RADGEPACKET VOLUME FOUR: TALES FROM THE INNER CITIES

Radgepacket Volume Four, published by those nice people at Bykerbooks, arrived in the post a few days ago c/o Amazon.

Now, my TBR pile is a little daunting at present but I’d been eagerly awaiting this collection of short fiction and couldn’t resist sampling one straight away...

It had to be Paul Brazill’s The Night Watchman; featuring his Private Investigator from ‘Up North’, Peter Ord.

This was the first time I’d read an Ord story and Ord didn’t disappoint. It has all Paul’s hallmarks stamped over it; a wonderfully descriptive narrative, gritty dialogue sprinkled with deliciously dark humour plus those characters - I ask you, who else would describe a character with a face like a blackcurrant crumble!

I believe this is Paul’s debut in a print anthology although I know he has other stuff up and coming. It’s a fine debut from a talented and prolific writer who I know has a lot more to come in the way of published stories.

There are some super writers involved in this project: Ray Banks, Danny King and Andy Rivers to name just three more.

This should be an entertaining read and great value at £5.99 for 22 stories.

Have a good weekend folks.

GREAT CAR CHASES THAT ARE RIGHT UP MY STREET

I’ve been chewing the fat over the Blogosphere with Cormac Brown. Cormac, as you are no doubt aware, really knows his stuff and he has a post up at his blog on “Noir and San Francisco”. Pop over there if you have not read the post already and also here at The Rap Sheet. The subject is all about films that have been set in the fantastic city of San Francisco.

Cormac kindly posted a link for me (in the comments section) to that thrilling car chase from Bullitt, again shot in San Francisco, featuring the wonderful Steve McQueen.

Well, watching that chase scene stirred my old brain cells and up popped a memory of when I was a lad and the great John Wayne came to this part of South London to shoot a film called Brannigan.

I can recall queuing up with a load of other kids and getting an autographed card from the big man himself – oh the memories.

There is a super car chase in this film and, watching it again, at one point the two cars involved, a Jag and a Ford Capri, come flying down the very road where I now live – it’s a small world. Click HERE; it’s a belter.

The car chase scenes were stitched together around different areas of Battersea/Wandsworth but the chase suddenly concludes on Tower Bridge, which is a good six miles away from here as the crow flies – but I guess that’s show business folks!

TBR PILE

My TBR pile of books is not getting any smaller but during a shopping trip today I couldn’t resist treating myself to these three.

I’m really looking forward to cracking the spine on these books as soon as I can; I’m currently reading “Loss” by Tony Black, which is a super read.

I WRITE LIKE

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

This has been doing the rounds on a few blogs over the last couple of days. So, doing what I do best, holding onto somebody’s coattails, I decided to give it a go.

I pasted in the following piece, which I have been kicking around on my keyboard for a while. It came back with David Foster Wallace.

I had no previous knowledge of David Foster Wallace but I looked him up and will pay him all due respect.

As for my bit of hackneyed stuff and nonsense... Well, nuff said.

Have a good weekend folks.

***

Priest fired up a Silk Cut and the Audi Quattro and burnt rubber.

Lately, Priest had likened himself to his fictional hero: Detective Chief Inspector Gene S. Hunt.

Albeit being on the opposite side of the law.

The TT Coupe was clean; hired under a false name and paid for with a Gold MasterCard that was moodier than a teenager peppered with acne. A little ostentatious maybe but like Gene, Priest did things with style.

Illegal things.

Gene Hunt, Priest wondered how long it would take for the name to find its way into the cockney rhyming slang vernacular. A smile cracked his hard, grizzled face and he let loose a nicotine abused chuckle.

It wasn’t a nice face. Picture a slab of cold meat.

It wasn’t a nice smile. Picture a ravenous Python bearing down on a mouse at feeding time.

Six foot six tall, Priest was a ferocious looking man with a rep to match. He was a vicious career criminal and as popular as a fart in a space suit with the Metropolitan Police as well as a large part of the South London criminal fraternity.

Did he care? Not a jot.

“F**k em,” was his moto.

(c) Alan Griffiths 2010

BRIT GRIT INTERVIEW

He is a gentleman of the blogosphere and Paul D. Brazill has graciously re-posted my Brit Grit interview over at his blog – You Would Say That, Wouldn’t You?

If you missed it first time around at Pulp Metal Magazine then please double digit HERE.

Mr Brazill needs no introduction, as you all know by now he is a talented and prolific writer and his blog is choc-a-block with super stuff. Thanks PDB!

PULP METAL MAGAZINE INTERVIEW

Paul D. Brazill recently subjected me to the old knuckle-duster treatment; trying desperately to get me talking about all things Brit Grit. He succeeded and you can have a gander at my off the cuff ramblings over at the excellent Pulp Metal Magazine. Double digit HERE please folks.

My thanks go to Paul (he’s a blooming dynamo) for thinking of me and for putting together the interview questions, which I very much enjoyed answering – the cuts and bruises are healing up nicely, thank you PDB!

MARK TIMLIN’S NEW BLOG

One of my favourite Brit Grit authors, Mark Timlin, has recently started a new BLOG.

Apart from being a cracking hardboiled writer, Mark, the creator of Nick Sharman PI, is also a fine book reviewer. So, this should be interesting stuff and well worth bookmarking.

A new Sharman novel, Stay Another Day, has recently been released.

For more information on Mark double digit HERE and HERE.