2022 has been another busy time on the creative front. In the spring The Perfect Golden Circle was published in the UK, US, India, Australia and New Zealand, and reached places I’ve never previously been covered, while The Offing has spent the entire year in the Top 20 in Germany. Worldwide sales are approaching something like half a million copies. No-one expected that, least of all me.
Shane Meadows’ TV adaptation of The Gallows Pole is edging closer to completion. I’ve seen some bits and pieces; I’m biased, but it’s special. Keep your eyes on the BBC in 2023. The novel is also coming out in Arabic in four countries, including Iraq. Life is full of surprises.
In March 2023 my new novel Cuddy is published. It’s the most ambitious project I’ve ever undertaken, and the four-and-a-half years I spent on it certainly took their toll. It’s available for pre-order now. I hope you get a chance to read it.
In amongst that I’ve still had plenty of time for reading. Below is a list of everything I’ve read for pleasure (work/research-related texts are not included).
Thanks for reading my work and all the best for the future.
Ben(jamin) Myers
Reading list 2022
Wayward by Vashti Bunyan
Mercia’s Take by Daniel Wiles
You Know What You Could Be: Tuning Into The 1960s by Mike Heron and Andrew Greig
In The Valley by Ron Rash
The Triple Echo by HE Bates
Red Milk by Sjon
Muse, Odalisque, Handmaiden by Rose Simpson
Dark Matter by Michael Winterbottom
The Sunken Land Will Rise Again by M. John Harrison
Ever Fallen In Love: The Lost Buzzcocks Tapes by Pete Shelley with Louie Shelley
They by Kay Dick
The Gamekeeper by Barry Hines
Battle Of Pollock’s Crossing by JL Carr
The Voids by Ryan O’Connor
The Wah-Wah Diaries by Richard E Grant
The Forensic Records Society by Magnus Mills
The Legend of the Holy Drinker by Joseph Roth
Shepperton Babylon: The Lost Worlds Of British Cinema by Matthew Sweet
Pietr The Latvian by Georges Simenon
The Day Of The Tortoise by HE Bates
Hotel Savoy by Joseph Roth
Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut
All My Cats by Brohumil Hrabal
Withnail & I (BFI Classics) by Kevin Jackson
Performance (BFI Classics) by Colin MacCabe
The Trespasser’s Companion by Nick Hayes
Stalking the Atomic City: Life Among the Decadent and the Depraved of Chernobyl
by Markiyan Kamysh
Going Mad In Hollywood by David Sherwin
A Helping Hand by Celia Dale
Hawkwind: Days Of The Underground by Joe Banks
Difficult Men: From The Sopranos and The Wire to Mad Men and Breaking Bad by Brett Martin
Detroit 67: The Year That Changed Soul by Stuart Cosgrove
Mazes & Labyrinths In Great Britain by John Martineau
England On Fire by Stephen Ellcock and Matt Osman
High Concept: Don Simpson and The Age Of Hollywood Culture Of Excess by Charles Fleming
Wanting You To Want Want Me: Stories From The Secret World Of Strip Clubs by Bronwen Parker-Rhodes & Emily Dinsdale
Noble Ambitions: The Fall And Rise of the Post-War Country House by Adrian Tinniswood
Mr Wilder & Me by Jonathan Coe
Hollywood Animal by Joe Eszterhaz
Whatever Happened To The C86 Kids?: An Indie Odyssey by Nige Tassell
The Book Shop by Penelope Fitzgerald
Goodbye Victoria by TH White
Tomato Cain by Nigel Kneale
Jawbone: Autobiography Of A Film by Johnny Harris
A Licence To Rock And Pop: An Inventory Of Attitude by James Fry
Old School by Tobias Wolff
Foster by Clare Keegan
Eggs, Beans & Crumpets by PG Wodehouse
Antarctica by Clare Keegan
Offbeat: British Cinema’s Curiosities, Obscurities and Forgotten Gems ed. Julian Upton
The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis
Heatwave by Victor Jestin
Boulder by Eva Baltasar
Spaceships Over Glasgow by Stuart Braithwaite
Pretty In Pink: The Golden Age Of Teenage Movies by Jonathan Bernstein
Waterland by Graham Swift
Here We Are by Graham Swift
The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
A Song For Every Season by Bob Copper
Blood On Satan’s Claw by Robert Wynne-Simmons and Richard Wells