Too many novels are London-centric. London needs to get over itself. It’s so firmly lodged up its own arse that, to most Londoners, the rest of the country doesn’t even exist.- Ray Robinson talking exclusively to Transmission, September 2008.
In Transmission #12, we’re returning to our old stomping ground of Manchester as we interview two of the city’s most exciting new novelists. Ray Robinson, familiar to regular readers as a regular contributor to Transmission, talks to us about his new novel, The Man Without. His follow-up to the award-winning Electricity tells the story of Antony, a young Mancunian dealing with a poor upbringing and humiliating secret. “The Man Without has its genesis in my early experiences of family life and rural poverty,” Ray tells Transmission. “I guess I’m exploring my own territory, and Antony’s story carries real importance for me, because he is who I almost became.”
We also talk to fellow Manchester novelist Joe Stretch about his debut novel Friction, a satire of the empty consumerist lives of a group of over-sexed twenty-somethings. He’s an angry young writer, whose novel pulls no punches in criticising his contemporaries. “I’m an emotional guy; mine are just sort of emotional screams, really,” Joe admits. “I’ve realised I don’t really give a shit about a lot of things people do, like decent description and pace and structure. I just sort of do it and walk away from it, like throwing crap at a wall.”
And hailing from just up the road in Preston, award-winning poet and novelist Michael Symmons Roberts writes about how he balances his literary double life between his chosen disciplines. “I didn’t want to write the kind of novel some reviewers expect from poets – rich in description and poor in page-turning storytelling,” he admits. “In an effort to avoid that trap, I wrote a kind of crime novel and a book of mainly non-narrative poems.”
In the mood to celebrate our return to Manchester, Transmission #12 features a selection of brand new short fiction about the festival experience (although they range from the joys of a night at the opera to the grubbier communion of the cockfight).
Issue #12 is available to buy from our online shop →
The full contents for Transmission #12:
Interviews:
Sara Newman talks to Ray Robinson
Sara Newman chats to Joe Stretch
Articles:
Writer’s Block: Michael Symmons Roberts juggles poetry and fiction
Fiction:
It was Easier to Clap by Niven Govinden, illustrated by Matthew Gough
Old Magic by Domonic Nolan, illustrated by Tracey Long
Notes from an Opera by Peter John Shearing, illustrated by Luke Knight
The Clean Up by Mark Robinson, illustrated by Sara Cullen
Birds of Prey by Astrid Friedland, illustrated by Adam Pryce
A Carnival Heart by Douglas Bruton, illustrated by Ria Dastidar
Ambassadors by Hannah Brooks-Motl, illustrated by Caroline Tomlinson
The Waking World by Gareth Cutter, illustrated by Jo Phillips
The Mikuni Warrior Dolls by Jude Piesse, illustrated by John Casey
I Own an Octopus by Becky Hunt, illustrated by Rachel Jackson
Reading:
Richard Brautigan a feature review by Chris Killen
Uwem Arkpan, JG Ballard, Michael Chabon and Maxim Chattam