Bryant and May
Comedic writing should be taken seriously. It’s harder to pull off than you’d think. You need to have an image of the comedic element that you’re encouraging readers to ‘see’, and you have to divide out the serious elements of a book from the comic ones and keep them separate. Good comedy often comes from the […]
In the history of the Bryant & May books one thing stands out; the author has always known how to throw a party. In fact, there has never been a new Bryant & May without a launch bash of some kind. My editor Simon Taylor makes a delightfully pertinent and mercifully short speech, and […]
A chance remark from a friend has thrown me. Through him I gave a middle-aged Australian lady a copy of ‘Bryant & May: The Lonely Hour’. She had complained that she’d used up her Lockdown books and was looking for something new. My friend later explained that she hadn’t got on with it, and had […]
Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.
Today I fell back with relief into the fictional world of Bryant & May, staging a scene that involves an argument between Dan Banbury and John May over paint, an African parrot and a murder on a restaurant staircase. I don’t know if it will reach the second draft yet, it’s a bit mad. The […]
The handsome paperback of ‘The Lonely Hour’ is out in the UK now, and I have copies to give away in a London treasure hunt, but sadly this is not the time to do it. Hopefully the future schedule won’t change. In July the hardback of ‘Oranges & Lemons’ arrives, to be followed in November by […]
‘The Lonely Hour’, Bryant & May’s latest murder mystery, is out in paperback from today. I won’t be celebrating as I’m fasting prior to a hospital exploration – bad timing perhaps but life is full of bad timing, n’est pas? If you’re planning to buy a copy, you can help your local bookshop by ordering through […]
Dear diary, this week was rather more up and down than I’d hoped for. I bounced back from a debilitating virus that had lingered since January only to be knocked over by a courier bike in Bloomsbury, and am now laid up with a torn thigh muscle. But I’m doing better than my freelance friends […]
I now have a publication date for ‘Oranges & Lemons’, the next Bryant & May mystery. It’ll be out on July 23rd in time for your summer holiday reading. That’s a tad later than usual because last year there were two new B&Ms, so the paperback versions of both ‘The Lonely Hour’ and ‘England’s Finest’ […]
‘It’s all stored away up here.’ Arthur Bryant tapped his temple. ‘My head’s like an attic full of ephemera, old record albums, paperbacks you can’t bear to throw out and those moulds dentists used to make of your teeth.’ May sighed and pulled his chair closer to his desk. ‘Okay,’ he said, ‘do you want […]
