#Mark Billingham

[dzelonis]

Mēneša grāmata #116 - Septembris 2024

Mark Billingham – Die of Shame Manu viedokli un iespaidus varat izlasīt šeit

[briefbookreviewsuk]

Brief Book Review - The Wrong Hands by Mark Billingham

A Brief Book Review of The Wrong Hands by Mark Billingham

Published by Sphere as a hardback edition in the United Kingdom on 20th June 2024.

Following on from "The Last Dance" it's a second outing for Blackpool's quirkiest detective DS Declan Miller. This time Declan and partner Sara (a.k.a. Posh) are on the trail of a contact killer , dealing with local villains , one of whom Declan thinks is connected with the murder of his wife and just for good measure solving the riddle of a briefcase containing a pair of severed hands...

A quirky , sometimes tragedy/comedy tale but an enjoyable summer read. #bookreview #whodunnit #book

Check out my review :

[jenmedsbookreviews]

The Wrong Hands by Mark Billingham

Today I am sharing my review of The Wrong Hands by Mark Billingham, a brand new DS Declan Miller novel. It's fabulous. #MarkBillingham @littlebrownbookgroup_uk #books #bookreview #thewronghands #bookstagram #booksofinstagram

Today I am delighted to share my review of The Wrong Hands, the brand new Declan Miller novel from Mark Billingham, I managed to pick up an early copy of the book while I was at Capital Crime the other week and couldn’t wait to tuck in. So I didn’t. Review took a little longer due to other already planned reviews taking priority, but better late(r) than never. Here’s what the book is all…

[poppletonink]

Christmas Mysteries To Read This December

The Santa Killer by Ross Greenwood

The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie

Silent Nights: Christmas Mysteries by Martin Edwards

The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett

Murder Most Festive by Ada Moncrief

The Twelve Deaths Of Christmas by Marian Babson

Murder On The Christmas Express by Alexandra Benedict

The Christmas Killer by Alex Pine

Murder On A Winter's Night by Various Authors (Including Arthur Conan Doyle, Cyril Hare and Mark Billingham)

Jane and The Twelve Days Of Christmas by Stephanie Barron

The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict

A Wee Christmas Homicide by Kaitlyn Dunnett

Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie

The Christmas Jigsaw Murders by Alexandra Benedict

An English Murder by Cyril Hare

The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson

[in-the-red-notebook]

"Ray's a Laugh" - Richard Billingham

What should a photo book be? A container for work? A physical reproduction of a bunch successful images? Or a work unto itself, in the tradition of the artist’s book, where book is the final formal goal ? To me, Ray’s a Laugh offers a high-water-mark affirmation of the latter. The body of work in this book is greater than any one image, the edit and sequence is brilliant, and the book speaks and lives for itself in an astounding way, a self-contained parable in its own humble world.

The work in this book was made in Billingham’s parents’ apartment in a small town in England, and centers on his father’s shut-in alcoholic lifestyle and his relationship with Billingham’s doting, caring mother. It’s a complex portrait of the whole family, posing playfully as a document but in reality functioning much more as impressionistic drama.

This work joins the likes of Larry Clark’s "Tulsa" and Nan Goldin’s “Ballad of Sexual Dependency” in the discussion of ethical/exploitative photography—is it right for Billingham to publish work that shows his family in extremely personal, vulnerable, and sometimes graphic situations? Is it right for him to characterize them as he does—deeply flawed, but charming and loving? Is it exploitative to aestheticize their poverty? These questions are complicated, but I think that given the personal nature of the work—Billingham’s own family being the subject—it’s hard for me to really condone or criticize the work either way. I don’t think of this book as benevolent or as evil, but as existing in the gray area of exchanging the privacy of loved ones for artistic honesty. I truly hope that this exchange was made in good faith.

