with the most remarkable games of the last thirty-odd years, Fuck Yeah, Video Games is also a love letter to the greatest hobby in the world. From God of War to Tomb Raider, Pokémon to The Sims, Daniel relives each game with countless in-jokes, obscure references and his signature wit, as well as intricate, original illustrations by Rebecca Maughan. Joyous, absurd, personal and at times sweary, his memoir is a celebration of the sheer brilliance of video games.

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Fuck Yeah, Video Games 17/09/2020 Paperback £9.99 978-1-78352-947-6 World/Audio/TV & Film

NON-FICTION Daniel Hardcastle, aka DanNerdCubed, is a YouTube gamer who has accumulated more than 2.6 million subscribers over the course of his 4000 videos. He lives with his partner, Rebecca Maughan. youtube.com/user/officialnerdcubed / @DanNerdCubed 81

October

FUTURES BY TORTOISE MATTHEW D’ANCONA (ED.)

A series of entertaining, provocative and exploratory books that offer original visions of the future Each short book in the Futures series presents a beautifully written original future vision by an accomplished writer and/or subject expert. Read individually, these books will inform, entertain and challenge. Collectively, they will inspire readers to imagine what might lie ahead, to figure out how they might like the future to look, and think about how we might make the transition from here to there.

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Futures by Tortoise 01/10/2020 Paperback £5.99 each World/Audio/TV & Film

The Future of Serious Art by Bidisha (978-1-80018-009-3) The Future of British Politics by Frankie Boyle (978-1-80018-010-9) The Future of Men by Grace Campbell (978-1-80018-011-6) The Future of Stuff by Vinay Gupta (978-1-80018-012-3) The Future of Antiquity by Sir Richard Lambert (978-1-80018-013-0)

FICTION Tortoise is a new media organisation set up by James Harding (former Director of BBC News), Katie Vanneck-Smith (former President of the Wall Street Journal) and Matthew Barzun (US Ambassador to the UK under President Obama). Tortoise is on a mission to slow down and open up journalism: they don’t do breaking news, but what’s driving the news. Not the news as it happens, but when it’s ready. @tortoise 82

October

A GUIDE TO MODERNISM IN METROLAND JOSHUA ABBOTT

The definitive illustrated guide to art deco, modernist and brutalist architecture in London’s suburbs A Guide to Modernism in Metro-Land is your essential pocket guide to the modernist architecture of London’s suburbs. It examines the growth of the city’s suburbs from the 1920s up to the present day – a story that is closely interwoven with the development of innovative architecture in Britain – through its most remarkable modernist buildings. Featuring work by architects such as Charles Holden, Ernő Goldfinger and Norman Foster, the book covers nine London boroughs and two neighbouring counties. It is designed to help you explore Metro-Land’s modernist heritage, featuring short descriptions of each building alongside maps of the areas covered, and more than 100 colour photographs.

Title: A Guide to Modernism in Metro-Land Pub Date: 01/10/2020 Format: Flexibound ISBN: 978-1-78352-856-1 Price: £10.99 Rights: World/Audio/TV & Film

‘An essential vade mecum’ Jonathan Meades

NON-FICTION Born in Reading, Joshua Abbott works as a photographic printer in Hoxton and lives in Welwyn Garden City. Modernism in MetroLand began as a project at the University of Westminster, and it now encompasses a website, guided tours and this book. @mod_in_metro 83

October

STICK A FLAG IN IT

1,000 Years of Bizarre History from Britain and Beyond ARRAN LOMAS

Obscurities and curiosities from 1,000 years of British history by the creator of the popular Youtube channel Thoughty2 Forget what you were taught at school – Stick a Flag in It will lead you down on a gripping, often grizzly journey through the most outrageous true history from the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066 to the eve of the First World War. From the tragic tale of the alchemist who strapped chicken feathers to his back and attempted to fly from Scotland to France, to the saga of a ruthless band of eighteenth-century counterfeiters who almost crashed the English treasury from a pub, this is history like you’ve never known it before. Title: Pub date: Format: Price: ISBN: Rights:

Stick a Flag in It 01/10/2020 Hardback £18.99 978-1-78352-914-8 World/Audio/TV & Film

NON-FICTION Arran Lomas is the creator of Thoughty2, a YouTube channel with 2.5 million subscribers and over 400 million views that makes mind-blowing factual videos on the weirdest, wackiest and most interesting topics. youtube.com/user/Thoughty2 84

