As we approach the annual airing of family grievances what better Festivus gift than the new King Crimson documentary? 50 years of gripes and grudges!
Robert Fripp can be very funny these days but probably wasn’t back then. And not always now. ‘I don’t have the problem. The problem lies elsewhere’. Is he a good advert for the mysticism of Gurdjieff and JG Bennett? Maybe he would have been even more disagreeable without it. Having said that he has achieved infinitely more than most people. His omelette required the breaking of many eggs, and some egos. Half a century of complex music, ever evolving improvisation, the logistical nightmare of travel and legal wrangles. This obviously requires some steely glances from the besuited taskmaster.
As an idiot ex-hippy I’m in no position to criticise. I found it hard keeping a duo together. Then I was the only solo act who split up due to ‘musical differences’.
KC music ranges from sensual beauty to the grim and oppressive. After the initial teenage rapture I eventually tired of the jackhammer metal misery bits which was why some of the first band left, breaking Robert’s heart.
We see a heartfelt apology from Ian McDonald. The scarily astute Bill Rieflin talks us through his imminent death from cancer. There are recollections from some well balanced gentlemen and spikier memories from several people who are still a little miffed.
There are many charming moments. This is a dream job for singer/guitarist Jakko who was an adolescent Crimson disciple. He even had a dog called Fripp. Jakko and drum virtuoso Gavin Harrison briefly slummed it with me in the Tom Robinson band raising the general competence level drastically. It’s a shame there wasn’t more of Gavin’s wicked laddish humour although it wouldn’t have fitted with Fripp’s austere spiritual mindset. Discipline. We have ways of making you REALLY FOCUSSED AND INTENSE.
The project is a constant search for the meaning of life, raising profound questions such as: why invite someone to make a documentary and then treat them like an intruder? Is the peevish persona a put on or will touring turn the mildest of men into a tinpot Hitler?
Funny. Poignant. Enlightening. Best rock doc since Spinal Tap.
Get Carter the movie has just been re-released. No better time to read Nick Triplow’s biography of Ted Lewis, who wrote many more superb Noir novels, his own life a particularly dark and dissolute story.
I’ve wanted to know more about Ted Lewis for about forty years and this doesn’t disappoint. It’s a sombre story. I’ve known a lot of alcoholics but none who managed to kill themselves this quickly. Back then parents, especially fathers, could be distant, teachers might be brutal. Even so, the cold contempt of his grammar school headmaster is surprising. Then again, Lewis was lucky to be mentored by a great writer. In general people who shout out in cinemas should be thrown off the top of a multi story car park but one of Ted Lewis’s heckles is excellent. Very dark, very funny, just like his novels. At this point reviewers often include a pointless quibble, as if it matters that that you don’t totally agree with two sentences in an entire book. Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon doesn’t seem that bad to me – maybe I’m a literary slob. It’s baggy with a few longeurs but you could say that about most literary novels. It is lazy and repetitive, like the later Hunter S Thompson, also not a great advert for alcoholism but still worth a look. I was not offended by some of his gay characters being ‘stereotypical’, similar characters can still be found in gay bars. (Can I say that? Being bisexual? Despised equally by straight and gay?) Sorry. It really doesn’t matter. This is a fascinating book, one to which I will return. (2022 I just re read it. Utterly brilliant.)
Mark Ramsden: Congratulations on Getting Carter. Thoroughly researched. Well written. Was there anything that you had to leave out that might please sad obsessives such as myself?
Nick Triplow: Thanks Mark, it’s good of you to say so. The research element of the book had the potential to become one of those never-ending quests, so many rabbit holes and ideas. But I met some wonderful, generous people and learned a great deal about post war British life and how our culture was shaped by those experiences and still is to some extent. At the heart of the book is the not always easy reality, which is that Lewis’s life had its share of chaos. Quite often people told me stories that I couldn’t verify or that, while true, didn’t add anything to the story. I learned very early on in the process the extent to which many of the people that thought they knew him best only really knew the version of them he chose to reveal. That, in itself, is fascinating. But you can only afford to speculate where there’s a reasonable chance a something is true. If you offer too many vague write-arounds, the credibility of the book comes into question. I can stand by everything that’s in there and I pretty much used all I had.
MR: Has there been any new information since the book came out?
NT: There’s the revelation, which I did get to include in the paperback edition that his final novel, GBH, was written in six weeks. That was quite the insight. I think he responded to that pressure. I’ve also reached the conclusion that he wrote like a jazz musician plays a solo: by that I mean he took the work as far out as he dared, and then went further. There’s that fascinating interview with David Bowie, another grammar school / art school creative. He says: ‘…when you don’t feel your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.’ I think Lewis absolutely thrived in that environment of risk. Without that pressure, he didn’t do good work.
MR: You’ve just done a Crime Time interview with Paul Burke, which is well worth a listen. You mentioned your new novel, which is out on submission. It references people exploiting the post 7/7 climate. Is there more you can you tell us?
NT: What Paul and Victoria and Crime Time FM are doing is wonderful, building on that tradition Crime Time set as a print magazine back in the 90s. The novel is a crime thriller with a gritty political edge and noir sensibilities. It features a former Special Demonstration Squad undercover officer operating in that murky world between policing and intelligence. I won’t say too much about the story for obvious reasons, but it does ask questions about increased surveillance, who it benefits, and the use and abuse of power at the heart of the State. The concept is for this to be the first in a series of novels that explores a tipping point in our recent history.
MR: What are the chances of two really good Noir writers called Nick ending up in the same region? (referencing Nick Quantrill)
NT: Fairly slim, I’d say. We’ve definitely used up our quota for the Humber. It does make it easier for people in meetings, only having the one name to remember.
MR: You’ve been involved with the Hull Noir Crime Fiction festival for some years now? Is it going from strength to strength?
NT: It will be. We’re in the process of putting together ideas as a precursor to applying for funding for a programme of events in 2022/23. I think, post-Covid, we’ve had a chance to look at how other similarly-sized festivals either developed or fell by the wayside. It makes sense to keep some of what we’ve learned: taking events online, for example, means we can reach audiences in different parts of the world. But I think people want to experience the dynamic and the buzz that comes with writers and audiences in the same room. I had a sense of that at Crime Fest last week. I guess we’re fortunate in many ways that, for Hull Noir, we’ve had a firm sense of our identity from the start. In part that comes from the city of Hull, its culture and its atmosphere, the people and a way of looking at the world. It’s a kind of punk / indie thing. Add to that the idea of Ted Lewis as a forefather of British crime and noir writing and our connection with his work, particularly the Get Carter story, and we feel that we’ve got something quite unique. We’ll certainly be doing something. ………………………………. Nick’s first novel Frank’s Wild Years is still available https://www.amazon.co.uk/Franks-Wild-Years-Nick-Triplow/dp/1907565140
‘Mr Madden – the central character of this book, and in whose voice it is written – is a busy man. Not only is he an undercover government agent tasked with infiltrating a far right hate group, he is also a Charles Dickens aficianado obsessed with Dickens final novel – the unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood – and finally, a serial killer. Now, being a Dickens enthusiast myself, I have to say it is this element that immediately attracted me to the book. The true genius of the novel, however, is the juxtaposition of the three – undercover agent, Dickens lover, murderer.
And it really is genius.
