 First edition | |
| Author | Adam Mars-Jones |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Sculpture by Alan Ballantyne for Penkridge Ceramics photographed by Johnny Ring |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Faber & Faber |
Publication date | 2008 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 544 |
| ISBN | 0-571-21703-6 |
Pilcrow is a novel by Adam Mars-Jones first published in 2008 by Faber.
The book is in the form of a memoir by an adult John Cromer telling the story of his childhood and adolescence in the 1950s and early 1960s. He develops Still's disease at an early age and is confined to bed under a misdiagnosis of rheumatic fever. When the nature of his disease is finally realised he is transferred to the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital in Taplow, Berkshire under the care of Dr Barbara Ansell, but by then he has very little movement left in his joints. Later he moves to a special school in Farley Castle where he is reliant on the "able-bodied" to help him move around and realises that he is homosexual.
It has received mixed reviews. [1] James Wood comments in the London Review of Books , "Pilcrow is a peculiar, original, utterly idiosyncratic book. It is admirably courageous, both in what it heaps on us, and in what it holds back. While it drops us deep into the every day, it boldly refuses the every day consolations of plot and dramatic structure." [2]
The book finishes with John Cromer at the age of sixteen. The next instalment of his life, titled Cedilla, was published in 2011. [3] The third, Caret, was published in 2023. [4]
Jerzy Kosiński was a Polish-American writer and two-time president of the American Chapter of P.E.N., who wrote primarily in English. Born in Poland, he survived World War II as a Jewish man and, as a young man, emigrated to the U.S., where he became a citizen.
Michael John Moorcock is an English–American writer, particularly of science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worked as an editor and is also a successful musician. He is best known for his novels about the character Elric of Melniboné, which were a seminal influence on the field of fantasy in the 1960s and 1970s.
Sir Terence David John Pratchett was an English author, humorist, and satirist, best known for his 41 comic fantasy novels set on the Discworld, and for the apocalyptic comedy novel Good Omens (1990) which he wrote with Neil Gaiman.
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Diana Wynne Jones was a British novelist, poet, academic, literary critic, and short story writer. She principally wrote fantasy and speculative fiction novels for children and young adults. Although usually described as fantasy, some of her work also incorporates science fiction themes and elements of realism. Jones's work often explores themes of time travel and parallel or multiple universes. Some of her better-known works are the Chrestomanci series, the Dalemark series, the three Moving Castle novels, Dark Lord of Derkholm, and The Tough Guide to Fantasyland.
Robert Dennis Harris is a British novelist and former journalist. Although he began his career in journalism and non-fiction, his fame rests upon his works of historical fiction. Beginning with the best-seller Fatherland, Harris focused on events surrounding the Second World War, followed by works set in ancient Rome. His most recent works centre on contemporary history.
Philip Purser-Hallard is a fantasy, science fiction and crime author described by the British Fantasy Society as "the best kept secret in British genre writing".
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Sonya Louise Hartnett is an Australian author of fiction for adults, young adults, and children. She has been called "the finest Australian writer of her generation". For her career contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest sense" Hartnett won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award from the Swedish Arts Council in 2008, the biggest prize in children's literature.
Adam Mars-Jones is a British novelist and literary and film critic.
Tim Wynne-Jones, is an English–Canadian author of children's literature, including picture books and novels for children and young adults, novels for adults, radio dramas, songs for the CBC/Jim Henson production Fraggle Rock, as well as a children's musical and an opera libretto.
The Pinhoe Egg is a children's fantasy novel by British author Diana Wynne Jones published by HarperCollins Children's Books in 2006. It was the last published of the seven Chrestomanci books.
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Craig Silvey is an Australian novelist. Silvey has twice been named one of the Best Young Australian Novelists by The Sydney Morning Herald and has been shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. His 2009 second novel was selected by the American Library Association as "Best Fiction for Young Adults" in their 2012 list, and was made into the movie Jasper Jones in 2017.
Patrick Ness FRSL is an American-British author, journalist, lecturer, and screenwriter. Born in the United States, Ness moved to London and holds dual citizenship. He is best known for his books for young adults, including the Chaos Walking (2008-2010) trilogy and A Monster Calls (2011).
David Cromer is an American theatre director, and stage, film, and TV actor. He has received recognition for his work on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in his native Chicago. Cromer has won or been nominated for numerous awards, including winning the Lucille Lortel Award and Obie Award for his direction of Our Town. He was nominated for the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for his direction of The Adding Machine. In 2018, Cromer won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for The Band's Visit.
Gayle Forman is an American young adult fiction author, best known for her novel If I Stay, which topped the New York Times best sellers list of Young Adult Fiction and was made into a film of the same name.
The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells. It was written between 1895 and 1897, and serialised in Pearson's Magazine in the UK and Cosmopolitan magazine in the US in 1897. The full novel was first published in hardcover in 1898 by William Heinemann. The War of the Worlds is one of the earliest stories to detail a conflict between humankind and an extraterrestrial race. The novel is the first-person narrative of an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and his younger brother who escapes to Tillingham in Essex as London and southern England is invaded by Martians. It is one of the most commented-on works in the science fiction canon.
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Dave Hutchinson is a science fiction writer who was born in Sheffield in England in 1960 and read American Studies at the University of Nottingham. He subsequently moved into journalism, writing for The Weekly News and The Courier for almost 25 years. He is best known for his Fractured Europe series, which has received multiple award nominations, with the third novel, Europe in Winter, winning the BSFA Award for Best Novel.
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