I’ve been thinking about the difference between horror and thrillers, and how the two are often intertwined. It helps if we refine what ‘thrill’ means. It’s that surge of fight or flight energy that can be hugely exciting because it implies you have a chance to get away. Horror differs because it’s the dreadful feeling […]
When Kubrick and Aldiss were talking about the early drafts of – you guessed it – the film A.I. (based on Aldiss’s Supertoys short story) they got to talking about how to make the ultimate big daft science fiction movie, to the point of actually setting out a basic structure. And what that structure was, […]
The Hollows is an enjoyably gripping blend that starts as a police procedural, quickly engages horror’s shared DNA with thriller fiction, and ultimately descends (in the best sense) into cosmic elder god nightmare. It also works well as a social deconstruction of folklore, splicing Peak District place names with the roles of individuals in village […]
I will write more about the experience soon, but I wanted to share the recordings of the show, which premiered on 17 April at Reclamation, the 2022 EasterCon in London. Deviant Database is a solo theatre show I wrote and performed based on previous pieces written for Virtual Futures, and also a near-future nightmare anthology […]
My solo science fiction theatre show Deviant Database finally premiers at the Reclamation EasterCon on 17 April 2022! It’s at 9pm in the Main Room of the convention, which is at London Radisson Heathrow, Bath Road Building A, West Drayton, UB7 0DU. The 50-minute show consists of five Black Mirror-style near-future nightmares: The Gene Auction […]
I was lucky enough to be invited to Southborough Book Fair on Saturday 12 March. As it was a family event I thought it would be good to focus on Imelda & the Horned Owl, which is the epic fantasy adventure for 7-12 year-olds I wrote with my daughter Lana, when she was between 7 […]
In the spirit of this remarkably honest book I must admit I don’t read many memoirs, either because of the way they’re written or because of the form. I have no such reservations about ‘Go’. It is car-crash compelling, if I can say so as a compliment. Fittingly, such paradoxes abound in the book and […]
There are many labyrinths in this beguiling and original fantasy novel, from the elaborate, confusing collection of gardens around a country mansion in Hertfordshire to the insane complexities of the English class system. Time itself is a maze, with narratives set at different periods nestling like Russian dolls, while characters and images reflect each other, […]
Originally posted on language: a feminist guide:
We’re not even a week into February, but the shortest month has already produced two news stories on one of this blog’s perennial themes: the Divine Right of men to talk at, about and over women. One of these stories garnered international attention. In Japan, Yoshiro Mori, head…
Life in Sci-Fi 