Never have I read a book so dark – and it is as dark a book as you will ever read – it is both hilarious and extremely moving. And that takes a writer of immense talent to pull off. Ramsden is such a writer.
Madden seemingly has an axe to grind – at times, literally – against most things in this world. Chavs are probably top of his list, followed in close second by the novelist Martin Amis. The list, though, is endless. I imagine the writing of this book provided a certain amount of catharsis for author Ramsden, at least I’d like to think so. Laughing along with Madden’s views, it provided a fair amount for me too. Reading the Martin Amis comment left me, for a sublime moment, feeling a little less alone in this world. And that can be no bad thing, surely.
I have no hesitation in placing this book in the top one or two I have read in recent years. And I have read loads. You will ache with laughter, you will recoil in absolute horror, you will reflect upon the beauty of this world and the nature of love, but ultimately, you will pray Mr Madden does not come for you.
DREAD: THE ART OF SERIAL KILLING by Mark Ramsden, is published by Fahrenheit Press in both Kindle and paperback edition, and is available here‘
Thank you very much Ian. I thoroughly enjoyed Abide With Me. the first in his highly acclaimed trilogy.
The Rum Diary is a mixed blessing. However, any script by Bruce ‘Withnail’ Robinson is worth reading. In addition to superb dialogue there’s generally some wit and wisdom sprinkled among the action and scene setting directions.
This concluding voiceover didn’t get on the screen – shame as it’s a fine obituary.
Les Edgerton’s life has been more eventful than most writers, for which see our earlier encounters. (including our different experiences with a flirtatious Britt Ekland, link below)
MR I really liked Hard Times. Gut wrenching. Heart rending. Characters you care about. It zips along. There could hardly be any more at stake. And it keeps getting worse, till the ending which wasn’t what you expected, without being a contrived twist. Great stuff. Some of it reminded me of your autobiography Adrenaline Junkie, (Highly recommended), in particular the harsh rural childhood.
Les Edgerton Thanks for that!
MR I’d rather not give away too much of the story but, roughly, a good person feels she can’t leave a bad husband, his behaviour worsens then a heatwave brings her isolated rural family close to starvation. Further calamities result in extreme jeopardy. It’s very moving in addition to being thrilling. Most of your fiction is more urban, more contemporary?
LE As a rule, yes. But, most of it takes place in small to medium-sized towns. New Orleans is about the largest town I’ve used for a setting.
MR I was amused by your contrasting of tv portrayals of prison life with your experiences, ‘The weight-lifting part always cracks me up. Criminals are basically… lazy. It’s one of the reason we rob places. We don’t want a 9–5. We don’t even want to fetch our own beers while watching the tube. As for pressing iron, way too much work.’https://electricliterature.com/that-dark-place-an-interview-with-author-lesedgerton/ Some great stories in that interview.
LE Thanks, Mark. There are more weight-lifters now and that’s because life imitates art. They see it on TV and in movies and assume that’s how they should behave. Actually, there’s a lot more herd mentality in the joint these days than there used to be. A lot…
MR How much of your fiction references time inside?
LE Quite a bit, actually. It’s just one of the more interesting parts of my life. That and my outlaw years. The straight life is downright boring…MR You still go to prisons to talk writing?
LE Not these days. The civilian instructor has now retired and I don’t know anyone any more. Almost all of the guys I was inside with are either dead or on the bricks nowadays. And, most of the guys inside are by and large punks… Also, my body has gone south and it’s hard to make long trips these days.
MR I’ve mostly given up on Twitter having racked up an impressive collection of toe stubbings and pratfalls. Is it more of a digital minefield than a way of meeting new people?
LE I’ve never been a big fan of Twitter–I can’t write short, so it’s not a good medium for me. Plus, it’s largely a sales platform for folks and it’s hard for me to keep coming up with tweets that mostly say: Buy my book.MR Agreed with your blogpost on Amazon’s review policy. Congratulations on your persistence, trying to get an answer regarding the vanishing reviews. Hard to see how we can function without reviews.
LE Never did get an answer from them. They don’t care and they’re like most social media–mostly into their political posturing.
MR We seem to be closer to civil war than we’ve ever been, both sides of the Atlantic. While I was waiting for my heart operation I didn’t want to say anything remotely contentious. Now there are no medical reasons to avoid debate but the chances of discussing anything without pistols at dawn have got even slimmer. Is there any hope of healing if November is a close result?
LE I don’t think so, Mark. What surprises me is that I’ve always thought of writers as being anti-censorship, but as it turns out are the biggest closed-mind people on the planet. What amazes me is that if the socialist side wins writers will quickly become workers for the state–Pravda employees–if they want to work and very few of them seem to realize that. Big wake-up call a’coming, methinks.
MR If you were asking the questions…is there something you’d like to raise?
LE Mark, you’re doing great! Much better than I would as an interviewer. I’d probably be asking such interesting questions as do you write on a computer or use a pen, or, what time of day do you write, or where do you get your ideas…
‘In 1930s East Texas, fourteen-year-old Amelia Laxault’s father insists she marry Arnold Critchin, a local boy who assaulted her on their first date. When Arnold’s alcohol-fueled brutality devastates their family, his ineptitude with crops destroys their farm, and his poorly run moonshine business lands him in prison, Amelia struggles to feed her four children as the Depression worsens and a secret from her past looms large.
Three hundred miles away, Lucious Tremaine tangles with a white police officer. Fleeing to Houston, a second altercation leaves him with a gunshot wound. Desperate and weak, he makes his way into the backwoods.
As Lucious encounters increasing obstacles and Amelia’s challenges escalate with Arnold’s return from prison-and a visit from her first love, who is now the local sheriff- an explosion looms. Will Lucious make it to Houston? Can Amelia save her children from both starvation and Arnold’s increasing, vengeful violence? As the odds stack up and the food runs out, Amelia must summon all her courage, strength, and ingenuity to attempt to save her family.’
Dread. published 2015. ‘Recalled to life’ new edition 2018. And still the slowest ever bandwagon rumbles on. Patient. Relentless. Remorseless. Global hegemony – any day now.
Dark, funny and brilliant
Aidan Thorn on Mar 02, 2019
It really is a shame that traditional publishers lack any bravely, because in a braver marketplace Mark Ramsden would be a major writing star. Thankfully Fahrenheit Press are here to pick up the mantle for the industry.
Dread is dark, funny, poetic, beautiful, ugly, gripping, weird, intriguing and ultimately brilliant. This is the book the likes of Chuck Palahniuk and Brett Easton Ellis wish they could write. We’re in the head of a serial killer for much of this book and it’s delightful. Inside Mr Madden’s drug, lust and grief fuelled head we are so far removed from the mainstream we might as well be on another plan at yet the modern cultural (that Madden despises) references are so we’ll observed we are acutely aware that this is the mind of a man warped by life. His relationship with Zero, a captive who is equally twisted, elevates the story to another level. Is it Stockholm syndrome or is she justas twisted as Madden, who knows, or cares, these two brilliant characters keep the pages turning as the gore, sex and violence flow. Outstanding
Thanks Aidan! Mr Thorn is the widely acclaimed author of the excellent When The Music’s Over and much more. He even has a proper, grown up, supercool dayjob. Check him out. @AidanDFThorn
Worth seeing with The Beardy Book Blogger’s superior graphics (Thanks again) but here’s the words.
