The Knives out at Durham Book Festival 2016

The Durham Book Festival is very dear to me, just as Durham is, and I have nothing but happy memories of appearances at the Festival in 2011 (with both The Possessions of Doctor Forrest and my pamphlet What's Left for the North East?) and 2014 (for my study of social housing, Our House, Your Home.) Coming up to the Town Hall this year to present The Knives was just as much of a pleasure; and I had the good fortune of sharing the bill with the poet Sean O'Brien, who was there with his recently published novel Once Assembled Here Again.

James Smith from Durham University was our considerate emcee. Sean read with great verve, and I did my best to follow him. There is, as it happens, some interesting thematic congruence between our two books.  A young writer named Eloise Pearson was at the session and wrote it up graciously afterward for the Cuckoo Review site, which you can read here. 

Knives 'extremely readable & thought-provoking'

Gladdened by this very interesting write-up of The Knives on the Nudge book site, from reviewer Cathy Boyle:

'An extremely readable and thought-provoking book that I would recommend to anyone with even the slightest interest in the workings of Westminster... it lays out many of the problems our country faces today... as well as showing us how honest and well-meaning people can be adversely affected by political life... there is plenty of tension as you find yourself gritting your teeth at the injustices of the world [David] Blaylock inhabits. The book is by no means an advert for the political classes but it may make you think a little differently about the people in power and what a thankless task they face'