Down The Angel

Update

2008-07-24T19:37:00.000+01:00

In 2008 two of the writers concerned, Mark Piggott and Sulaiman Addonia, published their debut novels. Mark Piggott's book 'Fire Horses' is published by Legend Press, while Sulaiman Addonia's came out with Random House and is called 'The Consequences Of Love'. Another of the writers, Lane Ashfeldt, has won an international short story prize, while Joe Ambrose, who was already a published novelist, has a new book out with HeadPress.

Buy the book

2006-11-15T22:36:00.000Z

'Down the Angel and Up Holloway' was published in a limited edition and is now no longer available.

4 Dec at the Angel, Amwell St

2006-11-15T18:01:00.000Z

Readings from: Joe Ambrose, Eula Harrison, Julie Rayne. (short stories with mince pies -- another literary first?)
The Amwell Book Company, 53 Amwell Street, London EC1. 6pm-7pm

Launched

2006-11-02T21:08:00.000Z

Well, at Borders there was a fair-sized and fairly enthusiastic crowd. Also — and this was literary first for me, at least — we had a DOG among the audience. The dog's owner was a friend of Julie Balloo, who was there to read her story Pop Goes the Weasel. Sadly there is no documentary evidence of this event... Shame. Our struggles with the dodgy PA might have made amusing watching afterwards, if they didn’t feel so very amusing at the time. In the end Julie had me switch off the amp. All in all it can't have been that bad though, because most people were buying. And everyone went down the Angelic (pub) afterwards, except those of us with child labour in tow.

Launch at the Angel

2006-11-02T16:01:00.000Z

Well - tonight's the night, Borders the Angel, in about two hours time. Tonight Julie Rayne and Phoebia Freeman are among the readers. Also Andrew LLoyd-Jones, and Julie Balloo who is writing partner to Jenny Eclair. Jenny read the book and said lots of nice things about it, so everyone at Pulp Net thinks she is fantastic and waves at her when they see her on tube posters.
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Good news - the first mail order just arrived.

DOWN THE ANGEL EVENTS

2006-10-04T09:11:00.000+01:00

ARSENAL RED ZONE - 23 Oct - private event

BORDERS ANGEL - 2 Nov - 6pm

CROCKATT & POWELL - 13 Nov

Diary dates

2006-10-04T08:59:00.000+01:00

I now think secretaries must be geniuses. And I want one. It has taken far too long to set up these events. Maybe it’s my fault for wasting a day trying to arrange an event in the Oak Room at the Water Board's old offices near Sadlers Wells. (Which has not as yet come off, although I had a pleasant mobile phone conversation with a nice lady who was about to go on holiday, and who presumably forgot all about it. It would have been a perfect place to hear Charlie Mayor’s Notable Mentions the Statue.)

Party planning

2006-09-21T23:10:00.000+01:00

Lots of thought has gone into the launch of DOWN THE ANGEL. (Best say this now in case that’s not how it seems on the day.) I was working late tonight, firming up on dates and venues, when Aisha, who cleans the building, came clanking along the corridor with her bucket and mop, so I asked if she fancied coming. She’s cool, Aisha; she’s often last in the building and she’s never bothered about locking up on her own. The bit I dread is the struggle with the dodgy padlock while people pass by right behind me — makes me feel like I’ve a target sign on my back. This morning at the cashpoint on Seven Sisters four women pelted past, chasing some bloke who’d nicked one of their handbags. They hurtled into a sidestreet yelling and screaming at him. He was a fast runner though, I think he got away. Aisha is no more afraid of booklaunches than she is of street thieves, and said she’d love to come. She’s even bringing her kids, so I guess now we have an excuse to buy crisps...

Unhinged

2006-09-14T11:34:00.000+01:00

The printers accidentally made a few hinged copies as well as the unhinged ones we specified, and are making us a present of those extras... Books will arrive very soon. Meanwhile, I am feeling a little unhinged also. The venue we planned to use for launch has fallen through. We need a local launch venue, because some of the contributors can't travel very far. Where??

Cambridge

2006-09-11T23:43:00.000+01:00

I visit the printers before they move on to binding, since I happen to be in the area. The site is huge, in a kind of business park set-up (it is the print division of CUP). I hide my bike outside, not wanting to look too scruffy, and wait in a palatial reception area for what seems weeks until my contact, Ken, arrives.

The unbound sections and jacket he shows me both look fine. There's some under-inking, but that may be the matt paper stock. Overall I'm happy enough, it's getting there. Ken insists on sending a bound sample, because he’s convinced the cover should be scored. But I hate score marks. On my personal list of all-time print crimes, they are up there with shiny white inside pages, gloss laminate covers, and embossed gold titles or author names. Ooops, am I being too book-geeky here?