TBBB Hello you lovely people and a very warm and squidgy welcome to the Beardy Book Blog for what is Day 26 of #Fahrenbruary.
You may be wondering what delights I have in store for you today, well, you can wonder no more for today I bring to you a Q&A from the king of transgressive noir himself, Mark Ramsden.
Mark is the author of the sexily naughty and spanktastic noir novel ‘Mistress Murder‘. I reviewed this book on Day 25, which, rather conveniently, was also yesterday. You can check out that very review riiiiiiiiiiiiight…….. here below https://beardybookblogger.com/2019/02/25/fahrenbruary-review-mistress-murder-mark-ramsden-mrramsden1-f13noir-fahrenheitpress/
Well, I bet that got your blood a-pumpin’, eh? I wager that that has got you wondering what kind of person possesses the sort of mind to come up with such a saucy story and wantonly flings words such as ‘rootle’ and ‘bottom’ about in the same sentence, huh?
Well today I hope we can clear up some of the questions you may have as we plunge into the mind of Mark.
Don’t be scared! Join us….
TBBB: Hi Mark and thank you for appearing on the Beardy Book Blogger for #Fahrenbruary 2019 and taking the time to answer my questions.
MR: Great to be here. Thanks for asking.
TBBB: First up, could you tell us a little bit about yourself – who is Mark Ramsden?
MR: I’m a little too anxious. My Native American name would be ‘Skin Too Thin.’ After studying music I worked with Bert Jansch, Roy Harper, Kiki Dee, Tom Robinson, many theatre and show business luminaries, countless less well known jazz musicians, some dance producers and DJs at clubs like Fabric, and finally with no one at all. And even that didn’t work. I’m the only artist who split up with himself due to ‘musical differences’.
I’m the only composer who’s been on daytime radio 3, next to Mozart, (heard by, ooh, dozens of people) and also been filmed being intimate with a glamorous assistant for a Dave Courtney film. (Cutting room floor, thankfully)
I wrote a lot of magazine articles in the 90s then a trilogy for Serpent’s Tail around the millennium before deciding that bipolarity, alcoholism and drug addiction just weren’t enough on their own. It was time for fifteen years heavy use of ‘psychedelic heroin’ and a journey across the entire transgender spectrum (which finished right round the bend.).
TBBB: Mistress Murder is a very funny black comedy featuring fetishism, obsession, transgenderism, alcoholism and drug abuse. In many ways it’s a very modern story, highly pertinent to our times. Was it your intention to highlight these issues when you set out to write it, or were you just thinking that they would make for a rollicking good read (which they do, btw 😅).
MR: Thank you! I didn’t have any choice, having lived it. I try to honestly portray the contradictions but that’s often unpopular. Satirising little cliques among a despised minority isn’t much of a business plan. Reassuring the vast majority would be better, something wholesome and uplifting, and I will get round to that one day. Hopefully before I die.
Incidentally, you don’t have to be a monster of moral turpitude to read it, although it helps. It’s also primarily a murder mystery. Who is the stalker? How can she trap him? It’s for anyone with a toxic parent, difficult relationships, a job that gets on top of you.
TBBB: Were any of the characters in Mistress Murder based on anyone you know?
MR: The real people I knew were crazier than those characters. There was an unconvincing brick outhouse transvestite whose day job had once been torturing the IRA; a Detective who tragically killed himself when he was exposed in the tabloids; an oil business guy who was recruited as a spy; a Deputy Prison Governor who wanted to stay in the same job after transitioning. Although she could in fact ‘pass’ that was perhaps ambitious.
And everyone thought I was nuts, with some justification.
TBBB: How much of Susan Godly is Mark Ramsden, and vice versa?
MR: I’m Northern grammar school as opposed to Southern Public School. We’re both self destructive addicts. Scatty. Most of my adult life was professional music and very little pro-domming. It’s the other way round for her.
TBBB: I am very open minded kinda guy – at least I like to think so at any rate – but the fetish scene has never really appealed to me outside of a genuine curiosity. However I can see its appeal to many; the idea of being something you’re not for a short while, or even the opposite – being able to be the person that you really believe that you are – in a non-judgemental environment. What led you into the scene and what is it, or was it, that appealed to you?
MR: Twenty five years ago I was a sort of Jehovah’s Witness of fetish, making a fool of myself in magazines and thankfully obscure tv programmes. Some of us thought we could make consensual fetish as respectable as gay sex had become, which turned out to be yet another erroneous assumption, along with most of my other core beliefs. What started as writing about the fetish scene eventually ended up as a month spent as a third sex pro-domme. Not the wisest of choices.
I’m no longer involved. It did help some people feel less isolated and we all had a wild time despite not being particularly glamorous. I used to say ‘fetish is swinging for unphotogenic people’.
Nothing is for free. A lot of personal chaos inevitably ensued. However well intentioned people are, polyamory often is like getting divorced in triplicate. Eventually. People aren’t always well intentioned which is still a surprise to me, even as I approach senility.
TBBB: Could you expand upon “third sex pro-domme” a little for those who may not have come across that term before? Don’t worry, this blog can take it!
MR: People say gender fluid now. I just looked better without wigs. More Richard O Brien than luscious t-girl:
Richard O’Brien aka Riff Raff and creator of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
That lasted about a month. Thankfully I had the bright idea (not) of living on a houseboat where Charles Dickens grew up. Also where he died. It eventually became impossible to ignore living in a heritage museum which generated “Dread: The Art Of Serial Killing” – a meditation on Dickens and the missing conclusion of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. With plenty of claret.
Mark’s novel about Dickens, serial killing and extraordinarily large noses. No, not really, but, by gum that’s an impressive hooter right there 👃🏻
TBBB: If you could be any character in Mistress Murder who would it be and why?
MR: The ones who don’t speak in the 12 step groups yet still get off booze and chemicals. Which was me, eventually, come to think of it.
TBBB: Throughout the mid 90’s – early 00’s the (in)famous Eurotrash aired on Channel Four, and highlighted many of the excesses of European sub-cultures such as fetishism, body modifications, etc. I loved it because it showed me aspects of life that I had no idea even existed, even if they were skewed towards the more ridiculous, and often presented in the same manner (who can forget the Romeo Cleaners, for instance, or the silly voiceovers when translating the people into English?).
The sublimely bonkers Eurotrash with Antoine Des Caunes and Jean-Paul Gaultier (not forgetting Pe-Pe and Po-Po, of course (sadly not pictured)
MR: Maria McErlane’s voiceovers were great. She’s brilliant. I always liked Eurotrash – I invented Fetish Morris Dancing that appeared in one episode – although for me it was a hopefully funny magazine bit, a patently ridiculous idea. I never thought people would actually want to meet and rehearse regularly. Then again Morris Dancing is surprisingly popular. And they mean it maan. Some think if they don’t dance there will be no Spring.(TBBB: Sadly I could not find a photo of this historic event ☹️ If anyone has one I’ll gladly slip it in, so to speak!).
TBBB: Do you think that programmes like Eurotrash helped the image at all, or do you feel it just further undermined it and enhanced people’s negative attitudes towards it?
MR: Scene people were a bit sniffy about ‘point and giggle’ shows but maybe its very existence made people more tolerant of diversity. Maybe it eventually helped you eventually cope with Mistress Murder?
