As I’ve mentioned before, one of the best things about being a writer is being able to chat with other writers in a professional fashion. Simon Bestwick was introduced to me by a mutual friend and I have to admit I’m delighted to have made his acquaintance. Not only has Simon been good enough to host me on his blog a couple of times, and I had the pleasure of attending his online book launch for A Different Kind of Light, but he is a genuinely nice bloke and writes exquisite fiction.
This is from the back of A Different Kind of Light:
“I first read about the 1955 Le Mans Disaster over twenty years ago, but I knew at once there was a story to tell.
When I learned there’d been newsreel footage of the aftermath, footage so appalling it never saw daylight, I also knew what kind of story: a story about how many of us want to see things we aren’t supposed to, even when we insist we don’t.
What I didn’t know was who would tell that story. It took me two decades to realise that it was also the story of two lovers who weren’t lovers, in a world that was falling apart. So finally I began to write, following Ash and Danie into a shadow land of grief, obsession and things worse than death.
Now the story’s written. Open this book, and I’ll tell it to you.
And the film will start to play.”
This is a novella well worth your time. It’s rich with Bestwick’s powerful prose, it contains scenes that will stay with you (whether you want them to or not) and, most importantly, it contains a central character called Ash.
It’s genuinely no wonder that Ramsey Campbell says he is, “Among the most important writers of contemporary British horror.’”
ashleylister.com 