As to the aesthetization, if we give Billingham the benefit of the doubt about the work being “authentic” (even if it’s such a flimsy adjective), it can be argued that the real, cynical commercial exploitation of poverty and addiction aesthetics is done downstream, when work like this starts popping up on moodboards for advertising and editorial photography, in commercial contexts, etc. On this topic, there’s a really fascinating publication called “Opioid Crisis Lookbook” that interrogates the culture of addiction and recovery from within the current North American opioid crisis, and I think it’s really good reading for anyone interested in this discussion. PDF here: https://theopioidcrisislookbook.com/issue-1/ 

Aside from the moral quandaries, I don’t mean to be grandiose when I say that to me, this book is a testament to the power of photography; a reminder to pick up the camera and observe, because something photographed is so different from something remembered. The work rides a fine line between earnestness and what could be considered callousness: gritty, dynamic photographs ostensibly about the reality of an alcoholic family member that are somehow stubbornly light-hearted and whimsical. Billingham engages in something like anti-humanist humanism, breaking up somber, revealing portraits with funny, detached snapshots of almost baroque scenes unfolding in the apartment day to day. This complexity makes me think about a consistent, obsessive photography practice, close observation of the intangible, and the simple, revealing power of a photograph.

In Ray’s a Laugh, Billingham is able to approach and re-approach the same people, the same spaces, and the same ideas, over and over, over the course of several months. The result is this magical, complex book that really satisfyingly blurs the lines of truth and fiction, and tragedy and comedy. What I think most draws me to this book is Billingham’s extremely present voice. He seems to function half as a family photographer and half as a photojournalist, moving jarringly back and forth between tenderness and a distant ambivalence. This is what endures for me, the ever-looming fiction of the work, which seems to almost allow the pictures to be more truthful and honest, at least about Billingham’s feelings. I think he offers us a way to see his family in the way that he does, focusing on silver lining and humble moments of joy while acknowledging pain and imperfection. This, to me, is the “magic of photography” Billingham reveals: the camera’s capacity, after a long while, to show who is behind the lens almost as clearly as who is in front of it.

I’ve come to the conclusion (sadly a bit late in the year) that what I would like to do is find some kind of concrete subject or container within which to make a project. I picture this as a body of work about a group of people, or a specific place, or maybe a subculture. I think I’ve had a tendency in the last few years of photographing to kind of reject the idea of any concrete focus, instead approaching my practice as “carry a camera everywhere, and let photographs come to me.” I’m reaching a point now where I’m frustrated with my “pile,” hundreds of one-off photographs tied together maybe only by my own experiences. When I first started photographing, Wolfgang Tillmans and Daniel Arnold were front and center in my mind. Their work, at least as I’d seen it presented, was less about concrete things and more about espousing a “way of seeing” (hence the MoMA show name “To Look Without Fear”). And while I think finding a primal, almost subconscious visual language is invaluable to a photographer (being able to look at a photo and regardless of subject having a feeling that this is ”a Noor photo”), my thinking on it as a conceptual framework has shifted. I think I was originally aiming for a body of work that was chaotic, all over the place, and vastly dynamic in subject matter. I now find this kind of framework to be a crutch for an under-edited project. In terms of Arnold, and in terms of books, I much, much prefer Matt Leifheit and Eve Lyon’s edit of Arnold’s work to that of his monograph, Pickpocket, because the former edit is tighter, more vulnerable, and “says” so much more than the latter collection of already-instagram-famous street photographs. I’m now much more interested in honing in on something, both through re-editing my old pile (over and over) and through changing what I’m photographing, so that I have some specific guiding light.

For final critique this year, I want to focus on an edit that is more intentional and revelatory, and most importantly, more vulnerable. What photographs have I been omitting that have more of myself in them? What can I do to narrow the perspective and get at something deeper? Thinking forward to this summer, I have set the goal to find some kind of “container” for what I shoot. I haven’t yet decided on one, but I’m thinking of things along the lines of “5th avenue, between 14th and 42nd,” or “Little League Baseball in Prospect Park.” Something I can go back to, week after week, something I can slow down and observe. I’m also including in this goal the qualification that I may break out of the container as I see fit. Through this container, I hope to apply my photographic intuition --which until now has been the whole story--to a more self-contained world.

