Much to my girlfriend’s frustration, I love to play video games. Happy chance then that Rockstar Games and Team Bondi are about to release LA Noire, a game set in 1940s Los Angeles where you get to play an LAPD cop solving crimes throughout the city. Watch the trailer below, it’s pretty awesome:
Occasionally I write for a blog run by The Bookseller called Futurebook and I thought I’d copy my latest post for them here as well. You can see the original here if you want or feel free to comment below.
A few weeks ago Annette Green blogged about how the agency model ran the risk of undermining the legitimate digital publishing market because it could result in ebooks costing more than the physical edition and she used several examples of ebooks costing more than physical books (Stephen Fry’s memoir for one) to make her point. On the surface of it this seems like a clear cut case against the agency model however the recent launch of the Beatles albums on iTunes may show that the model still has something to offer. Continue reading
The funny thing about records is that the authors of them and their subjects are rarely consistent. I’ve been researching Julian Pascal, Cissy’s first husband, and it’s proven to be complicated stuff. For one thing, Pascal changed his name from Goodridge Bowen to Julian Pascal at some point and he sometimes uses his original surname coupled with his new one, though rarely. Continue reading
James Joyce
Today is the 16th of June, Bloomsday, the day that James Joyce chose to set his great novel Ulysses and also the day that he met his wife, Nora Barnacle, for the first time. It’s worth celebrating if you’re a Joycian. Continue reading
The trouble with research is that it can often take you down blind alleys. Take yesterday, for example, I spent most of the morning reading Civil War records because I thought that Eugene R. Hurlburt – Cissy’s father – had fought for the Yankees in the Civil War. Continue reading
When I’m not working on Chandler I work in publishing and I’ve just written this blog post on google and the ebook for www.futurebook.net which I though I’d share.
‘Pearls Are A Nuisance’ is one of Chandler’s more unusual stories. It appeared in the Dime Detective in 1939 and is narrated by a heavy drinking, 6ft something Anglicized American by the name of Walter Gage who talks ‘the way Jane Austen writes’ despite his size and muscles (he played football in college we are told by his adoring girlfriend, Ellen). Continue reading
I had a bit of bad news recently but the upshot of this is that I can now focus full time on Chandler. I’ve neglected this blog for far too long but am chomping at the bit to let you know what I’ve been up to.
I just stumbled across a video filmed on the 17th of March 1918 of Canadian soldiers being presented to America dignitaries at the CEF HQ on the Western Front.The significance of this is that Chandler arrived in France on 16th of March and it is easy to imagine that Canadian commanders would show off their freshest troops. It is a long shot of course but I can’t help but wonder as I watch this video if Chandler is amongst these men. Continue reading
I was recently interviewed about Raymond Chandler by a BBC journalist for a piece she did to mark the 50th Anniversary of his death. You can listen to the programme here. The Chandler segment starts about seven minutes in.