TBBB: I certainly think they helped to open my mind to the idea of the subculture and what it may involve. Without it I would probably still be blissfully unaware and that would make for a much duller world view.
TBBB: As a nation the British are famously uptight about sex, at least in public. Behind the scenes I like to think that we are more liberated sexually, and are not afraid to explore sexual boundaries, than many think. Why do you think that we are perceived as such a stuck up nation and hide behind twitching curtains whilst other parts of Europe are not afraid to show it? Why are we so scared of what people get up to legally and consensually in private?
MR: Yes indeed. It even extends to tattooing. I discussed this with Fahrenheit author Russ Day (Needle Song – great plotting, great characters). People get furious about other people’s bodies. Which isn’t their business.
TBBB: Are/were you a leather, pleather, rubber or latex kinda guy? Or do you like to mix and match?
MR: Rubber’s too much like hard work. A lot of maintenance. Not very durable. Men look best in uniforms. Or leather.
TBBB: Is this something that you’re still active in?
MR: No public scene for more than ten years, no drink five years, no party drugs or psychedelics three years.
TBBB: What is your obsession nowadays?
MR: Freshly ground coffee. Green tea. Kale smoothies. Lots of lemon and ginger. Podcasts. Long form television drama.
TBBB: How important are Fahrenheit Press and Fahrenheit 13, or independent presses in general, to you?
MR: Thank heavens for the two Chrisses (TBBB: Chris McVeigh and Chris Black – the Top Bananas at Fahrenheit Press and Fahrenheit 13 respectively), especially courageous publishers. Use ‘UberFahrenFuehrers’ here? Perhaps not… (For future grievance archeologists, this is a play on words not an admission of wrong think.) They brought me back from the dead. I like the punk aesthetic. Novellas as opposed to a doorstep beach read. Ideal for me, now I can barely finish a tweet. Best editing. Best covers. Best bloggers. Very innovative publishing.
An earlier definition of Punk was a passive homosexual prisoner so maybe my slightly depraved tales fit in – or maybe I’ll always be slightly to one side in my Fortress of Solitude. Or Annex of Irrelevance. My only connection with early punk comes from smoking a lot of TV Smith’s dope (Him from the Adverts – Looking Through Gary Gilmore’s Eyes) when he opened for Tom Robinson. (Not in the biblical sense). And someone in one of Malcolm McClaren’s bands told me about the difficulty of getting their weekly retainer out of the old skinflint. ‘What do you want money for?” quipped Malcom. “You’ll only spend it.” Hahaha. Bastard. Well, I’m fond of Malcolm’s lunatic disco/Strauss Waltz mash up album, Waltz with Me – perhaps because I’m always welding together genres and maybe not everyone’s happy with the results. My books are not so much ‘niche’ as ‘crevice’ – not immediately apparent but a possible source of disreputable pleasure.
TBBB: Without F13 do you think that ‘Mistress Murder’ would have been published?
MR: Maybe not in any other Crime Press, maybe nowhere else at all, although I don’t research the market enough. Could be wrong. I generally am.
TBBB: Are you a plotter or a pantser?
MR: If I may customise a joke: how do you make God smile? Tell her you’re going to stick to your outline. I tried but the universe has other plans.
TBBB: Are you a fan of eBooks or do you prefer the feel and look of a physical book?
MR I love reading on a tablet now. More light. Built in dictionary.
TBBB: How do you pronounce ‘Scone” – rhymes with ‘gone’ or ‘stone’? I seem to be in the minority here as I pronounce it as in ‘gone’ (although I have been known to dabble in the odd ‘stone’ variation when the mood takes me). I have an ongoing thing with two fellow bloggers, and ‘stone’ campers, Danielle and Kelly who both, incorrectly as it happens, insist that they are superior to me. Don’t let me down here Mark!
MR: Ha! We both rhyme it with ‘gone’ but Ruth, being slightly Scottish knows it should rhyme with ‘spoon’.
TBBB: Hurrahhhhh, I knew I could rely on you. *happy face* As for rhymes with ‘spoon’, there’s a whole other argument I’ll leave right there 😅
The humble scone: rhymes with ‘gone’. Mark says so so it must be true (unless you’re Scottish or a certain Belgian blogger and her nefarious friend).
TBBB: Would you be a superhero or a supervillain?
MR: I’d be a supernegotiator trying to start the peace talks, and probably as useless as most politicians, but when reading I always side with the underdogs or the supposedly bad guys. Though I despise the likes of Roger Stone, who got away with it for far too long. It was great taking my son to The Dark Knight Rises at Imax (and my daughter to a lot of Pixar movies and both of them several times to Python musical Spamelot). Raph got me to read ‘Y The Last Man’ which is really good – a series of graphic novels inspired by Mary Shelley.
And with that our Q&A draws to a close. My sincerest and heartfelt thanks to Mark for taking the time to answer my questions and for supporting Fahrenbruary so much.
You can buy both of Mark’s books, ‘Mistress Murder‘ and ‘Dread: The Art Of Serial Killing‘ direct from Fahrenheit Press at the links below:
‘Susie Godly is many things to many people. Lover, daughter, mother, ex-wife, entrepreneur and – in her guise as Mistress Murder – one of the most in-demand dominatrixes in London.
Susie has bought herself a first-class ticket on the hedonism express and shows no sign of slowing down for anyone or anything. Yes, her marriage ended badly – sure, it’s fair to say she’s probably doing a few too many drugs – and yeah, most people would agree her love-life sits at the more ‘complicated’ end of the spectrum – but it’s nothing Susie can’t handle, right?
As she does her best to ride the wave of joyous mayhem she’s created, Susie’s attempts to live her best life are thwarted by the appearance of a mysterious stalker who seems infuriated by both her and her lifestyle. Susie’s dealt with stalkers before of course – they’re par for the course in her business – but this one operates on a different level of malevolence, and she is forced to take desperate steps to ensure her safety and the safety of the people she loves.
Mistress Murder provides a hilarious, beautifully frank, and entirely unselfconscious window into a hedonistic subculture where few have dared to tread.’
‘Mr Madden, Dickens enthusiast, muses with his beautiful and bohemian prisoner on possible endings to the famous author’s unfinished final mystery.
Mr Madden, spy, infiltrates a far right nationalist group in order to set up the thugs for something far more serious than their usual boozy street fights.
Mr Madden, serial killer, sculpts his Candidates into bizarre and macabre artworks within the bare walls of his dungeon workshop.
And if he is to keep one step ahead of the police, the secret service and his own gory instincts, Mr Madden is going to have to find the answer to the one question that hangs over all our heads:
MR Congratulations on a great fictional debut. Can you tell us about your book and Manc Noir?
DN It’s set in the present day and during the Strangeways’ riot in Manchester in 1990. An inexperienced reporter gets sent out to cover the discovery of a child’s body at Black Moss reservoir while all the good reporters are at the riot. Years later he comes back and… a great deal of unpleasantness ensues. One of my favourite films is Hell is a City, the Stanley Baker picture made by Hammer. It was shot in Manchester and Oldham – so gritty and real. Bookies, robbers, gamblers, boozers, cops that take no shit. Great stuff. When I pitched the book to Fahrenheit I described it as Hell is a City meets Factory Records. I also got a bit fed up with people banging in about Nordic Noir and Scandi Noir. Ooh the landscape is so bleak… let me take you across the Pennines above Manchester. I’ll show you a REALLY bleak landscape. So Manc Noir was a reaction to that and it’s a nod to Hell is a City too.
