My trip to FantasyCon in Nottingham at the weekend has reinforced my assertion that the best, most imaginative writers in the UK exist outside of the mainstream.
It’s long been the case that our best script writers are not to be found in the committee-led world of British TV or the barren wilderness of our laughable film industry; they are working in comics. The likes of Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis, Grant Morrison and Mark Millar create characters and worlds that are not only triumphs of imagination and fine examples of what creative people can achieve when left to their own devices, but are also better written in terms both of dialogue and narrative than their more mainstream cousins.
It dawned on me this weekend that comics are not the only place where imagination still flourishes. Genres like horror, fantasy and science fiction tend to be looked down on by the mainstream (even as it ingests those genres’ best ideas and shits them out, minus all their nutritional components, for public consumption) and therefore receive minimal attention and the writers within them struggle both for recognition and a living wage. Nonetheless if, as a reader, you want to be taken to somewhere beyond the corner of your street; to experience something out of the ordinary and be introduced to unforgettable characters that you can’t meet everyday in the supermarket, you need to look beyond the confines of John Grisham and Martina Cole.
I therefore commend to you the work of Michael Marshall (and his alter ego Michael Marshall Smith), Tim Lebbon, Mark Morris, Sarah Pinborough, Jasper Fforde, Conrad Williams, Guy Adams, Nicholas Royle… The list goes on and on an on (and I’m only listing those I’ve personally read and can recommend). Your best introduction is going to be to buy any of the numerous anthologies edited by Stephen Jones (The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror is a good place to start), read the short stories and then explore more work by the authors you like, of which there will be many.
And don’t be put off by labels or some inherited genre prejudice you can’t even remember acquiring; these are good stories told by terrific writers who care about what they’re doing and, given the poor state of the publishing industry, are not just churning it out for the cash.
There’s a whole new world of imagination, creativity and wonder out there people, but the entrance to that world is not to be found in WH Smiths. Do your brain a favour and go read something new.
I completely agree with you. My blog today was about some of my favorite comics. There are some great writers out there doing amazing work.
I would add a genre to your list. Mystery writers also get clumped into the genre slums but I can’t think of any writers out there who are doing more to tell the story of the desperate than mystery writers. Reading Ian Rankin or George Pelecanos is like taking a short course on inner city civics.
Thanks for the great blog.
It’s difficult, because most people only know the mainstream. I love so many writers that most people don’t even know about. I suppose it’s their loss, but it seems sad.
You only recommend SJP because she will bitch-slap you all over Twitter if you didn’t!
Love and cuddless from Judd
Well, even the mainstream sometimes has quality to offer, but I agree that renewal, surprise, experimentation and odd perspectives are often times found far away from the beaten track, tautological speaking. A thing I have noticed, though, and a concept I haven’t come quite to terms with, is the ability to be inspired by poor art/poor filmmaking, poor literature. Can one actually read and learn from Dan Brown and the likes or should I ignore them fully (and critique them without having read them)? I think I learn through great examples and bad examples. Even Dan B. has some tricks to pass on to Herta Müller and vice versa. Or? Thanks so much for an inspiring and genrous blog, Julian.