PS. Mack recently reprinted Ray’s a Laugh with a new, expanded edit in a larger size than the original. It kind of feels like a deluxe edition album; I like the new plates that were added but only because I liked the original work so much. I feel like the expanded edit and coffee-table size (which kind of gives it what I call the “Phaidon vibe” :/) detract from the magic of the original’s concise edit and humbler physical size. 

-Noor

[esperata]

Tagged by @thedreammweaver

Rules: answer + tag 9 people you want to get to know better and/or catch up with!

Favorite Color: purple but green is very close second

Last Song: What About Now by Chris Daughty

Currently Reading: no but I borrowed Rabbit Hole by Mark Billingham recently

Currently Watching: Springwatch but also Doctor Who

Currently Craving: salt and vinegar crisps

Coffee or Tea?: tea

Tagging @vicarious-rebel @polgara6 @calicogoat @thatonegayfeline @black-eyed-creature @tj-dragonblade @noveratus @reddiamondgamer and @fandom-star

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday Christopher Brookmyre, born in Glasgow, September 6th 1968.

Brookmyre was raised and schooled in Barrhead, attending St. Mark’s Primary School and St. Luke’s High School, before attending the University of Glasgow. He has worked for the film magazine Screen International, and as sub-editor for The Scotsman and the Edinburgh Evening News.

Christopher is the author of eighteen published novels to-date, the latest being Dead Girl Walking.

In 2006 Christopher won the seventh Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction with All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses An Eye and, as is tradition, a Gloucestershire Old Spot pig was named after the winning novel. On accepting the award, Christopher said:

“My favourite PG Wodehouse quote is ‘It is seldom difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine’; today I’d like to think that I resemble the ray of sunshine.”

His first novel, Quite Ugly One Morning was the winner of the Critics’ First Blood Award for Best First Crime Novel of the Year in 1996. The book was made into a TV drama where James Nesbit was in my opinion miscast as the lead character Jack Parlabane, Brookmyre himself wanted Douge Henshall, who of course went on to star in Shetland.

The short story “Bampot Central” was shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Macallan Short Story Dagger in 1997.

Boiling a Frog won the Sherlock Award for Best Comic Detective Novel in 2000 and Christopher became the only writer to win two Sherlocks when Be My Enemy picked up the 2004 prize. In 2007, Christopher was given the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award for Writing.

Christopher has been shortlisted three times for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award: in 2007 for All Fun And Games Until Somebody Loses An Eye, in 2008 for A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil and in 2012 for Where The Bodies Are Buried.

In 2005 Christopher was named Young Alumus of the Year by the University of Glasgow. He has subsequently been awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Glasgow and by Edinburgh Napier University.

In 2013 Brookmyre announced, at The Edinburgh Book Festival that his novel All Fun and Games until Somebody Loses an Eye was to be made into a film, but unfortunately it looks as if nothing came of this.

Chris has many fans, one of the most famous must be the author Stephen King who opened last year’s Bloody Scotland crime writing festival brandishing a copy of Brookmyre’s Want You Gone and declaring it: “Fantastic!”

In 2018, Brookmyre wrote The Way of All Flesh with his wife, Dr. Marisa Haetzman. It was published under the pseudonym Ambrose Parry] In 2020, the team followed up with The Art of Dying, and in 2021, A Corruption of Blood.

The Cliff House was released inMay 2023, the book is his 27th in 25 years, the author says  “It was a product of the pandemic, of time spent thinking about the people you haven’t seen.”

As well as writitng, Chris is a member of an unlikely musical super-group! The Fun Lovin' Crime Writers also features Val McDermid (vocals),, Mark Billingham (guitar/vocals), Luca Veste (bass), Doug Johnstone (drums/vocals), and Stuart Neville (guitar/vocals) have sold over 20 million books worldwide and won every major crime-writing award.

The supergroup will be taking to the stage om September 8th at the Palace Theatre in Paignton to raise the curtain on the 2023 Agatha Christie Festival, oh andyes, one of the songs the perform is Elvis Costello's Watching the Detecives.

[pestis-blight]

Meet the Blogger !