MR Reading Black Moss was a troubling reminder of how little protection there is for orphans, care home children, children in general. You wrote a book about the trial of one of your teachers for child abuse.
DN I wrote a factual book called Tell The Truth and Shame the Devil about that case and was overwhelmed by the response I got – I’m still getting messages and emails to this day from ex-pupils telling me their stories. I did a Radio 4 documentary too.
‘Hearing from the victims, the police, prosecutors and police interviews with the perpetrator himself, this programme tells the inside story of that investigation and the process of trying to achieve justice for victims.’
DN I was very, very fired up about it and got a deal to write a book about the whole subject of historic abuse. Several months in and the publishers cancelled the book and paid me off. I was in a fury and the first chapter of Black Moss just sort of spewed out of me. I’d never written a word of fiction in my life before, yet this thing was coming out of me. Bizarre. I still don’t quite understand how it happened. I did it in secret in between writing my factual books.
MR I recognised some of the alcoholism recovery material – the whole book feels accurate. Some great characters and locations, not to mention a hell of a story. No longeurs. It zips along.
You’re not a fan of the witty alcoholic in fiction? I once saw Hunter S Thompson in a bar in Hong Kong. He just kept slowly droning the words ‘Amyl Nitrate’. Hardly Dorothy Parker at the Algonquin Hotel. There are a few high functioning alcoholics but most of us wreck our own lives and hurt our family, friends and colleagues.
DN ‘Character with addictions’ is a lazy shorthand in a lot of cases. I hope it isn’t in Black Moss. The main character isn’t a lovable old soak, he’s a dick. A full-on tool. The treatment he goes through is accurate, like everything else in the book. If I don’t know something I ask an expert and I was helped a great deal by a former child protection detective. I know a lot about drinking, so… not a problem. I don’t claim to be a crime fiction expert but I know what I don’t like: too much description, people saying things normal people wouldn’t say and things happening that wouldn’t happen in real life. The characters are all based in real people – my old radio friends are currently playing a game of ‘spot who the character is based on’. Eighty per cent of Black Moss is drawn from real life. If something comes across as far-fetched in the book, you can guarantee it really happened.
MR ‘Writing a novel by accident’. Sounds intriguing. Are you saving that for live appearances or can you hint as to how that might happen? I could certainly do with accidentally finding one already written.
DN I never set out to be a novelist. I’m a journalist and a factual writer. I still don’t feel comfortable with the ‘n word…’ But it’s happened and I’d like to thank the publisher who binned my factual book, because otherwise Black Moss wouldn’t exist and we wouldn’t be having this conversation now. It’s all been an accident. I feel a bit of a fraud.
MR When might we see your next book?
DN I’m well into Black Moss 2. It’s another ‘difficult’ subject, written from an angry viewpoint once again. I don’t do nods and winks and knowing references, I do fury. I’m in a rage most of the time, it’s very tiring.
MR I can just about remember the great days of Granada, reporters like Bob Greaves and Brian Truman. Has anyone ever combined being a mainstream news anchor and counter cultural figure like Tony Wilson?
DN Absolutely not. And never will. When Tony died I said to my wife, someone is going to write a book about him, might as well be me. I worked with Tony at Granada, but didn’t like him! Then I wrote his biography and found out so much more about him. I liked him a lot afterwards.
When I started reading crime fiction, two things would annoy me. Really annoy me. One was the way authors would portray journalists. I’ve been a journalist all my life and we are regularly shown saying, doing and writing things that real journalists would never say, do or write.
The other is the portrayal of addiction – particularly alcohol. It often appears in crime fiction as an easy shorthand for a kind of sleazy, feckless glamour.
The lead character in my first novel Black Moss is alcoholic journalist Danny Johnston. The bookworks on two timelines – 1990 and 2016. When we meet present-day Danny – or Daniel as he now presents himself – he’s just crashed his car into a tree, pissed out of his mind. He’s no hero. There’s no sleazy glamour here. He’s an idiot.
After the crash, Danny loses his job and goes into rehab therapy. Here he is arriving for his first
session:
‘There were two layers of glass between him and the receptionist. A large sign warned that the
physical or verbal abuse of staff would not be tolerated. The receptionist – a woman in her thirtieswith tattoo-covered arms – glanced at him over the top of her large, black-rimmed glasses. ‘Are you here for the needle exchange?’ she said.
Daniel returned her look. Then he realised that she was talking to him. Needle exchange? ‘No,’ he said. After a pause, he added: ‘I’m with the alkies.’ He smiled at the receptionist, quite pleased with his attempt at keeping the situation light. It didn’t seem to have worked – her face was unchanged.
‘Alcohol support,’ said Daniel. ‘I’m with the
alcohol support programme.’
‘Alcohol is to the left. Go through, take a seat.’ A second door buzzed, and Danny went through into the waiting area. Things are bad, he thought, but they could be worse. I could be turning right.
Daniel sat down. The furniture was dark beige and blocky. The floor was a chessboard of dull, dark brown and light brown plastic tiles. There were framed pictures on the wall that were abstract and bland. One wall was completely covered in leaflets and flyers: self-help, support groups, psychotherapy, yoga, Pilates, massage – all the kind of things that he would normally have given a very wide berth to. He sat very still. Very still indeed. Don’t look right, he thought.’
I know this is accurate. I’ve visited a centre just like this. The drugs Danny is prescribed to help him are the correct ones for his problems.
I’ve had some great reactions to the book since it was published. Amazing, really. But the one that pleases me most is when people say: he’s done his research.
I think that whatever we are writing about, it’s got to be accurate. If we are going to depict people with addiction issues it’s got to be real, not a lazy cliché. There is no one-size-fits-all ADDICT character. Every addict is different. Speak to counsellors, speak to addicts themselves. Learn from their experiences. They often have astounding stories– sometimes they can offer real hope.
Very impressive fictional debut by the author of Tell The Truth And Shame The Devil, an account of the trial of one of his former teachers for Child Sexual Abuse. There is no exploitation of these terrible crimes here just a bleak realism. A troubled reporter digs deep into the past, taking us on a nightmare journey to the extremes of human depravity. Well drawn, believable characters; a vivid evocation of Manchester and its environs; accurate portrayal of alcoholism and recovery, dog eat dog journalism and the Strangeway prison riots. Some wry humour lightens the first of what is likely to be a memorable trilogy.
buy the pbk and e book direct from Fahrenheit Press
Two much loved film stars recently died within five days of each other, the sad news slightly ameliorated by their both living to a decent age and leaving a considerable body of work – including these memoirs.
Liz Fraser grew up near the New Kent Road, was evacuated during the war, having to wait in line to be chosen from prospective foster parents.
Winston Churchill had the estate next door. She met him several times, even sitting on his knee. She understates the loss of her father when she was eleven but it’s deeply moving nevertheless.
After stage school she was soon working in live television and remained busy thereafter. For someone who was universally loved and admired, also a shrewd investor, collector of high performance cars and an expert bridge player – nobody’s fool or victim – Liz didn’t have much luck with husbands. The first was a less successful actor, conman and thief who stole from her among other people. The second, a busy light entertainment director, was an alcoholic philanderer who died aged 41.