October

A CURIOUS HISTORY OF SEX KATE LISTER

The Sunday Times bestselling exploration of the weird and wonderful things human beings have done in pursuit (and denial) of the mighty orgasm Based on the popular research project Whores of Yore, and written with her distinctive humour and wit, A Curious History of Sex draws upon Dr Kate Lister’s extensive knowledge of sex history. From medieval impotence tests to twentieth-century testicle thefts, Kate unashamedly roots around in the pants of history, debunking myths, challenging stereotypes and generally getting her hands dirty. This fascinating book is peppered with surprising and informative historical slang, and illustrated with eye-opening, toe-curling and meticulously sourced images from the past. You will laugh, you will wince and you will wonder just how much has actually changed. ‘I’ve never had so much fun learning stuff’ The Times ‘An anecdote-rich chronicle that uncovers layer on layer

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A Curious History of Sex 01/10/2020 Paperback £12.99 978-1-78352-971-1 World/Audio/TV & Film

of oppression. . . vivid and playful’ Guardian

NON-FICTION Dr Kate Lister is a university lecturer. She researches the history of sexuality and curates the online research project Whores of Yore. Kate is also a columnist for iNews and the Wellcome Trust where she writes about the history of sex. Kate won the Sexual Freedom Award for Publicist of the Year in 2017. thewhoresofyore.com / @WhoresofYore 85

October

REASONS MY CAT IS MAD HELOÍSA NORA

From the creator of Poorly Drawn Cats comes this guide to understanding the mind of your feline friend Three years ago, the Brazilian illustrator Heloísa Nora picked up her pen and drew her first feline after seeing a funny picture of a cat with a piece of bread on its head. Since then, she has sketched hundreds of illustrations for cat-lovers all over the world, which she tweets via the hugely popular Poorly Drawn Cats account. Now, she’s giving her pets a forever home, in Reasons My Cat is Mad. Here is a veritable hall of fame featuring the best, maddest cats so far, and chronicling all of the strange and wonderful ways in which our furry companions try to show us exactly what they’re thinking.

Title: Reasons My Cat is Mad Pub date: 15/10/2020 Format: Hardback Price: £9.99 ISBN: 978-1-80018-004-8 Rights: World/Audio/TV & Film

FICTION Heloísa Nora is the illustrator behind the Poorly Drawn Cats Twitter account, which has garnered over 300k followers. @poorlycatdraw

November

I AM NOT A WOLF

DAN SHEEHAN, ILLUSTRATED BY SAGE COFFEY In this interactive story, assume the role of a wolf disguised as a man, trying to hide your real identity while navigating the minutiae of modern life Life is good. You have a job, an apartment and an online dating profile that’s recently yielded as many as three matches. From the outside, it would appear you’re a human man who has all the elements of a stable and functional life. But you also have a horrible secret. You’re not a human man at all. You’re a WOLF. Will you navigate water-cooler gossip without arousing suspicion? Can you go on a date without bringing up how much you love ham? Or is it perhaps time to throw this human life to the wind and return to the woods from whence you came? These choices and many more await you in I Am Not a Wolf.

Title: I Am Not a Wolf Pub date: 12/11/2020 Format: Paperback Price: £10.99 ISBN: 978-1-78352-933-9 Rights: World/Audio

FICTION Dan Sheehan is a writer from Chicago now living in Los Angeles. He created the wildly popular NOT A WOLF Twitter account which now boasts over 165k followers on Twitter and 80k on Facebook. His writing has been featured in Playboy, McSweeney’s, The Onion and ClickHole, among others. @SICKOFWOLVES 87

November

MUSIC TO EAT CAKE BY

Essays on Birds, Words and Everything in Between LEV PARIKIAN

A collection of essays in which the reader has decided the subject matter, from musical theatre to the art of the sandwich Today’s reader has choices. Books about love; books about death; books about Sheffield. Books about love, death and Sheffield. The variety is overwhelming, bewildering. But what if readers want to choose the subject they’re reading about? Music to Eat Cake By is that book. Lev Parikian asked his readers what they would like to read about, and the result is one part QI and one part David Sedaris – subjects covered include the art of the sandwich; the cricketer Kevin Pietersen; TV presenter Jack Hargreaves; how to get the best out of amateur musicians; and the intrinsic link between chocolate, the Wombles and musical theatre in post-millennium Britain.