Dropout letters

2006-08-30T23:43:00.000+01:00

Dropout is the term favoured by the printer to describe the L's and K's missing from the proofs. I circle the gaps where the letters used to be. It takes hours. Not one of us can offer any plausible explanation: I am stumped, the designer rechecks all the files for clues, even the printer admits how mysterious it all is. [Nothing personal, but I'd been hoping not to hear from him again until after the book was printed]. The closest anyone gets to working out what has gone wrong is M, who suggests the letters L and K have been over-used, and that we may now be facing a global shortage. B OODY FUC ING MARVE OUS...

So many passwords, so little time

2006-08-28T19:14:00.000+01:00

When I woke up after said booklag, I'd forgotten the magic words to get into my blog. All I got was: "Username and password do not match". Maybe it will actually be a relief when they bring on fingerprint recognition, in some ways. Anyway, things are moving along, the printers sent back all the lasers for me to sign off. Like lawyers and bankers, printers are big on actual hard copy signatures, I can't just email and tell them it's all fine... So I better reread them tonight. They want them back by tomorrow, which is a bit keen. Today is a bank holiday. (How did they know I'd even be in work?)

Putting it to bed

2006-08-19T00:12:00.000+01:00

A phrase that was bandied around a lot when I freelanced on monthlies. Everyone canes it coming up to press day; then when it's over, they go down the pub to celebrate "putting the issue to bed". Now, though, it's me that gets put to bed. I've been working earlies and lates, it's been intense. After dinner I lie down on the sofa for a nap, and dont wake for 15 hours. Sleep of the dead. Booklag, I love it!

Unquotable quotes

2006-08-17T16:47:00.000+01:00

An author has looked at the proofs and says he will provide a quote. Great, but Pulp Net's chair isn’t wild about it:

"Dido, Tony Blair, over-zealous traffic wardens....not everyone in Islington is a total c--t, as this collection adroitly illustrates."

I think it's funny, Alstair suggests using it with the U and N reinstated. But will it help sell the book? We have no way of knowing. Anyway, it is use it or lose it; a quick decision is needed. We go with another of his quotes instead.

Also waiting for one from Jenny Eclair, but it may be too late when it reaches us...

Over, or not?

2006-08-16T17:27:00.000+01:00

The whole book is in art now. Almost out of my hands. The printers want hard copy of everything, so we must slow down and stop wanting everything done same-day. It will take at least 3 weeks, maybe more (someone there is on holiday, this may slows things further). Will post a finish date when it’s agreed.

Notable Mentions

2006-08-16T12:29:00.000+01:00

Some last minute hoo-ha between Charlie Mayor and me over Sir Hugh Myddleton (statue with the melty face on Islington Green, + man in charge of building the New River, which brought water to London in the early 1600's). Did he die rich or poor? A fog of competing histories surrounds him. Charlie changes a few words, leaving options open for multiple variants of the Myddleton saga.

Did I write that?

2006-08-15T23:24:00.000+01:00

About the "few small edits and tweaks" I mean? Because I didn't finish until half nine, and it ain't over. T works on the web a lot so for the him the idea of a print job — an actual good old-fashioned book — is mysterious and exciting, and he's working hard on getting it right. The downside is, add his perfectionism to mine, and we may never pass a single page, we'll be in proofs forever. At least that's how it feels right now... It's like the inertia you get just before moving house when, despite the fact that all around you everyday items are being swallowed up by cardboard boxes, you somehow stop believing the move will ever happen...
When I finished, I locked up and walked home along back streets in the dark, a little jumpy as I passed the place where the murder signs were a few months back. Too much coffee, I expect.

A time to work, a time to blog

2006-08-15T11:12:00.000+01:00

How do other people find time to blog? If it is choice between getting stuff done and making a blog entry, the book has to win right now. All the authors who need to come back have done so, I think. Spent yesterday in meetings with designers. Have reprinted it for "one final read" -- a few more small edits and tweaks to make.

eek

2006-08-10T17:04:00.000+01:00

An author who has approved his pages gets back in contact to say his name was mis-spelled. Ouch. But there are other hold-ups too, so it is not a problem to make the change.

Deadlines

2006-08-09T11:51:00.000+01:00

Researching a little intro or outro to the book, I turn over a quote attributed to former Islington based writer Douglas Adams: "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by." Which sets off a big WHOOOSH of recognition. I started writing this at half six this morning aiming to finish by 9am and it's now after half eleven. This should be done! I decide NOT to find out which exact part of Islington Arthur Dent was in when he went to the party where he met the girl... If I need to know, someone will mail it in as a comment.

Hello printers

2006-08-08T22:55:00.000+01:00

Time to remind the printers we exist. Once the last bits have been tidied up (which includes making contact with one or two renegade writers), the job will finally be ready to go. The page count is longer than they quoted for earlier this year, so I guess the cost will push up a little... and there always seem to be more little bits that need adding: biographies, an introduction if we do one, logos, a barcode, blah blah blah. I'd really like to get it off to them this week.