There’s no trace of self pity anywhere in this wryly amusing book. She can see the funny side of one promising love affair starting during a man’s brief period of abstinence from his usual routine: drink, drugs, despondency.
She was thrilled to have a night out with Judy Garland and witness her exasperated foul-mouthed reaction to the band playing ‘Over The Rainbow’ as she arrived at a club. She’d heard it a few too many times by then.
Liz was justifiably proud of her serious roles in Live Now Pay Later, Up The Junction, and a Miss Marple episode, Nemesis, ‘what they call a showy role’, (It lasts around five minutes twenty minutes into the second hour). A grieving mother, slightly drunk, real tears, first take, very good indeed. One of her neighbours said, ‘I didn’t know you could act.’
I loved her revenge on Peter Sellers whose seduction involved exposing himself. ‘Well you can put that away.’ He’d invited her round for a gourmet meal cooked by his personal chef. When he realised he wasn’t going to get his way he asked her to leave. As she loved good food she insisted on staying and finishing all of the courses.
She was told before working for the Samaritans that she would receive heavy breathing calls from sex pests, which thinned out some refined ladies. Liz used to tell them she was wearing red knickers.
She worked there for thirteen years, also for the Lord’s Taverners and various animal charities, helping out Joan Sims when she was in difficulties due to the exceptionally parsimonious producer Peter Rogers, (also, as Liz points out, because she was advised to sell her house, which would have later been worth millions, then there was her love of champagne and taxis. Feel a bit mean now, though not as mean as Peter Rogers. The payment for a Carry On film started and remained ever after at £5000. Residuals would have enabled the good life and a secure old age.)
Her favourite film was Double Bunk with Sid James though she has fond memories of her breakthrough in I’m All Right Jack, which had a stellar cast, even the extras in the card game were skilled actors.
Both books help hunting out performances you may have missed. I never liked The Professionals or the revamped Minder but Liz stands out in both productions, her usual earthy sensuality and infectious humour enhanced by age.
I’m even going to attempt a whole episode of Midsomer Murders soon, (rather than the usual ten seconds while scrabbling for the remote.) Series 20 episode 5 contains her final performance. (Fenella Fielding is listed on IMDB in Mother, in thirteen episodes of a series of a children’s show coming in 2019.)
Although always happy to be a character actor, which gave her a longer career than some stars, Liz wanted to expand her range with avant garde productions in the 60s including Meals on Wheels by Charles Wood.
Director John Osborne was distant during rehearsals, his only advice was taking them to see Ken Dodd and saying, ‘I want you to do it like that.’
Unfortunately nobody understood the text, on or off stage, there were many walkouts and several nights of slow handclapping. Eventually they were reduced to giving out free tickets. Some servicemen came and started laughing at a line which had been hitherto baffling: ‘clap hands if it comes out green’, whereupon the actors clapped. The soldiers understood that a venereal disease, the clap, would turn sperm green.
A theatre person came backstage to compliment her. ‘But people were walking out’. ‘Yes. But their backs were electric!’
In another ‘difficult’ play Kenneth Griffiths tried to destroy the performances of his female co stars, even goosestepping around them as they tried to deliver their lines. The director knew it was wrong but refused to intervene. On the last night they soaked Griffiths with water and tripped him up.
T
This is a lovely, well produced book, plenty of good photos, a comprehensive index and a list of her work at the back. The only possible criticism, perhaps not terribly crucial, is that she thinks she is playing a cello in the music student comedy Raising the Wind. She actually plays violin and also jazz double bass, in a scene which swings in more than one sense. That last sentence is a little sleazy but you can hardly ignore that both of these legendary women intentionally captivated generations of men. For many of us they are lifelong crushes.
Fenella Fielding also sought new challenges throughout her long career. Her acclaimed theatre work is vast and various and in her late eighties she dazzled critics with Hecuba’s lament from Euripidies’ The Trojan Woman.
She grew up in Hackney. Her breakthrough was Valmouth after which she played the title roles of Hedda Gabler and Colette.
Her cd of TS Elliot’s Four Quartets even enabled me to get through it for the first time. Stunning.
She performed in several musicals and even did an intriguing slow, sensual version of New Order’s Blue Monday, one of sixteen recent songs, also for the innovative and daring Savoy Books. Who deserve some support.
There’s not a lot of detail about her private life although she mentions having simultaneous love affairs with two people for twenty years (though this worldly sophisticate claims to have not noticed some of the double entendres in Carry On Screaming).
A genuine bohemian, her milieu encompassed sex workers, gangsters and the abyss: Soho with Jeffrey Bernard. They didn’t really deserve this smart, stylish beauty, the strawberry-nosed alcoholics at the Colony Rooms, some of whom were camp misogynists fond of screeching the word ‘C*nt’. The Colony’s Muriel Belcher is here described as a ‘tough, beaky manageress’. Francis Bacon liked her a lot. Well, who wouldn’t?
Kenneth Williams didn’t, continually trying to upstage her, stealing her lines if she improvised something good, doing anything he could to ruin her performance throughout the run of Pieces of Eight, a two hander written by Peter Cook.
There were problems even before he misunderstood her improvised line: ‘Last one off the stage is a sissy’, taking it as her outing him. He then waged a lengthy poisonous campaign against her. Fenella points out it’s just possible the audience would have known he was a homosexual, particularly as he often referred to it himself. Then again my grandmother’s generation sometimes said of people like Liberace: ‘They say he’ll never marry’ – one prophecy which came true.
Kenneth Williams had forgotten his initial animus by Carry On Screaming. Fenella doesn’t bear a grudge about anyone incidentally. Liz Fraser occasionally has a mildly waspish remark for people who have behaved badly but is essentially good natured. Fenella’s disposition seems to have been as sunny as her voice was velvetty. Perhaps both of them being successful at something they had always wanted to do obviated the need to tear other people apart. Maybe some people would rather just be nice. Fenella quotes Ned Sherrin’s ‘the end of deference’ in her chapter on the sixties but also asks why did some shop assistants need to be so rude? According to her, Mary Quant had no idea why her clothes weren’t selling. It was because her staff despised the customers. Things rapidly improved when she sacked them and got some helpful middle aged people.
She wasn’t much of a drinker, liked cannabis but didn’t over indulge and her one brush with cocaine was when someone painted it on her throat to help her voice. It made her extremely ‘vivacious’, apparently great fun for those nearby.
Fenella turned down Carry on Cleopatra for a short love affair with an American boy. Now she wishes she’d done the film.
How many people remain a style icon for most of their adult life? Dusty Springfield said her eyelashes were a tribute to Fenella’s, whose own pop single, Big Bad Mouse has a touch of Kurt Weill’s Alabama Song. (Sounds like George Chisolm on trombone. I know people are dying to know who took a four bar break on a 1960s novelty record. Well, he was world class as were Fenella Fielding and Liz Fraser.) She later sang at Jarvis Cocker’s Meltdown, ‘somewhere between Grace Jones and Pete Doherty.’
Fenella did Celebrity Squares with Groucho Marx and saw people trying to impress him by imitating his work. ‘thinking he would be amused. However, a) they didn’t know the material b) they couldn’t do it. c) He didn’t give a fuck.’
Her brother being a Conservative luminary meant she met Margaret Thatcher who responded to Fenella complimenting her dress sense by telling her four year old niece some tips on where to stand so her broach caught the light. Fenella didn’t like her politics but recognised a formidable presence.
