“Britain’s first freed slave’s buried there,” Mum says as we drive by a church on the way to the dentist. “Really?” I say from the back of the car. “Some Rastafarians turned up once,” Mum says, “knocked on the vicar’s door and demanded to take him back to Ethiopia.” I presume they meant the ex-slave […]
Read more "Visit To An Ex-Slave’s Grave"It’s something rarely talked about (at least, I only found out myself recently) that Japan has an aboriginal population who were there long before the people we now call the Japanese arrived. They’re called the Ainu, there’s officially about 20,000 of them and they mainly live in the north. Traditionally, the men grow great beards […]
Read more "The Ainu"Found this image on a Korean tweet while Googling for Black Annis, a nightmarish folktale figure from my neck of the woods, Leicester. Strange to think this technically depicts a tree on the New Parks housing estate but imagined and rendered by someone far away. The weird thing was I translated the tweet and it […]
Read more "Black Annis Abroad"Finally saw the horror movie It Follows last night. Its genius lies in it doing the exact opposite of most horror films: you always see the monster coming and there’s no sudden scares. Just dread, creepy ceaseless dread. The monster looks like everyone and just walks toward its victim, so, as a viewer, you’re […]
Read more "Just saw It Follows and The Autopsy Of Jane Doe"Walked home through Frog Island this morning. It’s an area of Leicester that economically collapsed in the late 80s and decided not to bother getting up. I love its gothic-industrial rot. It’s like a vision of the future if the Midlands went all Mad Max.
Read more "Frog Island Post-Apocalypse"In which I talk about The Scalpel, writing generally, the strange case of the Gibbons Sisters, Iain M Banks and getting the creative best out of hotel corridor patrols.
Read more "Interview with me over at Pretty-Hot.com"THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BUYING MY BOOK!!! I’ve had a lovely few days that are dangerous to my ever-increasing ego and everyone in its potential blast radius (And, er, that’s a good thing. I’m certain). If you bought The Scalpel and really want to indulge me, I’d be touched, nay fondled, if you could […]
Read more "Thanks for buying my Magnificent Octopus! (Plus a call for Amazon Reviews)"
J.L. Worrad 