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Music to Eat Cake By 12/11/2020 Hardback £16.99 978-1-78352-874-5 World/Audio/TV & Film

NON-FICTION Lev Parikian is a writer, conductor and hopeless birdwatcher. His first book, Waving, Not Drowning, was published in 2013, and his second, Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear?, followed in 2018. His numerous conducting credits include the re-recording of the theme tune for Hancock’s Half Hour for Radio 4. @LevParikian 88

November

VIRTUAL CITIES

An Atlas and Exploration of Video Game Cities

KONSTANTINOS DIMOPOULOS, ILLUSTRATED BY MARIA KALLIKAKI A beautifully illustrated atlas exploring the spectacular imaginary cities of video games Video games allow us to construct and visit imaginary cities, to immerse ourselves in the wildest utopias and darkest dystopias of our lost pasts and possible futures. Virtual Cities is an illustrated atlas that documents this rich and exciting history through a combination of original maps, ink drawings and insightful commentary. From metropolitan sci-fi open worlds to medieval fantasy towns, contemporary cities to gothic horror urbanism, the book spans almost forty years of the most iconic, complex and intriguing cities in gaming, with detailed entries on Half-Life 2’s City 17, Yakuza’s Kamurocho, Fallout’s New Vegas, Silent Hill and many more.

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Virtual Cities 12/11/2020 Hardback £30.00 978-1-78352-848-6 World/Audio/TV & Film

NON-FICTION Following years of research in urban planning and city geography, Konstantinos Dimopoulos combined his knowledge of cities with his love for games in the field of game urbanism. He has worked on games including Seed, The Sinking City, Cyberganked and Cyberpunk Cities. @gnomeslair Maria Kallikaki is a visual artist specialising in landscape oil paintings, engravings and ink illustrations. 89

November

ON THE MENU

The World’s Favourite Piece of Paper NICHOLAS LANDER

A delicious celebration of the history, design and evolution of the restaurant menu, from the Financial Times’s restaurant critic Foreword by Michel Roux Jr From the Financial Times’s longstanding restaurant critic Nicholas Lander comes this celebration of the world’s favourite piece of paper: the menu. Lander has collected a stunning array of menus, from those at the cutting edge of contemporary culinary innovation, like Copenhagen’s Noma, to those that are relics from another age, such as a Christmas feast of zoo animals served during the Siege of Paris in 1870. Alongside are interviews with some of the most renowned chefs of our time, including Mario Batali, Michael Anthony, Heston Blumenthal, Massimo Bottura, René Redzepi, Ruth Rogers and many more, who explain how they decide what to serve and what inspires them to create and design their menus.

Title: On the Menu Pub date: 12/11/2020 Format: Paperback Price: £18.99 ISBN: 978-1-78352-940-7 Rights: World/Audio/TV & Film

NON-FICTION Nicholas Lander views menus from a highly unusual perspective as the only restaurant critic to have owned and run one of London’s most successful restaurants, L’Escargot in Soho. For the past thirty years he has been a critic for the Financial Times. His first book, The Art of the Restauranteur (2012), was named a Book of the Year by the Economist. 90

NEW TITLES: DIGITAL The following titles are from our digital-first list, available to order as paperbacks from GBS at orders@gbs.tbs-ltd.co.uk Based on the astonishing true story of England’s earliest female spies, Killing Beauties will transport you to a seventeenth-century London rife with political intrigue, betrayal and conspiracy. Title: Killing Beauties Author: Pete Langman ISBN: 978-1-78965-065-5 Price: £9.99

A story of the exploitation of animals for food, fashion and entertainment from the unique perspective of an undercover investigator.

Title: Not as Nature Intended Author: Rich Hardy ISBN: 978-1-78965-063-1 Price: £10.99

Gentrification on the block, a showman in the White House, ethics gone. This is the 1980s.

Title: Not So Fast Author: Mark Kamine ISBN: 978-1-78965-071-6 Price: £9.99

Human navigation for a complex world: an indispensable handbook for anyone seeking inspiration and fresh direction. In work. In life. And beyond. As you’ll discover, the answers to our questions are right in front of our eyes. We walk past them every day. Title: Wanderful Subtitle: Human navigation for a complex world Author: David Pearl ISBN: 978-1-78965-073-0 Price: £9.99

Sometimes, for one’s own sanity, it’s best to rip up an entire life and start again. The question is: whose life? And who does the ripping?