Best known now for the perennially popular Carry On Screaming she was slightly miffed that a third of her fan mail came from being the voice in The Prisoner, although she’s grateful for these performances that remain popular for decades. including her voice work in Dougal and the Blue Cat, revered by
Mark Kermode. His fine tribute. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk_1qs82R7U
Both stars excelled in the Avengers, Liz in The Girl From Auntie, Fenella in The Charmers, both easy to find on DailyMotion.com.
Fenella’s book has good photos, diary entries at the back and an introduction by her collaborator Simon McKay, a psychotherapist she met at her pilates class.
So many great stories throughout both books, which will please anyone who has ever admired these legendary women. They’re both essential purchases.
Liz Fraser’s Guardian obituary concluded with this cute anecdote which would also apply to Fenella Fielding.
‘Put up in a local hotel by the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society the night before the event, Liz was asked by the receptionist what her profession was. With a twinkle in her eye, she answered: “Film star, dear!”’
Dread. published 2015. ‘Recalled to life’ new edition 2018. And still the slowest ever bandwagon rumbles on. Patient. Relentless. Remorseless. Global hegemony – any day now.
It really is a shame that traditional publishers lack any bravely, because in a braver marketplace Mark Ramsden would be a major writing star. Thankfully Fahrenheit Press are here to pick up the mantle for the industry.
Dread is dark, funny, poetic, beautiful, ugly, gripping, weird, intriguing and ultimately brilliant. This is the book the likes of Chuck Palahniuk and Brett Easton Ellis wish they could write. We’re in the head of a serial killer for much of this book and it’s delightful. Inside Mr Madden’s drug, lust and grief fuelled head we are so far removed from the mainstream we might as well be on another plan at yet the modern cultural (that Madden despises) references are so we’ll observed we are acutely aware that this is the mind of a man warped by life. His relationship with Zero, a captive who is equally twisted, elevates the story to another level. Is it Stockholm syndrome or is she justas twisted as Madden, who knows, or cares, these two brilliant characters keep the pages turning as the gore, sex and violence flow. Outstanding
Thanks Aidan! Mr Thorn is the widely acclaimed author of the excellent When The Music’s Over and much more. He even has a proper, grown up, supercool dayjob. Check him out. @AidanDFThorn
TBBB Hello you lovely people and a very warm and squidgy welcome to the Beardy Book Blog for what is Day 26 of #Fahrenbruary.
You may be wondering what delights I have in store for you today, well, you can wonder no more for today I bring to you a Q&A from the king of transgressive noir himself, Mark Ramsden.
Mark is the author of the sexily naughty and spanktastic noir novel ‘Mistress Murder‘. I reviewed this book on Day 25, which, rather conveniently, was also yesterday. You can check out that very review riiiiiiiiiiiiight…….. here below https://beardybookblogger.com/2019/02/25/fahrenbruary-review-mistress-murder-mark-ramsden-mrramsden1-f13noir-fahrenheitpress/
Well, I bet that got your blood a-pumpin’, eh? I wager that that has got you wondering what kind of person possesses the sort of mind to come up with such a saucy story and wantonly flings words such as ‘rootle’ and ‘bottom’ about in the same sentence, huh?
Well today I hope we can clear up some of the questions you may have as we plunge into the mind of Mark.
Don’t be scared! Join us….
TBBB: Hi Mark and thank you for appearing on the Beardy Book Blogger for #Fahrenbruary 2019 and taking the time to answer my questions.
MR: Great to be here. Thanks for asking.
TBBB: First up, could you tell us a little bit about yourself – who is Mark Ramsden?
MR: I’m a little too anxious. My Native American name would be ‘Skin Too Thin.’ After studying music I worked with Bert Jansch, Roy Harper, Kiki Dee, Tom Robinson, many theatre and show business luminaries, countless less well known jazz musicians, some dance producers and DJs at clubs like Fabric, and finally with no one at all. And even that didn’t work. I’m the only artist who split up with himself due to ‘musical differences’.
I’m the only composer who’s been on daytime radio 3, next to Mozart, (heard by, ooh, dozens of people) and also been filmed being intimate with a glamorous assistant for a Dave Courtney film. (Cutting room floor, thankfully)
I wrote a lot of magazine articles in the 90s then a trilogy for Serpent’s Tail around the millennium before deciding that bipolarity, alcoholism and drug addiction just weren’t enough on their own. It was time for fifteen years heavy use of ‘psychedelic heroin’ (ketamine) and a journey across the entire transgender spectrum (which finished right round the bend.).
TBBB: Mistress Murder is a very funny black comedy featuring fetishism, obsession, transgenderism, alcoholism and drug abuse. In many ways it’s a very modern story, highly pertinent to our times. Was it your intention to highlight these issues when you set out to write it, or were you just thinking that they would make for a rollicking good read (which they do, btw 😅).
MR: Thank you! I didn’t have any choice, having lived it. I try to honestly portray the contradictions but that’s often unpopular. Satirising little cliques among a despised minority isn’t much of a business plan. Reassuring the vast majority would be better, something wholesome and uplifting, and I will get round to that one day. Hopefully before I die.
Incidentally, you don’t have to be a monster of moral turpitude to read it, although it helps. It’s also primarily a murder mystery. Who is the stalker? How can she trap him? It’s for anyone with a toxic parent, difficult relationships, a job that gets on top of you.
TBBB: Were any of the characters in Mistress Murder based on anyone you know?
MR: The real people I knew were crazier than those characters. There was an unconvincing brick outhouse transvestite whose day job had once been torturing the IRA; a Detective who tragically killed himself when he was exposed in the tabloids; an oil business guy who was recruited as a spy; a Deputy Prison Governor who wanted to stay in the same job after transitioning. Although she could in fact ‘pass’ that was perhaps ambitious.
And everyone thought I was nuts, with some justification.
TBBB: How much of Susan Godly is Mark Ramsden, and vice versa?
MR: I’m Northern grammar school as opposed to Southern Public School. We’re both self destructive addicts. Scatty. Most of my adult life was professional music and very little pro-domming. It’s the other way round for her.
TBBB: I am very open minded kinda guy – at least I like to think so at any rate – but the fetish scene has never really appealed to me outside of a genuine curiosity. However I can see its appeal to many; the idea of being something you’re not for a short while, or even the opposite – being able to be the person that you really believe that you are – in a non-judgemental environment. What led you into the scene and what is it, or was it, that appealed to you?
MR: Twenty five years ago I was a sort of Jehovah’s Witness of fetish, making a fool of myself in magazines and thankfully obscure tv programmes. Some of us thought we could make consensual fetish as respectable as gay sex had become, which turned out to be yet another erroneous assumption, along with most of my other core beliefs. What started as writing about the fetish scene eventually ended up as a month spent as a third sex pro-domme. Not the wisest of choices.
I’m no longer involved. It did help some people feel less isolated and we all had a wild time despite not being particularly glamorous. I used to say ‘fetish is swinging for the unphotogenic’.
Nothing is for free. A lot of personal chaos inevitably ensued. However well intentioned people are, polyamory often is like getting divorced in triplicate. Eventually. People aren’t always well intentioned which is still a surprise to me, even as I approach senility.
TBBB: Could you expand upon “third sex pro-domme” a little for those who may not have come across that term before? Don’t worry, this blog can take it!
