Hauling Like A Brooligan

Stephen Gallagher

Category: novels

  • Where I’m At

    I’m fortunate. I work in a London-centred business but I don’t have to live in London. I love the place, and I’ve lived there in the past; in Notting Hill Gate in the mid-seventies, when it was cheap, and for a while in Bayswater in the late 90s, when it wasn’t. I always think of…

  • Amazon Blog Interview

    Jeff VanderMeer interviewed me about The Kingdom of Bones for the Amazon weblog. The Amazon daily blog is here – the post’s dated December 6 and sits between a memoir about Elizabeth Hardwick and an item about watching TV shows on your tie. Alternatively, you can skip straight to it by clicking here. Amazon.com: Besides…

  • Memories of Water

    One of the bonuses of BAFTA membership is that you get sent copies of trade publications during the runup to the awards season. Oscar (R) follows BAFTA, which means that the studios can cover both sets of voters with the same ad campaigns. Imagine the upward direction of my eyebrows when I opened The Hollywood…

  • The Boat House

    Here’s the publisher’s original flap copy for the novel: a longer piece on the story is coming right up. When Alina first appears in Three Oaks Bay it’s clear that her frail, luminous beauty is going to cause some ripples on the quiet surface of the peaceful resort town. For Pete McCarthy, the local boat-repairer…

  • Two Make a Pair

    Ira Levin died on November 12th. His obituary in The Times refers to Polanski’s film of Rosemary’s Baby and suggests that “the atmosphere of evil that pervaded the screen had its origins in Levin’s fictional skills.“ Indeed – one of the most seamless book-to-film transitions around, and an adaptation that honours its source material to…

  • Happy Halloween

    And since I’m going to be tied up for the next day or so with my daughter’s 21st birthday, let me jump in early with no shame and a reminder that Halloween is also publication day for my second short story collection. Two books out in one year! Haven’t had that happen in a while.…

  • PS Publishing Titles at Half Price

    To mark the launch of its revamped website, multi award-winning indie publisher PS Publishing is offering a 50% discount on all online orders for pre-2007 titles. So that’ll include my short story collection Out of his Mind and the hardcover edition of White Bizango (the paperback sold out some time ago). Both are signed and…

  • The Page 69 Test

    Here’s an intriguing blog in which writers are invited to make some comment about their own work based on a reading of all, or part, of its sixty-ninth page. I don’t know about anyone else, but for years now my browsing method has involved opening any book that catches my attention and reading a paragraph…

  • Publication Day

    Well, today’s the day. I know that a few copies have already snuck out there, but as of now The Kingdom of Bones is official goods. I don’t think I’ve ever had a novel that’s attracted as much advance reaction as this one… and let me tell you, that’s never been for want of trying.…

  • The Count of Monte Cristo

    I just watched the 6-hour Gerard Depardieu version of THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO over four nights, and I think I maybe found some useful lessons there. The special power of the story lies in the way that Edmond Dantes remakes himself as a machine for vengeance and then reappears to engage with his enemies,…