Today is Publication Day for my new book, ‘Diary of a Somebody’. I hope you may find it in a bookshop near you; or failing that, an online bookshop near you, such as one of these:
And here are a few nice things that have been said about it so far:
“At last, a genuinely funny comic novel.” The Times
“Brian Bilston turns the base metal of comic verse into gold.” The Guardian
“A brilliant comic novel.” The Spectator
“One of the funniest novels for years.” Reader’s Digest
I’m really pleased to announce that my new book ‘Diary of a Somebody’ will be publishing in June with Picador.
The novel takes the form of a diary interspersed with about 150 poems and explores themes such as love and death, crime and punishment, family and loneliness, Wittgenstein and custard creams.
It’s available for pre-ordering from any bookseller. The page below provides good links to some of the online sellers:
https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/brian-bilston/diary-of-a-somebody/9781529005547
It’s been lucky enough to receive some kind early reviews. Here are a few of them:
‘Nobody must find out about this unique gem, because I’m giving it to EVERYONE, and I want to appear clever and discerning. It’s a very funny/touching/novel/ poetry kinda book all about the big/little stuff, and above all, it’s eminently wrappable.’
Dawn French
‘Glorious. I will be astonished if I read a more original, more inventive or funnier novel this year.’
Adam Kay, author of ‘This is Going to Hurt’
‘The English comic novel, whose death this year was announced prematurely, is actually alive, well and in the safe hands of Brian Bilston. Here is a wonderful, laugh-out-loud comedy of suburban despair in the great tradition of David Nobbs and Sue Townsend. And it comes, of course, with the added bonus of Bilston’s poetry, sparkling here with all the wit, intelligence and humanity that has won him more than 50,000 followers on Twitter.’
Jonathan Coe, author of ‘Middle England’
‘Highly original, genuinely funny and clever, with a gentle humanity in between the lines. Brian Bilson should be Poet Laureate.’
John O’Farrell
‘In the future a new word will enter the language: a Bilston, which will denote one of those times in the day when we see the world from a perspective that is strange, wonderful and packed with a kind of gleaming joy. This book is a clock ticking with Bilstons.’
Ian MacMillan
I’ll stop talking about it now.
Thanks,
Brian
My bank manager has told me that I need to promote my book some more now that I’ve given up my proper job – or I’ll soon find myself on the breadline.
So, here’s a photo of it. It can be found in shops, some of which are mentioned in the link below:
Click here to find some of the places where you can buy my book
It publishes in paperback in the US tomorrow.
Thanks very much,
Brian
*End of shameless promotional message*
These days
I head for the mountains,
safely out of reach
of the avalanche of campaigns
for new perfumes and TV tie-ins
or someone’s latest book.
Up here a stillness surrounds me.
And, in the solitude,
there hangs a kind of poetry,
which, incidentally,
can also be found
in the book mentioned above.
At peace now,
I watch as the winter sun
melts the mountain snow,
in much the same way
as a collection of poems (£12.99 – available in all good bookshops)
can unfreeze a heart,
and I think about the rock beneath us,
and the wonder of us,
our singularity,
each of us unique
like a book with its own individual identifier,
(e.g. 9781783523054)
and Christmas
becomes magical once more.
An example of the kind of book you might find featured in the first stanza of this poem.
I’m pleased to say that my poetry collection You Took the Last Bus Home has now published and is available through bookshops and online stores in both print and ebook formats.
If you’re interested in buying a copy, do seek out your local bookshop – or Hive is an excellent online alternative, as it allows independent bookshops to benefit, thus enabling the book industry as a whole to continue to thrive.
It will publish in the US in January.
If you’d like to read more about how I went from posting poems in tweets and blog postings to publishing a book, you can read about it here in a piece I’ve recently written for The Irish Times.
Brian Bilston
Yesterday I was very excited to take delivery of advance copies of my book, You Took the Last Bus Home. It is an objet d’art; a beautiful jacket, colourful endpapers, French flaps. Shame about the words inside but you can’t have everything, I suppose.
It publishes on 6th October and is available for pre-order from all those usual bookshop places.
You can find out more about it here: https://unbound.com/books/brian-bilston
WARNING: may contain poetry.
Brian
In a break with tradition, I’m not posting up a poem. Rather, I am indulging in some utterly shameless self-promotion. I apologise for that.
I may have a book of my poetry published with the wonderful Unbound. But to make it happen, I’m going to need your help.
Unbound are a crowdsourcing publisher so they only publish things that people want. Whether the people will want my thing is another matter. Anyway, they’ve made a video about Brian and there are a number of “pledge levels” for potential purchases. It’s all here:
www.unbound.co.uk/books/brian-bilston
Thanks for listening. And I promise that I won’t do this kind of thing again.
Brian
x
