July 30, 2006

...End Quotes

Great write up in the Independent on Sunday this morning as part of their Fifty Hot Books For Summer:

"Startlingly original and defiantly British... Ashon is a major new talent."

July 25, 2006

Begin Quotes...

Some press quotes:

"A shiny, hyper-modern dream of Eden is here stripped to its bloody heart... a realism that can include moments of sheer, quiet, sad poetry... watch this space, because Ashon can really write" - The Guardian

"A brawny, dystopian novel that never loses its Orwellian sense of humour … Clear Water is a rewarding novel that signals the arrival of a skilled cultural commentator." - Time Out

"There is an impressive imagination at work here and... flashes of brilliance in the writing." - The New Statesman

"A weird and wonderful look at the dreadful side of modern England" - Esquire

"Extraordinary... A superbly written exposé of consumer society and contemporary mores by a prodigious new talent." - The Book Magazine

"A darkly comic critique of Britain... every bit as encompassing as a Don De Lillo novel... an extremely compelling book" - Flux

"Not often is Englishness and all it means treated with the same extended examination as Clear Water provides; as such this is an important novel; one which is as compelling, funny and accessible as it is literary." - Blowback

"A remarkable, darkly funny, addictive and far ranging novel" - Clash

July 24, 2006

The Return of Mr Pynchon

Thomas Pynchon's new book is apparently out this December (a mere 992 pages long) and the man himself has posted his own description of it at Amazon.com. The fact that his publishers took the notice down thinking it was the work of a spoofer until he contacted them and told them to put it back up perhaps suggests that all the information he gives may not be entirely accurate. Unless no one at the publishers has seen it yet...

Either way, it takes care of my Christmas list. And everyone else's Christmas presents. And birthday presents. Etc.

July 04, 2006

Going Underground...


A strange, obsessive site with too many exclamation marks, but very satisfying in its own London Underground-crazed way and with a marvellous pic of the Queen on the Victoria Line. Which I've stolen.

Going Underground