The Lowlife takes up to a grimy depicition of mid-century London where we are transported to the underbelly of dog racing, and the gamblers that are addicted to the thrill of winning everything, and then losing it on the next race.
Harryboy immediately strikes us as a complex narrator navigating his own self-deprecating helplessness with his vice, and his quest for redemption in the eyes of his neighbours.
It is an exciting book that compells you to read it as fast as you can, like you’ve just uncovered the best tip on the track and have to rush to get your bet in, leaving you empty on conclusion, knowing you can’t dip back into that world.
Baron’s prose gets us into Harryboy’s head in the first paragraph, and from there he has us wrapped around his little finger, weaving a tale of morality, vice, and virtue (in between some fantastic high stakes confrontations).
Harryboy is lowlife, scum. But if he leaves the track after the thirteenth race quids in, everyone will say, there goes Harryboy Boas, King of the Track. Trouble starts for Harryboy when the Deaners move into his Hackney boarding house. Quicker than he can place a bet on a dog, Harryboy finds himself the admired hero and evil genius of the family, particularly for the child Gregory. Yet Harryboy is also the victim of a secret guilt of his own, something unknown even to his doting sister, Debbie, ensconced in her nouveau riche Finchley mansion. As the debts from his…
A wild ride of what could be a fictional depiction of Man(mad?)chester where our protagonists search in every hook and cranny for vurts, a feather that transports you into a virtual dream world experience. Needless to say, once you get burned out on these feathers you go searching for even deeper trips, with deeper conundrums and deeper labyrinths to escape from.
Noon’s writing puts us in location immediately and does not wait for you to catch up. You’re in his world now, and it’s up to you to keep up. The narrative moves at a hundred miles per hour, and you’re left scratching your head by the end, perhaps wishing to try one of these feathers yourself (or, at least reminiscing about your past lives on the lookout for deeper trips).
Scribble and his gang, the Stash Riders, haunt the streets of an alternate Manchester, chasing the immersive highs that come from Vurt Feathers. Place a feather in your mouth and it takes you to the Vurt: another place, a trip, a shared reality of all our dreams and mythologies.
Different coloured feathers provide different experiences, but Scribble is searching for his lost love and only one feather offers the hope of finding her. It's the ultimate feather, it may not even exist at all: Curious Yellow.
But as the Game Cat says, "Be careful, be very careful. This ride is…
If you’re into the study of the occult you will know the name of Crowley, but perhaps not the name of his estranged son. Or, did he ever have a son and are we reading the words of a liar?
You be the judge as the author engages the reader into a game of cat and mouse, drip feeding you hidden knowledge without ever revealing his secret. The book feels magical, in that you are holding an artefact of magical debate, written in that alluring, page turning style that makes you feel that the answer to the riddles of reality are hidden on the next page.
Write Club is a new creative initiative produced by Blake House. We work with you to create the ultimate environment to get whatever it is that you want to make, made. There are no excuses, just pure uncapped creative endeavors.
Writers can expect weekly sessions of ultimate productivity in designed settings made to get the most out of your creative brain. Our class leaders are working writers who have honed their skills and learned the hard lessons to create our sessions. You will dip in and never want to dip out again.
Sessions take place in person in London on an application-based format, and we run weekly online sessions.
