Shouting In a Pub

Next week I am engaged to be shouting in a pub. Actually, only nerves will cause the shouting. I'm meant to be reading. ANd I'm even (whisper it) hoping to write something special for the night.

Fear not...

In addition to me there's readings from Amber Marks (author of "Headspace: On The Trail of Sniffer Dogs, Wasp Wardens and other Dumb Friends in the Surveillance Industry" - the latest, greatest non-fiction work on the corporate and state colonization of private/personal space) and Daniel Davies (author of "The Isle of Dogs" and like me a man slaving under the yoke of being compared to J.G.Ballard). There will also be beer at the bar, available in exchange for paper tokens from a cashpoint of your choice.

Even if it's not actually fun there will always be alcohol...

Date: Thursday, June 5, 2008
Time: 8:00pm - 11:00pm
Location: The Boogaloo
Street: 312 Archway Road, N6 5AT
City/Town: London, United Kingdom
Phone: 02083402928

The Day I Bought A Controlling Interest In The Independent Newspaper Group

Okay, so I didn't. I don't have enough money. Otherwise I would've done. Because being a newspaper mogul has to be better than waiting for reviews. Just think of the yachts you can fall off the back of.

Anyhow. The Independent on Sunday did me proud yesterday and you can read the review here.

That's it.

Cap'n Bill. Got a nice ring to it.

Reviews...

Still waiting, scared to open the weekend papers, but have had a couple of nice ones:

"The Heritage is a disturbing, sophisticated and brilliant novel. With Dickensian brio, Ashon creates characters, handles plot effectively and writes so well ... a twisting, turning, riveting journey of grubby sex, criminality, sperm clinics and grim discovery. This is fresh, serious, explicit, unsettling fiction." - Irish Times

"A completely assured - if intensely discombobulating - book, The Heritage has "cult classic" written all over it, but also suggests a writer with a great future." - Word Magazine

I don't think you can read either of them in full online and, in fact, I haven't read them in fullmyself, so I can't certify 100% that they don't also say I'm a bit rubbish.

Download A Short Story

As I continue to burn in the white heat of new technology and Harold Wilson haunts my dreams, I wake in the morning with all kinds of dumb ideas. My latest is a downloadable short story and so it has come to pass. It's called "Hole" and I wrote it for the Verb on Radio 3, but as that's no longer available to listen to online, I thought I should turn it into a pdf and upload it so you could download it and read it or even print it out for posterity (huh?). Anyway, it's a very small file and it's obviously free so go and do it now....

The Third Programme

That's what it was in those glory days when the BBC ruled the world and all quaked before its well-spoken might. Now they'll even let chancers like me on there. But the good news (in relative terms, I guess - i.e. relative to me) is that The Verb broadcast a new short story by me on Friday night. It sounded dead good and what have you in that it were read by a proper actor, like. You can listento it here. Personally I could only sit through the first sentence I spoke before I had to turn off, but in that brief moment I realised a transcendent truth. I do not speak like a man with a beard...

Not (radio) Waving But...

Was on the Book Panel with Simon Mayo on Radio 5 Live yesterday. All in all an odd experience but nowhere near as traumatic as I was expecting. You can listen to (or even download...) the podcast here for the next week.

Alternatively, there's a brief interview with me and a new short story by me being broadcast on the Verb tonight between 9.45pm and 10.30pm on Radio 3.

Better Late..?

Having been utterly crap at maintaining this blog over the last few months, it's now my duty to inform you (if there is any 'you' out there) that my new book is published this week.

What else can I tell you?

It's called "The Heritage" (though originally it was called something else).

As you can see it has a rather marvellous cover courtesy of Alex Kirby at Faber.

As far as I know there haven't been many reviews of it yet but Marianne Brace wrote a very nice piece for the Independent a couple of weeks ago.

I'm on Radio 5 Live with Simon Mayo on Thursday afternoon along with Anne Enright (the fear, the fear) and on the Verb on Radio 3 on Friday night, where a genuine actor will be reading a new short story by me (links to follow when I have them and if it's not too humiliating...).

Let me see... Oh yes, it's half price at Amazon but I hope is available elsewhere, too.

Anyway, I guess that's it for now. More news to follow, as long as I can remember my password this time...