Tagged by @vaporwavebeach fucking love you man fr /plat

Star sign: Aries let's go I'm a stubborn cunt

Favourite Holiday: Halloween! Love dressing up n scaring the neighborhood kids

Last Meal: quesadilla, cheesy and sickening; dairy my enemy

Current Fav. Musician: Brown Bird UvU peaceful and lyrical genius very poetic

Last Music Listened To: Nirvana - Cd In my car that I never swap out

Last Movie Watched: Chicken Run, I love aardman at Christmas what can I say

Last TV show Watched: Trailer Park Boys, they're literally me lmao

Last book finished: Alice in Wonderland (I love it)

Last Book Read: rabbit hole - Mark Billingham, It's AIW inspired

Currently Reading: Rabbit Hole ^ I'm a slow reader

Last thing researched: I think it was the binomial name for snow drops!

Favourite fandom moment: Ah I tend to keep to myself but hanging with my mates and playing Blades is sick

Favourite old fandom: fallout fics are wild and I love Jack Cabot

Favourite small fandom: idk what has a small fandom but I need more papa louie content

Project to rein in: Toxicity - there's so much I have to tackle it like a bucking bronco

[angelswing236]

"Just in case this doesn't work."

Fictober 2023

Category: Fanfiction

Fandom: Downton Abbey

‘Um, I need you to do me a favour. Er, I mean I need to ask you a favour,’ Tom said, falling over his words. ‘If you… if you could see your way to it, that is.’

‘All right,’ Mary said, amused to see him less than poised.

‘No, you can’t just say all right. You don’t know what it is yet,’ Tom said, looking flustered.

‘So, tell me what it is and then I can say whether I’ll do it or not. I can’t imagine I won’t, though,’ Mary said, sitting back in her chair.

‘I need you to, um… I wonder if you might, er���’ Tom stammered, his cheeks getting pinker as he struggled to articulate the favour he needed.

‘Oh, come on, Tom. It can’t be that difficult to say whatever it is you want me to do for you,’ Mary teased, gently.

Tom took a deep breath. ‘Will you pretend to be my fiancée?’

Mary’s eyebrows shot up, startled by his request. ‘Well, that certainly wasn’t what I thought you were going to ask me.’

‘What did you think I was going to ask you?’

‘I don’t know, but it wasn’t that.’ Mary eyed him speculatively, twisting in her office chair. ‘Why do you need me to pretend to be your fiancée?’

‘Promise you won’t laugh.’

‘Um, well, I’m not sure I can promise you that since I have no idea what you’re going to say.’

‘There’s this woman, and she… well, she keeps dropping hints that she’d like me to, er, to…’ he petered out, pinking up again.

‘To what?’ Mary asked, dying of curiosity. ‘Take her out?’

‘No, more like… stay in with her,’ Tom said, bright red now.

‘Stay in with her?’ Mary echoed, her eyebrows shooting up again.

‘Yes. She’s made it quite clear that she, um, well, she finds me attractive, and she’d like to, er… she’d like us to… to… well, I’m sure you can imagine the rest,’ Tom mumbled, barely able to meet Mary’s eyes.

‘She wants to sleep with you?’

‘Yes, she, um… yes.’

‘And you don’t want to take her up on her offer?’ Mary asked, trying to suppress her amusement at how bad he was at talking about this.

‘No.’

‘Why not?’

‘Sorry?’ Tom said, visibly shocked by the question.

‘Well, I don’t presume to know how you’ve handled that side of things since Sybil’s been gone, but I thought most men would jump at the chance if a woman offered to be intimate with them. Don’t you find her attractive?’

‘She’s very pretty, although she’s not really my type,’ Tom admitted, looking awkward. ‘But she has… well, I don’t want to be ungentlemanly, but she has something of a reputation.’

‘A reputation?

‘For, um, well, loose morals.’

‘Right. So. You’re not keen then?’

He shook his head. ‘No. I don’t… I’m not… no.’

Mary smiled. ‘Are you intimidated by this woman, Tom?’

‘God, yes,’ he confessed. ‘She’s just… she won’t take no for an answer. Every time I see her, she propositions me, and it’s exhausting.’

