Voyages through vanities

Gulliver’s New Travels: Lemuel Gulliver Collides with the 21st Century Guy Walker, self-published, 2022, 140pp, £4.99 DEREK TURNER is entertained by a clever updating of a classic Satire, often thought of today as a liberal genre, can also be a conservative art. Any writing that relies for its comical or scourging effects upon the discrepancies…

John Wyndham, genius and prophet

The Wyndham Collection John Wyndham, three vols. (Day of the Triffids, The Midwich Cuckoos, The Chrysalids), Folio Society, 2022, 704 pps, £125 ALEXANDER ADAMS finds 1950s classics have troublingly modern messages The publication of a clothbound boxset containing the classic novels Day of the Triffids, The Midwich Cuckoos and The Chrysalids by John Wyndham (1903-1969)…

‘No Air Native, No Man Kindred’ – extract

Caino (bis) - Wilhelm von Gloeden (Wikimedia Commons) This is Chapter 23 of GOMERY KIMBER's latest novel, No Air Native, No Man Kindred August 1935. A young James Valentine pursues his cousin, Clarissa Wyvern, to Munich. Clarissa is the black sheep of the Wyvern clan, dishonouring the family name by joining the British Union of…

A VOYAGE to OBVERSIA

LEMUEL GULLIVER continues to indite his extraordinary adventures to GUY WALKER WARNING : THIS TEXT FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CONTAINS DISCRIMINATORY LANGUAGE Before Dawn we heaved Anchor and steered to the West in our Passage to the West-Indies but, for four Days, we were driven by a violent Storm eastwards towards the…

The Venatio – an extract

LUKE GILFEDDER tells a dark tale of Cheshire Crime writer Stephen Niskus suspects that his long-lost school friend, Alexei Orphonov, is a serial killer. When he catches sight of Alexei in Alderley Edge, he embarks upon an urgent quest to prevent another murder. But Stephen's investigations soon lead him into a far more tangled and…

The War Party – extract

'Hypnos', Wilhelm von Gloeden This is Chapter Thirteen of GOMERY KIMBER's novel, The War Party, the second book of the Big Shilling trilogy. 'Verity Clissold wants the whistle-blower terminated. But he's taken refuge in a London embassy and not even the CIA can reach him. There is only one solution. Call in the most accomplished…

Giving it back

Image: Shutterstock A story about the 21st century celebrity conscience, by NICK ARAGUA  ‘I wanna give something back,’ said Maisie. ‘I dunno how though.’ ‘There are plenty of ways to do that,’ said Anthony Parson, her accountant, vaguely. ‘We can talk about that some time.’ These kids, he thought. They have millions in the bank…

The Killing House – extract

Faun, 1898, by Wilhelm von Gloeden This is Chapter 22 of GOMERY KIMBER's novel The Killing House, about a would-be hitman who finds he's the one who's in danger Outline: American Troy has one ambition in life, to be an international hitman, so when he gets the chance to work for veteran assassin Rickardo Hanratty,…