I’ve always had a soft spot for the Albert Kennedy Trust, although my association with them started off for the daftest of reasons. I mean, as a huge fan of Archie Kennedy (from the Hornblower TV series) that name was always going to catch my eye. When I read about Albert, a runaway from a children’s home who fell to his death from the top of a car park in Manchester, having suffered rejection and abuse from society, I decided I had to support the cause of getting GLBT youngsters off the streets and into supportive families.
You can imagine my delight when I was putting together my Christmas present wish list (which is always book heavy) and found Canal Street Gothic, by David Thame, in support of AKT. It was described as a collection of ten stories set in and around Manchester’s gay village revealing the gothic truths beneath the shiny surfaces of the twenty-first century city. I had high hopes, but I’ve had them dashed before, on the harsh reality of blurbs overselling their books. So I was delighted to find this book lived up to expectations. [Read more...]
It’s always been my practice to have music playing while I write, but then again, there is always music playing in my home so that shouldn’t seem odd. For me, the written word, like a musical score, has a certain syncopation to it, a vibratory tone that underscores what you read as you read it.
So when I started this out I was being convinced by friends that I ‘just had to publish.’
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