Title: Happy Family Author: James Ellis ISBN: 978-1-78965-051-8 Price: £9.99

A powerful polemic on the major threats facing the world today and how they can be overcome.

Title: Taming the Four Horsemen Author: Robin Hanbury-Tenison ISBN: 978-1-78965-109-6 Price: £9.99

A memoir that explores an outrageous public health initiative and an unlikely love story.

Title: Those Who Eat Like Crocodiles Author: Laura Fitzgerald ISBN: 978-1-78965-069-3 Price: £9.99

A missing person enquiry leads Manchester DCI Rick Castle to Nepal.

Title: The Trail Author: James Ellson ISBN: 978-1-78965-077-8 Price: £10.99

Indispensible and hilarious* notes on midlife. (*possibly)

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The Middle Years When the Kids Grow Up... and Everything Goes Tits Down Author: Liz Fraser ISBN: 978-1-78965-079-2 Price: £9.99

Jack’s a Royal Marine. A war hero, haunted by his past. Or is he just haunted?

Title: Draca Author: Geoffrey Gudgion ISBN: 978-1-78965-105-8 Price: £9.99

The teenagers from Oakenfold Special School return to the front line as dystopian war heroes.

Title: Underdogs Subtitle: Tooth and Nail Author: Chris Bonnello ISBN: 978-1-78965-095-2 Price: £10.99

Purple People is a jolly dystopia, telling the story of an outlandish scheme to curtail crime and anti-social behaviour – by dyeing offenders purple – and the news-loving lass who investigates it. Title: Purple People Author: Kate Bulpitt ISBN: 978-1-912618-72-9 Price: £10.99

SHELFIE: TOM HODGKINSON Tom Hodgkinson is editor and publisher of the Idler (idler.co.uk). He is the author of six books including the Sunday Times bestseller How to Be Idle, How to Be Free and Business for Bohemians. We caught up with him to learn all about his library and how his reading habits have evolved over the years. Can you remember the first book you bought? Yes, it was a Famous Five book, one of those lovely red hardbacks. Possibly Five on Kirrin Island Again. I was four and became a massive fan. In those days I found Uncle Quentin really scary. But rereading the books as a middle-aged man, I see what he was going through, with his money troubles and stresses. He was quite progressive: he was working on a non-fossil-fuel form of energy and had no problem with the fact that his daughter identified as a boy. How big is your library now? Probably around 2,500 to 3,000 books. How do you arrange your books? I attempt to clump similar ones together. Essays and letters; poetry; drama; novels; classics; reference; cookbooks and so on. But many shelves are just a jumble. Favourite reading spot in your house? Either in bed or in a chair in the corner of the kitchen. Do you have a regular purge? Yes, and it is painful. Favourite bookshop, new or second-hand? I miss the second-hand bookshops of Charing Cross Road, and I find that new bookshops make me sad. Too many thwarted dreams, and too many books by friends and rivals on display. I suppose my favourite 94

would be Hatchards on Piccadilly, because it is so big. I’m afraid I buy my second-hand books via AbeBooks, which is owned by the evil Amazon, destroyer of bookshops. What’s on your ‘to-read’ pile? I have just realised that I have never read We by Zamyatin. I also want to do a Jane Austen binge. What is your favourite edition that you own and why? Probably my Victorian set of Dr Johnson’s works, which I bought in 1991 or 92. Because they inspired me to launch the Idler magazine. To break the spine or keep it as immaculate as possible? Keep as immaculate as possible. My partner destroys books as she reads them, and it really annoys me. Do you lend books? Try to avoid it! I do give books though. Do you like to get books signed by the author? Yes, I do. It still excites me to get books signed by authors I love.

GIVING NEW LIFE TO OLD BOOKS

Backlisted.fm

Featuring: The Unwinding A breathtaking illustrated pillow book, from celebrated author and artist Jackie Morris The Philosopher Queens The lives and legacies of twenty women whose ideas have had a profound – but for the most part uncredited – impact on the world Vic Reeves Art Book An expedition through the mind of Jim Moir – aka Vic Reeves – in his first collection of visual work in a decade The FUTURES Series A series of essays envisioning the future, from Tortoise, the champions of slow news Longhand . . . and a publishing first: Andy Hamilton’s latest comic novel, told via a 300-page handwritten letter, reproduced in facsimile for our reading pleasure