MR: People say gender fluid now. I just looked better without wigs. More Richard O Brien than luscious t-girl:
Richard O’Brien aka Riff Raff and creator of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
That lasted about a month. Thankfully I had the bright idea (not) of living on a houseboat where Charles Dickens grew up. Also where he died. It eventually became impossible to ignore living in a heritage museum which generated “Dread: The Art Of Serial Killing” – a meditation on Dickens and the missing conclusion of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. With plenty of claret.
Mark’s novel about Dickens, serial killing and extraordinarily large noses. No, not really, but, by gum that’s an impressive hooter right there 👃🏻
TBBB: If you could be any character in Mistress Murder who would it be and why?
MR: The ones who don’t speak in the 12 step groups yet still get off booze and chemicals. Which was me, eventually, come to think of it.
TBBB: Throughout the mid 90’s – early 00’s the (in)famous Eurotrash aired on Channel Four, and highlighted many of the excesses of European sub-cultures such as fetishism, body modifications, etc. I loved it because it showed me aspects of life that I had no idea even existed, even if they were skewed towards the more ridiculous, and often presented in the same manner (who can forget the Romeo Cleaners, for instance, or the silly voiceovers when translating the people into English?).
The sublimely bonkers Eurotrash with Antoine Des Caunes and Jean-Paul Gaultier (not forgetting Pe-Pe and Po-Po, of course (sadly not pictured)
MR: Maria McErlane’s voiceovers were great. She’s brilliant. I always liked Eurotrash – I invented Fetish Morris Dancing that appeared in one episode – although for me it was a hopefully funny magazine bit, a patently ridiculous idea. I never thought people would actually want to meet and rehearse regularly. Then again Morris Dancing is surprisingly popular. And they mean it maan. Some think if they don’t dance there will be no Spring.(TBBB: Sadly I could not find a photo of this historic event ☹️ If anyone has one I’ll gladly slip it in, so to speak!).
TBBB: Do you think that programmes like Eurotrash helped the image at all, or do you feel it just further undermined it and enhanced people’s negative attitudes towards it?
MR: Scene people were a bit sniffy about ‘point and giggle’ shows but maybe its very existence made people more tolerant of diversity. Maybe it eventually helped you eventually cope with Mistress Murder?
TBBB: I certainly think they helped to open my mind to the idea of the subculture and what it may involve. Without it I would probably still be blissfully unaware and that would make for a much duller world view.
TBBB: As a nation the British are famously uptight about sex, at least in public. Behind the scenes I like to think that we are more liberated sexually, and are not afraid to explore sexual boundaries, than many think. Why do you think that we are perceived as such a stuck up nation and hide behind twitching curtains whilst other parts of Europe are not afraid to show it? Why are we so scared of what people get up to legally and consensually in private?
MR: Yes indeed. It even extends to tattooing. I discussed this with Fahrenheit author Russ Day (Needle Song – great plotting, great characters). People get furious about other people’s bodies. Which isn’t their business.
TBBB: Are/were you a leather, pleather, rubber or latex kinda guy? Or do you like to mix and match?
MR: Rubber’s too much like hard work. A lot of maintenance. Not very durable. Men look best in uniforms. Or leather.
TBBB: Is this something that you’re still active in?
MR: No public scene for more than ten years, no drink five years, no party drugs or psychedelics three years.
TBBB: What is your obsession nowadays?
MR: Freshly ground coffee. Green tea. Kale smoothies. Lots of lemon and ginger. Podcasts. Long form television drama.
TBBB: Without F13 do you think that ‘Mistress Murder’ would have been published?
MR: Maybe not in any other Crime Press, maybe nowhere else at all, although I don’t research the market enough. Could be wrong. I generally am.
TBBB: Are you a plotter or a pantser?
MR: If I may customise a joke: how do you make God smile? Tell her you’re going to stick to your outline. I tried but the universe has other plans.
TBBB: Are you a fan of eBooks or do you prefer the feel and look of a physical book?
MR I love reading on a tablet now. More light. Built in dictionary.
TBBB: How do you pronounce ‘Scone” – rhymes with ‘gone’ or ‘stone’? I seem to be in the minority here as I pronounce it as in ‘gone’ (although I have been known to dabble in the odd ‘stone’ variation when the mood takes me). I have an ongoing thing with two fellow bloggers, and ‘stone’ campers, Danielle and Kelly who both, incorrectly as it happens, insist that they are superior to me. Don’t let me down here Mark!
MR: Ha! We both rhyme it with ‘gone’ but Ruth, being slightly Scottish knows it should rhyme with ‘spoon’.
TBBB: Hurrahhhhh, I knew I could rely on you. *happy face* As for rhymes with ‘spoon’, there’s a whole other argument I’ll leave right there 😅
The humble scone: rhymes with ‘gone’. Mark says so so it must be true (unless you’re Scottish or a certain Belgian blogger and her nefarious friend).
TBBB: Would you be a superhero or a supervillain?
MR: I’d be a supernegotiator trying to start the peace talks, and probably as useless as most politicians, but when reading I always side with the underdogs or the supposedly bad guys. Though I despise the likes of Roger Stone, who got away with it for far too long. It was great taking my son to The Dark Knight Rises at Imax (and my daughter to a lot of Pixar movies and both of them several times to Python musical Spamelot). Raph got me to read ‘Y The Last Man’ which is really good – a series of graphic novels inspired by Mary Shelley.
And with that our Q&A draws to a close. My sincerest and heartfelt thanks to Mark for taking the time to answer my questions and for supporting Fahrenbruary so much.
You can buy both of Mark’s books, ‘Mistress Murder‘ and ‘Dread: The Art Of Serial Killing‘ direct from Fahrenheit Press at the links below:
‘Susie Godly is many things to many people. Lover, daughter, mother, ex-wife, entrepreneur and – in her guise as Mistress Murder – one of the most in-demand dominatrixes in London.
Susie has bought herself a first-class ticket on the hedonism express and shows no sign of slowing down for anyone or anything. Yes, her marriage ended badly – sure, it’s fair to say she’s probably doing a few too many drugs – and yeah, most people would agree her love-life sits at the more ‘complicated’ end of the spectrum – but it’s nothing Susie can’t handle, right?
As she does her best to ride the wave of joyous mayhem she’s created, Susie’s attempts to live her best life are thwarted by the appearance of a mysterious stalker who seems infuriated by both her and her lifestyle. Susie’s dealt with stalkers before of course – they’re par for the course in her business – but this one operates on a different level of malevolence, and she is forced to take desperate steps to ensure her safety and the safety of the people she loves.
Mistress Murder provides a hilarious, beautifully frank, and entirely unselfconscious window into a hedonistic subculture where few have dared to tread.’
‘Mr Madden, Dickens enthusiast, muses with his beautiful and bohemian prisoner on possible endings to the famous author’s unfinished final mystery.
Mr Madden, spy, infiltrates a far right nationalist group in order to set up the thugs for something far more serious than their usual boozy street fights.
Mr Madden, serial killer, sculpts his Candidates into bizarre and macabre artworks within the bare walls of his dungeon workshop.
And if he is to keep one step ahead of the police, the secret service and his own gory instincts, Mr Madden is going to have to find the answer to the one question that hangs over all our heads:
Mark Ramsden 