A Shopping List of Shivers
The French at the Midland Hotel, with its gold-leaf cortices and images of busty ladies in crinolines, doesn't really spring to mind as the most obvious of venues for an event of stories designed to make one feel like a little anxious about all those things that go bump in the night.
However, this intimate setting proved to be just the place in which one could sit back and settle in for a fine evening's entertainment, brought to us courtesy of Manchester's Comma Press.
Black comedy
First up was Jane Rogers, reading her contribution from the forthcoming anthology "The New Uncanny," an anthology of modern day horror stories focusing upon all the elements of the 21st century world which unsettle the body and the soul.
She read from "Pedomatique," a black comedy focusing on an out of control piece of technology and the fight or flight instinct of a middle aged woman unsure of what she wants out of life.
Rogers confessed beforehand that a few sections of the story may appear disjointed because of her frantic efforts to pair it down to a manageable length for the evening's proceedings, but if there were any cracks in the joins then they were unnoticeable amidst her engaging, frequently witty and dry reading style.
Archly gothic
Sean O'Brien looks and sounds like the literary world's answer to John Peel - a man whose house contains so many books, they've started to cause the walls to cave in, which has to be the most admirable and intellectual way to destroy property one could ever hope to imagine.
Known as one of the finest and most decorated British poets working at the moment, you can't help but feel a little overawed by his presence. However, whatever reservations the audience may have had were soon overcome by the warmth of his broad Northern accent, and his captivating method of storytelling.
Reading the title story from his new collection of short stories "The Silence Room," this is the kind of story in the model of such Victorian horror greats as M.R James, a dark cautionary tale of feuding poets, a room in a Newcastle library filled with light "the colour of marmite," an unexplained disappearance, and the rather disturbing actions of a shabby Turkish rug.
If the rest of his collection is as good as what we heard this evening, then this is certainly a book which will earn him yet another award to contribute to his already bulging shelves.
The power of a good story
All in all, this was the power of storytelling at its best; short yet bittersweet, with the cosy sensation of being in someone's parlour rather than one of Manchester’s grandest hotels.
Lasting at just over an hour, this may have been one of the Manchester Literary Festival's more low key events, but it was certainly one of its best.
Published: Thu, 23 October, 2008
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