Books, Issue 588

Joel Stickley and Luke Wright

‘It’s nice to get an opportunity to stick the knife in,’ says Luke Wright whose latest project aims to show that metaphorical blades are more powerful than the sword, especially when accompanied by a satirist’s pen. Targeting the questionable writing…

Steve Niles & Ben Templesmith

30 Days of Night (IDW)

Once upon a time uptight Americans thought gruesome moral tales of things that crept and slithered through the world of comics might bring down society. EC Comics and their Tales From the Crypt, Vault of Horror and Haunt of Fear titles caused a moral…

Peter York & Olivia Stewart-Liberty

SOCIAL HANDBOOK Cooler, Faster, More Expensive: The Return of the Sloane Ranger (Atlantic) Conspicuous for their vast, inherited wealth, public school education and cushy jobs in the City, Sloanes (aka ‘rahs’, ‘yahs’ or ‘upper class twats’…

Hitlist - The best books, comics & events

• Gail Porter The Edinburgh-born media star drops by for a book signing as she unveils her autobiography, Laid Bare, which chronicles the many psychological and physical battles she’s endured over the last decade. Waterstone’s, Edinburgh, Thu 25…

Rosemary Goring (Ed)

Scotland: The Autobiography (Viking)

Frankly, I’m not usually one for tomes about the past, but this remarkable and ambitious piece of work is no ordinary history book. An incredibly diverse collection of writings spanning 2000 years, it tells the story of this country through the people…

Mitzi Szereto (Ed)

SHORT STORIES Getting Even: Revenge Stories (Serpent’s Tail) Sounding worryingly like a manual for angry Bobbitt types, this anthology of short stories looks at ways of serving up the cold dish of revenge. Men don’t come out looking too rosy, and…

Paul Barker

FAMILY GUIDE The Book of Dad (Fourth Estate) According to Paul Barker, Journalist Dad lives on pork scratchings and cigarettes, drives a second hand Saab and dreams of hanging out with Hollywood’s finest at the Dorchester Hotel while actually…

Duncan McLaren

BIOGRAPHY Looking for Enid (Portobello) Eileen Soper’s artwork of the Famous Five adorns the dust jacket of Duncan McLaren’s personal response to Enid Blyton. Inside, enthusiasm bordering on mania abounds and we could happily leave this…

Steve Niles & Ben Templesmith

30 Days of Night: Dark Days (IDW)

After reading 30 Days of Night it’s hard to think where Niles could take the characters he’d created next. Here he moves the action from Alaska to LA, where one of the survivors of the initial assault continues her war on the vampires and her campaign…

Steve Niles & Ben Templesmith

30 Days of Night: Return to Barrow (IDW)

We’re back in Alaska for this outing, as a new sheriff takes over the unenviable task of keeping law in Barrow, three years after the events of the first book. As soon as we touch down in Barrow the claustrophobic edge reappears as the month of darkness…

Steve Niles & Various

30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales (IDW)

Here Niles extends his own mythology with more tales of vampires, this time with the loosest connections to the original trilogy. Kody Chamberlain handles the art for ‘Dead Billy Dead’, while in the second story, ‘Juarez’, Templesmith returns on art…