‘And you really don’t want to – how shall I put this? – perhaps scratch an itch with her?’

‘I thought about it, and I was tempted for a moment, I won’t deny it, but I know I’d regret it afterwards,’ he said, honestly. ‘I just want her to leave me in peace.’

‘So, you need a pretend fiancée to mark her cards?’ Mary said, thoughtfully.

‘Yes. She knows I’m not married, but I thought maybe she might back off a bit if she thinks I’m engaged,’ Tom said, the hope evident in his voice.

‘All right. I’ll be your fake fiancée,’ Mary agreed, taking pity on him. ‘Where do you see this woman?’

‘She’s a secretary at the firm we buy our agricultural feed from.’

‘Right. And when are you due there next?’

‘Thursday.’

‘Then I will come with you and, together, we will make her leave you alone,’ Mary said, decisively.

‘Thank you, Mary,’ Tom sighed, relieved.

On Thursday, Mary stood with Tom in the reception area outside the office of the manager at Billingham’s Agricultural Feed on the outskirts of Thirsk.

At the desk, an attractive woman with pneumatic curves and bobbed, peroxide blonde hair sat looking at Mary with interest, not remotely trying to hide her blatant curiosity.

‘Is that her?’ Mary asked, looking over Tom’s shoulder at the woman who had apparently been propositioning him so openly and persistently.

‘Yes, that’s her. Alice.’

‘She is attractive. In an obvious sort of way,’ Mary said, switching her gaze to Tom. ‘Are you sure you’re not interested in taking her up on her offer? Because you might not get another chance after this.’

‘I’m sure,’ he said with feeling. ‘Shall I introduce you to her now? Let her see your ring and tell her you’re my fiancée?’

‘Oh, Tom, you men can be so naïve,’ Mary said, fondly.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, now I’ve seen her, I think I’ve got a better sense of her. If she’s been forward enough to proposition you in her place of work, I doubt she’s going to back down because you tell her you’re taken.’

‘What do you mean? Are you saying it’s not going to work?’

‘I’m saying it’s time to put Plan B into operation.’

‘Plan B? What’s Plan B? I didn’t know we had a Plan B,’ Tom said, frowning at her.

‘You don’t maybe, but I do. Just in case this doesn’t work,’ Mary said, lifting her left hand and waggling her fingers at him, her engagement ring from Matthew sparkling under the electric lights.

‘What is it, then? This alternative plan of yours,’ Tom asked, perplexed.

‘This,’ Mary said, stepping forward, cupping the back of his head with her left hand, so Alice could see her engagement ring. And then she leaned forward and kissed him like she’d never kissed him before.

Tom made a surprised noise and then his hand came up to her waist, settling there as the kiss continued, becoming deeper and more involved than Mary had anticipated.

By the time they broke apart, they were both somewhat breathless. They stared at each other in silence until Alice’s voice broke through the charged atmosphere.

‘Mr Billingham will see you now, Mr Branson.’

Tom swallowed, took one last look at Mary and turned towards the office door. ‘Thank you.’

‘I’ll wait for you here, darling. Remember we have that appointment with the vicar in an hour,’ Mary called after him.

Tom glanced back at her, still looking a little dazed and nodded before disappearing through the door for his appointment, closing it behind him.

Mary took a seat and extracted her lipstick and her compact mirror from her handbag, her heart racing in the aftermath of her surprisingly passionate kiss with Tom.

Alice watched as Mary reapplied her lipstick. ‘Are you engaged to him?’

‘I am,’ Mary said crisply, snapping her compact mirror shut.

‘That explains it,’ the secretary muttered under her breath.

Mary gave her a cool look. ‘He’s told me about your kind offer. He won’t be taking you up on it.’

‘No, I can see that. Pity, though. If he kisses like that, I bet he’s good at other things, too.’

Mary stared at her, an unexpected jolt of curiosity ripping through her.

‘You’re a lucky woman,’ Alice continued.

‘Yes, I am,’ Mary said, holding the woman’s gaze.

