DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy
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‘I believe in the fantastic as a crucial part of literature’
Novelist CHRISTOPHER PRIEST talks to Andy Hedgecock about his latest novel, set in an otherworldly archipelago where thousands of islands offer endless climactic, cultural and political possibilities
[Eric Messel/Creative Commons]
STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
The bard invites readers to a gig, raps for Clacton, and lays out the Burnham-Hurzeler conundrum
RON JACOBS recommends an important book that enhances the oppositional theories put forth by Fanon and, in doing so, remakes psychology itself
“I WRITE instinctively, responding to impulses,” says Christopher Priest. “Most of my books since The Affirmation have a double quality — on one level, the main one, they are stories to be told, intended to be enjoyed, and which will probably contain some ideas that intrigue the reader.
“The second level is a sort of invitation to the reader to join in the process, to see and understand the book from another viewpoint, to accept that it is fiction.”
Written in 1981, The Affirmation is set in a region of wonders called the Dream Archipelago. It was my portal into Priest’s witty and philosophical science fiction, which tackles deception, the plasticity of reality and the malleable nature of memory and perception. Subverting genre conventions, it explores the nature of storytelling.
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