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Patrick Walker (Patrick_walker)
Username: Patrick_walker

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 82.153.251.65
Posted on Monday, September 17, 2012 - 12:01 pm:   

...was interviewed on Radio 2 on Saturday morning, I believe. I didn't hear it myself as I was about to go out.
I'm doubtful whether Graham Norton would exactly have given him the sort of questioning we'd have liked to have heard, but it's available for listening online, regardless...
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 88.108.223.123
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - 09:27 pm:   

If you scroll down the page here,
http://lbc.audioagain.com/index.php?sid=1&player=showchannel&channel_id=361
You can download for free an interview with James Herbert and listen to it at your leisure. Or just listen online, I believe.

Incidentally, his new novel ASH is 20p on Kindle at the moment. Bit of a bargain, really.
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 88.108.223.123
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - 09:32 pm:   

And here,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/grahamnorton
for a short while only, you can download the podcast of Norton's show that Patrick mentions.
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 88.108.223.123
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - 10:00 pm:   

He's been getting around:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00yp480
Can't see this one being available much longer.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.42.48.84
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 01:11 am:   

Is this a horror site or something, Mark? I thought it was about Doctor Who.
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.22.61.240
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 01:13 am:   

I've been quite tempted to re-read some Herbert lately, but I do wonder if I'd be better leaving his stuff as fond memories from an uncritical teenage horror reader's mind.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.42.48.84
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 01:18 am:   

David - no, the opposite is true. I reread parts of The Rats recently and it was superb! Lushly atmospheric and it captures the era beautifully.
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.22.61.240
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 01:37 am:   

That's good to hear, I'm more tempted now. It was The Fog I was thinking about trying again, specifically.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.42.48.84
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 01:38 am:   

Who writer Paul Magrs says when he read it as a kid it reassured him the whole world wasn't homophobic. Nice hearing things like that.
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.22.61.240
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 01:51 am:   

It is. Actually, I suppose the internet we're moaning about in the other thread probably fulfils the same function for kids today. :-)
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.116.57.215
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 05:43 am:   

I have fond memories of Lair, Dominion and The Fog - pretty much the only Herbert I've read. He truly knows his craft.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.145.208.175
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 08:59 am:   

I used to read a lot of herbert but i couldn't help noticing that any time a character was revealed as gay they were invariably dead by the end of the chapter. The most extreme case is the lady scientist in domain who'd been in it since near the start and was set up to be one of the book's survivors. Then she was revealed to be a lesbian and within 3 pages she'd been drowned, machine gunned and eaten by the rats.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.42.48.84
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 09:14 am:   

True! You're right. That actually is quite terrible.
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 94.197.127.59
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 09:25 am:   

Like most writers, over the course of many years, Herbert's stuff varies in quality. I think the longer his books have taken him to write the poorer they are. Of late he's been overwriting. And I think his prose style is beginning to show its age. He's still capable of generating eerie scenes, though. And still sounds quite angry. ASH sounds to be wonderfully tasteless. You can't help but feel the last lines are Herbert's own when talking about the whole establishment.

I didn't read him till I was nearly 20 so I don't mind re-reading his early books, most of which hold up pretty well. But I won't re-read much of anything I loved as a kid. Nothing can stand up to the platonic ideals of back then.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.37.199.45
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 01:03 pm:   

"Who writer Paul Magrs says when he read it as a kid it reassured him the whole world wasn't homophobic. Nice hearing things like that."

Is it possible that he was being ironic?
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 88.108.201.129
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 03:25 pm:   

You mean he may have preferred Guy N Smith's Crabs books, Joel?
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 88.108.201.129
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 03:31 pm:   

I had a listen to the programme in that last link I posted, heard James Herbert talking about "JK Rowlings". For some reason that kind of thing bothers me. Same way as people who talk about "Cliff Richards" bothers me . . .
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.42.48.84
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 03:42 pm:   

Magrs was being serious.
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John Forth (John)
Username: John

Registered: 05-2008
Posted From: 82.24.1.217
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 10:56 pm:   

Like most writers, over the course of many years, Herbert's stuff varies in quality. I think the longer his books have taken him to write the poorer they are. Of late he's been overwriting. And I think his prose style is beginning to show its age.

This is all very true of ASH. I won't say any more, as I have a review that's going up soon and will like to that when it's available.

Worth noting that while the one lesbian character in his latest novel is unflatteringly portrayed and comes to a bad end, two gay men receive a slightly better deal (if you discount the terrible Scots dialect one of them is saddled with).
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 94.197.127.153
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 11:14 pm:   

One of Dan Simmons's SF novels - one of the Endymion efforts - features a character with an accent that sounds like he's from whatever planet Mr Scott was from in Star Trek.
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.40.254.10
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 11:47 pm:   

Let us know when the review's up, John. I've not read Ash yet. I am looking forward to it, though. But Ghosts Know is my next read, after I finish this biography I'm reading of Bernard Ingham.

I do think he still has much to offer horror fiction. I do wish he had a stronger editor, as I think he'd benefit. I believe he's talked in the past about not being too thrilled by editing and fights his case perhaps a little too strongly, given his importance to his publishers.
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.40.254.241
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 11:48 pm:   

Uhm, James Herbert, I meant. Not Bernard Ingham. In that last paragraph.

Though now I think about it...
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John Forth (John)
Username: John

Registered: 05-2008
Posted From: 82.24.1.217
Posted on Monday, September 24, 2012 - 10:33 pm:   

For those of you who expressed an interest, my review of ASH is now available on This Is Horror: http://www.thisishorror.co.uk/read-horror/book-reviews/ash-by-james-herbert/
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.40.254.73
Posted on Monday, October 22, 2012 - 06:49 pm:   

I've nearly finished Ash now and have read John's thoughts. I agree. It's not Mr Herbert's best book. Pity. I wanted to like it.

Let's hope the telly version of Crickley Hall is good.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.26.131.123
Posted on Monday, October 22, 2012 - 08:16 pm:   

You put it rather more abrasively to me on the phone, mate. :-)
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 94.197.127.163
Posted on Monday, October 22, 2012 - 09:51 pm:   

I did, didn't I? Ha.
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.40.254.251
Posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - 01:02 pm:   

Has the BBC dropped The Secret of Crickley Hall from its Hallowe'en schedule because of the Jimmy Savile stuff?

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