‘And he’s a lucky man.’

Mary inclined her head, sure now that their little performance had done the trick and put a stop to Alice’s ongoing harassment of Tom.

The trouble was, if Tom had felt the same sparks she had during their kiss – and she was almost positive he had – their little charade also had the potential to change their whole relationship.

[jeffreyartsmith]

Underneath The Mistletoe Last Night

A Christmas / Noir illustration in Reader’s Digest London in 2011 for a story titled, “Underneath The Mistletoe Last Night” by Mark Billingham. Happy Holidays everyone!!! #editorialillustration #readersdigestlondon #noirIllustration

[jeffreysmithillustrator]

A Christmas / Noir illustration in Reader’s Digest London in 2011 for a story titled, “Underneath The Mistletoe Last Night” by Mark Billingham. Happy Holidays everyone!!!

[dzelonis]

Mark Billingham - Die of Shame

Links uz grāmatas Goodreads lapu Izdevniecība: Sphere Manas pārdomas No dažādām atkarībām uz īsāku vai ilgāku laiku vaļā tikuši pieci atturībnieki reizi nedēļā pulcējas terapeita Tonija De Silvas mājās, par kabinetu un pieņemšanas telpu pārtaisījis vienu no sadaļām, lai ar Tonija sarunu diskusijas līderības palīdzību ne tikai pārrunātu iepriekšējo nedēļu, kā izdevies palikt ‘’skaidrā’’, bet…

[jenmedsbookreviews]

The Last Dance by Mark Billingham

Today I'm sharing my thoughts on the brilliant The Last Dance by Mark Billingham, the first book in a brand new series featuring Detective Declan Miller @MarkBillingham @BooksSphere @laurasherlock21 #books #booktwitter #thelastdance #booktwt

Today I am delighted to share my thoughts on The Last Dance by Mark Billingham, the first in a brand new series featuring Detective Declan Miller. My thanks to Laura Sherlock for sending me an advance copy – absolutely stoked to receive it. Here’s what the book is all about: Source: Advance Reader CopyRelease Date: 25th May 2023Publisher: Sphere Continue reading Untitled

[vixenscratch]

What I think would be the greatest not-crossover of all time:

Take the writers' rooms of ALL the investigation shows. Like, CSI, Criminal Minds, Bones, Castle, NCIS, uh... Maybe Grimm? Pushing Daisies? The one with the Civil War gent woken up in modern time that I can't recall the name of? Maybe Supernatural and/or X-Files? I know probably most of these have ended, IDGAF. Just. Throw all those minds together, come up with A Case.

Then they go back to their own writers' rooms, and have their own protagonists work the case. Solve the same case. In the way that works for their show.

Like there was the CSI:NY episode with the paralyzed women (similar to Mark Billingham's Sleepyhead), and that could have made an excellent Criminal Minds case. I'm sure Castle could've done something fascinating with it, too.

Just the whole "give a bunch of people the same materials and watch them make very different things from them" thing but crime procedural edition.

[dakegra]

The Last Dance - Mark Billingham

Meet Detective Miller: unique, unconventional, and criminally underestimated… A double murder in a seaside hotel sees grieving Detective Miller return to work to solve what appears to be a case of mistaken identity. Will this eccentric, offbeat sleuth find answers where more traditional police have found only a puzzle? Reader, I’ve got a confession to make. And for a crime book reader, it’s a…

[marypicken]

The Wrong Hands by Mark Billingham (Det Declan Miller #2):Gripping Crime Fiction with Compelling Characters @MarkBillingham @BooksSphere @laurasherlock21

The Wrong Hands by Mark Billingham (Det Declan Miller #2) :Gripping Crime Fiction with Compelling Characters

Source: Review copyPublication: 20 June 2024 from SpherePP: 416ISBN-13: 978-1408717134 My thanks to Sphere and Laura Sherlock for an advance copy for review This is one case Miller won’t want to open . . . Unconventional Detective Declan Miller has a problem. Still desperate to solve the murder of his wife, a young man has just appeared on his doorstep with a briefcase . . . containing a pair…