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Bad Ideas\Chemicals RSS

Al Arabi, Bad Ideas\Chemicals, Fiction, Gary Raymond, Lloyd Markham, News, Parthian Books, The Golden Orphans, Translation, Wales -

Alexandra Büchler from Literature Across Frontier recently met Cairo-based Al Arabi Publishers at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair to confirm the terms for World Arabic translation rights to both The Golden Orphans by Gary Raymond and Bad Ideas/Chemicals by Lloyd Markham  – straight from Wales to Eqypt. 

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Authors, Bad Ideas\Chemicals, Betty Trask Award, Fiction, Lloyd Markham, News -

'Writers and poets from across the globe were celebrating tonight (Thursday 19 July) as the 2018 Authors’ Awards were announced by the Society of Authors at a ceremony at RIBA. Hosted by Stephen Fry with an introduction by the President of the SoA, Philip Pullman, eight awards were presented to 31 writers with a host of debut names joining recognised writers of fiction, non-fiction and poetry to share a prize fund of £98,000.'

From left: Betty Trask Prize 2018 winner Omar Robert Hamilton, and Betty Trask Award 2018 winners Lloyd Markham, Eli Goldstone, Sarah Day and Clare Fisher (photographer: Tom Pilston)

Full story on the SoA website

Congratulations to Lloyd Markham for his Betty Trask Award and to all the other winners and thanks to the Society of Authors for hosting an enjoyable Summer Party!

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Bad Ideas\Chemicals, Betty Trask Prize, Debuts, Lloyd Markham, Novels, Prizes, Wales Book of the Year -

Congratulations to Lloyd Markham, Bad Ideas\Chemicals is one of six debut novels by writers under 35 shortlisted for the Betty Trask Prize 2018, announced today. The Betty Trask Prize and Awards are presented for a first novel by a writer under 35. ​Past winners include Zadie Smith, David Szalay, Hari Kunzru and Sarah Waters. Total prize and award fund is £26,250. The Authors’ Awards, presented by Stephen Fry, will take place at RIBA on the evening of Thursday 19 July. The 2018 shortlist: Mussolini’s Island by Sarah Day (Tinder Press) All the Good Things by Clare Fisher (Viking) Strange Heart Beating by Eli...

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Bad Ideas\Chemicals, Events, Interviews, Lloyd Markham, The Cardiff Review, writing -

I think around the time I first started reading, really. Though the seeds were perhaps planted even earlier. When my dad would read me bedtime stories as a child he would often change things to amuse himself—inserting rude jokes and non-sequiturs into otherwise innocent books and fables. Eventually, I wanted to join in on the fun. I would wrestle the books away from him and declare, "No! It didn’t go like that, Dad. It went like this!"

Funny as it is to think about it now, those early experiences with my father probably put the idea into my head that I could make up stories too. 

What I’m saying is I blame my father for everything. 

Read the interview in full on the Cardiff Review website

Buy Bad Ideas\Chemicals by Lloyd Markham from our online shop for £7.99

Join us for the Cosmic Re-launch of Bad Ideas\Chemicals at The Full Moon, Cardiff on 30 November 2017

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Bad Ideas\Chemicals, Lloyd Markham, Review -

Alex Haagaard gives a deep reading of Bad Ideas\Chemicals in her review on monsteringmag.com:

'It is perhaps best characterised as a slightly magical-realist dystopian satire of 21st century British neoliberalism; for all its more fantastical elements, this is a story with a very strong sense of place and time. A unique desperation pervades everything in Goregree—clinging like a film of mildew to the town's arrogantly optimistic historical architecture, and smothered under a layer of cheerful bureaucratic indifference. This is a portrait of the Welsh valleys—after the closure of the mines, and under austerity.' 

'[...] Bad Ideas\Chemicals is, at its heart, an account of what it is to be a freak. It portrays with painful honesty the many ways that society lets freaks know we're not welcome here.'

'[...] both disturbingly real and terribly sad.' 

Buy Bad ideas\Chemicals from our online shop for £7.99 and free P&P

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