Last Friday at a prestigious (virtual) ceremony my colleague Jude Tipper and I won the comms2point0 Blog of the Year award for 2021 for our piece on constructing strategic narratives. We chose to participate live from my local, the Roundhay Fox, which was nice. It was also very nice that so many of you voted for us so thank you so much!
You can read the full story here.
And you can read our winning blog post here.
Exciting news! I’ve been nominated (TWICE!) for Blog Post of the Year in the comms2point0 ‘Unawards’. I’d be honoured if you’d vote for me. You can read all the posts which are up for the award here:
https://lnkd.in/eQnnHjuc.
There’s some fantastic writing here and some extremely strong competition (not least my boss!) and also myself (did I mention I’ve been nominated twice)…
So, as I’ve got two horses in the race, so to speak, the one I really want you to vote for is my joint piece with Jude Tipper. It’s about key messaging and strategic narratives… work that I’m really proud of.
Vote here:
https://lnkd.in/e_DR6SKs
It’s the penultimate one on the list…
It’s worth noting that the link works best on mobile phones…
THANK YOU!
It’s that time of year again. Darkness bookends the day so snugly that you start to feel like you barely get to see the sun. It’s cold. Wet. Windy. Shiny decorations are up in the trees and on the streets. The same songs on repeat in all the shops. It can mean only one thing: it’s time to announce the winners and losers in the year’s ‘Andy’ Awards.
For those of you who don’t know, the ‘Andy’s’ are my attempt to ‘chart’ my reading habits over a year. They’re supposed to help me read more and also make it easy for me to recommend good books to others. Last year’s chart expanded the qualifying criteria from short stories to novels, and this year we’re going even bigger – I’m including all books I’ve read. Fiction, non-fiction, short story collections, sports books. Yeah, the whole shebang.
Last year I brought the ‘Andy’s’ back so I could talk myself into reading more. I read a whopping 75 novels. You can view my chart from last year here. (Article also contains links to previous runners and riders.)
This year, my total falls some way short of that (it hasn’t helped that I started a new job in December 2017 and I’ve thrown myself into it life and soul). But I’m still very pleased with my grand total this year of 61 books (which is still great – still better than a book a week, and I’m pleased with that). The below graphic charts my most committed reading months – unsurprisingly the winter months when the darkness draws in are my most reading-iest. But there’s also a big spike around the summer holidays. Again, no surprises…
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my reading year. I’ve read some absolutely fantastic stuff, and some stuff which was maybe less so, so you don’t have to. Here in all its glory is my top twenty for 2018. Drum roll please…
Honourable mentions to the other books I read this year: Gazza in Italy by Daniel Storey; The Mountain by Luca d’Andrea; Lifeless by Mark Billingham; Mister Memory by Marcus Sedgwick; The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton; A Natural by Ross Raisin; Wolf by Mo Hayder; Night Games: A Journey to the Dark Side of Sport by Anna Krien; 13 Minutes by Sarah Pinborough; Watching the Dark by Peter Robinson; The Book of Dust Volume One: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman; Devil’s Day by Andrew Michael Hurley; Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult; The Thirst by Jo Nesbo; Strange Weather by Joe Hill; Artemis by Andy Weir; Selfie: How we became so Self-Obsessed and what it’s doing to us by Will Storr; The Sons by Anton Svensson; Die of Shame by Mark Billingham; Rush of Blood by Mark Billingham; The Fifth Woman by Henning Mankell; I am Behind You by John Ajvide Lindqvist; In the Dark by Mark Billingham; Garden of Evil by Graham Masterton; The Partner by John Grisham; The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter; A Conspiracy of Tall Men by Noah Hawley; History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund; The Sacrifice Box by Martin Stewart; Fall Down Dead by Stephen Booth; Path of Needles by Alison Littlewood; If I Ever Fall by S.D. Robertson; Border Songs by Jim Lynch; Outside the Comfort Zone: Tales from Austerity Britain by Alan Devey; Gwendy’s Button Box by Stephen King; No Hunger in Paradise by Michael Calvin; The Bad Place by Dean Koontz; Wakening the Crow by Stephen Gregory; Cast Iron by Peter May; The White Tower by Cathryn Constable.
Some observations: Paul Tremblay dominates the chart for the second year running. Though Dave Eggers’ The Circle walked off with the ‘Andy’ for my favourite book of the year, Tremblay boasted both the number two and the number three slot in the chart, with A Head Full of Ghosts and Disappearance at Devil’s Rock respectively. This year he’s gone one better, securing the top novel award, and I couldn’t recommend this author more. He’s as compulsive a read as Stephen King at his best, but his is a thoroughly modern take on an often clichéd genre. Tremblay makes horror/ dark fiction new and exciting. Get on it.
Literary heavyweight Paul Auster takes the runner-up slot with his super-heavyweight 4,3,2,1, a book which takes you so far into the mind of its protagonist that at times you think you are him. Though it is hard work at times, the book is worth it. And then some. Auster’s writing is far from austere here and at the end you come out feeling like you’ve truly lived the lives of some of the characters.