Ancient tech

2006-08-08T00:10:00.000+01:00

Get some help from Jorge at LAAC (London Asian African Caribbean Centre) because my computer has no floppy drive, hence no way of picking up text files from Peggy (The Island) or Nigel (Holloway Road). How does new technology become old technology so quickly? Wonder how many writers out there have work on floppy drives that they will one day find they can no longer access?

Leaving the Angel

2006-08-04T19:06:00.000+01:00

Take a train and boat to Dublin for a few days. Despite the fact no passport is required, find myself in a very different country. Even from the open sea, cranes are visible, and evidence of the building boom is everywhere. Lots of things seem better than before, and there certainly seems to be more of everything. Except Bewley’s cafés. Ah, but it all costs more too. Two ladies in Ringsend are scandalised when a half [sorry, a glass!] of Guinness costs over 2 euros. Later a friend wants to meet at a pub off Grafton Street and prices take a sudden hike to nearly 3 euros a glass. Sure, when was it ever different?

Dialogue

2006-08-03T12:32:00.000+01:00

Shaun comes back with a few changes to his Down the Angel story, and three possible new titles, which we narrow down to one. And he says he wasn't nudging me at all, that he's not that subtle. I like the way his story is all dialogue, like a little radio play for two actors. Must ask him if he has someone who wants to read it with him. It's going to be a rush trying to fix readings as well as get the book printed, but a good kind of rush, I hope.

Tea and floppy discs

2006-08-01T17:05:00.000+01:00

The area around the old Arsenal football stadium often confuses me. Something about the way the streets make odd angles instead of forming a north-south, east-west grid like much of Holloway. Anyway I manage to get lost between the office and Peggy's place, which is less than ten minutes away. But eventually I find her and discover that like lots of writers with a deadline, she has had problems. She was up very late last night re-doing her story. She suggests I switch on her computer to double check everything is on the floppy disc, and we end up writing her bio straight to screen. There's a lot to fit in, 84 years, and I tell her jokingly that she is entitled to extra space if she needs it. Peggy tells me how every room of the house was painted brown when they moved here just after the war, so that her mother sat down and cried the day they moved in, and said they would never stay. And here is Peggy, sixty years later, still going strong. We drink tea from little china cups, and it's quite hard to drag myself back to the office.

Shaun’s doubt

2006-07-31T11:23:00.000+01:00

Shaun Levin emails a link to where Hisham Matar can find ‘Cezanne’s Doubt’ online (a reference to the Hisham Matar Top 10 page on Pulp Net) and I realise Shaun may be gently nudging me about his story, 'Phone Love'. I asked if he had a Down the Angel story a while back, but somehow in the heat-induced untogetherness this summer, I forgot all about it and Shaun’s story is not typeset! Ouch. Will get onto it today…

Down the Angel .... and up Holloway

2006-07-30T18:45:00.000+01:00

We’ve come up with a title change to reflect the Islington North writers, adding ‘and up Holloway’ to the main title. When I tell him this M says, ‘Don’t suppose it’ll affect sales if you keep it small.’ Maybe he has a point because this week while trying to arrange a reading it goes fine as long as I’m saying the Angel but when I mention Holloway the woman gives me this look, so I say ‘What?’ and she says, ‘I used to live there, it’s RUFF.’ What can I say? Is she worried her venue will get trashed?

Holloway: I guess at any given moment half of us are suffering from road rage — once I when was parking my old Fiat Panda near Seven Sisters Road, a guy behind yelled that I’d cut him up. I thought we agreed to disagree on that, but when I returned to the car half an hour later all the tyres were slashed. I’m back on a travelcard now. Less stress.

The neverending story

2006-07-29T11:13:00.000+01:00

Proofs for the Down The Angel book are coming along. This past week the RedZone writers have been coming back with text files or comments and changes to their proofs, and it really is beginning to look and feel more like a book. For the most part it goes smoothly, although one story growsfrom 2,000 to 10,000 words between seeing it on paper and the hard copy coming through. Good story, but sadly it might not all fit in the book… Peggy, who doesn’t have email, has been hard to reach. She has a lovely story based on her experiences during World War 2 (about the only time she left London, when she was bombed out), but she has not been able to get out much lately. Will have to pop round to her house and pick it up.

Hot Holloway

2006-07-29T08:59:00.000+01:00

It’s been tough trying to work and stay sane in London these past few weeks. Working in a south facing roof space seemed like a good idea in the middle of winter, but now it’s torture. Views of the railway track and the new Arsenal football stadium just don’t quite make up. The office next to Pulp Net has air con, and I keep finding reasons to talk to Arlene in Streetscene just for an excuse to stand in the fridge-like calm of their office.

On the plus side, I haven’t seen many of those yellow police signs asking for murder witnesses in the area just recently. A side effect of extreme weather, a professional tells me: when it’s really hot, or really cold, you see a drop in crime stats.’