Benjamin Myers completes my top three. The Gallows Pole is like an unholy mix of Game of Thrones, Wolf Hall, and Kes. It’s brilliant. What a voice! Myers once competed with me for The Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize. His novel won out over my Paint this town Red. He deserved it. He deserves even more for this offering.
Halcyon by Rio Youers makes the top ten (just). A decade (or so) ago, Rio and I shared a table of contents in a dark fiction anthology, and it’s stunning to see just how far his writing has progressed in that time (I’m not jealous, honest).
‘Darker’ fiction (crime and horror) again dominates the top of my chart, but my expanded criteria for inclusion means that a couple of non-fiction works have made the top twenty. Michael Finkel’s extraordinary book The Stranger in the Woods makes number four in my list.
Metafiction, and stories which are playful with the way stories are put together, also does well this year. Particular highlights are Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders, Edgar Cantero’s Meddling Kids, and The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton are cases in point.
Finally, sports books do well, especially those about sporting outsiders, or mavericks. I am Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a tour de force in the exploration of sporting ego (and is also very funny), and forms an interesting counterpoint to Gazza in Italy by Daniel Storey, whilst Anna Krien’s Night Games is a chilling exposition of the darker side of sport – in this case Aussie Rules Football – (and masculinity).
It arrives, heralded by the drumroll of thunder and forked tongues of lightning. It arrives, kicking and screaming, bellyaching – it’s wanted to be out for weeks, and now it is. It arrives, armed to the teeth and bearing a grudge. It arrives, my new book: I Am Just Going Outside and May Be Some Time, produced by those lovely folk at Wild Wolf Publishing (who were also responsible for Bully, Paint this town Red and Small Man Syndrome).
You can read all about it here.
And you can get your sticky paws on a copy by following this link. Tell your friends; tell your family. And join the conversation on Twitter (search for the hashtag: #outsidenovel).
Wild Wolf Publishing have confirmed the exact release date for my new novel I am going outside and may be some time. It’ll hit the stores on 27 July 2018. It’s a date which has been momentous throughout history. According to Wikipedia in 1054, Siward, Earl of Northumbria invaded Scotland and defeated Macbeth, King of Scotland, somewhere near the Firth of Forth. In 1890, Vincent van Gogh shot himself. He would die two days later. In 1930, Shirley Williams, the British politician and academic was born. Around 55 years later she would stay at our house. In 1960, the American singer-songwriter Conway Savage was born. He never stayed at our house. In 1974, The House of Representatives voted to impeach Richard Nixon after the Watergate scandal. On 27 July last year, the American playwright Sam Shepard died, but this year, there’ll be a literary event of a different magnitude/ gravity.
So remember to look the book up on Amazon on this famous day in history. Cheers!
Find out more about my new novel (due out at the end of the month) using your usual social media channels. There’ll be freebies, competitions, and sneak previews all the way up to publication day. Here’s how you can get involved:
Search Twitter for #outsidenovel
or follow @ajkirbyauthor
Hello again. Just wanted to drop by to alert you to an opportunity. Before the release of my new novel I am just going outside… in late July, I’m looking for five volunteers to provide an early review of the book (on your own blogs/ websites/ social media pages, as well as on Amazon, once the book is up on the site).
It’ll be on a first-come, first-served basis, and I’ll be sending you an electronic version (either .mobi, which works on Kindle, or .pdf – let me know which you prefer in an email to the following address:
andrewkirby 92 (at) btinternet.com (please remove spaces and replace at with @).
Go!
Jack Whitehall at the First Direct Arena isn’t the only event in town in Leeds on Friday (10th Feb). Nosireebob. For I’ll be participating in the locally-well-renowned Words on Tap/ Word Club night at the Chemic Tavern, compered by Mark Connors. This Friday is ‘Anything Prose’, and I’ll be reading from my novel The Lost Boys of Prometheus City (which you can buy from here). The event kicks off at 7.30, and details of the location can be found here.
My Endeavour Press sports publication, Jose Mourinho: The Art of Winning, is available for just 99p on Amazon at the moment (ebook only). So go on, get your laughing gear around it here.
Here’s what the reviewers have said: “gives a good insight into Jose Mourinho and how he has become one of the most successful and talked about managers currently in the game.” Amazon Reviewer
“What a wonderful book! The most thoroughly researched, detailed, forensic and comprehensive analysis I have read about Jose Mourinho’s managerial career and how Kirby anticipates he will be welcomed and perform on the stage that awaits him at Old Trafford. Well argued with much use of original sources and fresh and engaging, this is essential reading for all students of management as well as Manchester United fans wondering that their club has let them in for.” Amazon Reviewer
I’m guest-blogging on the Leeds Big Bookend website today regarding the long and winding road to publication of my new novel, The Lost Boys of Prometheus City. If you want to read the blog, please go here. And if you want to get your hands on the paperback, please follow this link.
paintthistownred 