Page Updated: 22/06/00
Mike Phillips
Mike Phillips
A Shadow Of MyselfA Shadow Of Myself New15 May 00
The Dancing FaceThe Dancing Face
An Image to Die ForAn Image to Die For
Point of DarknessPoint of Darkness
About the Author (Photo by Jerry Bauer)
Bibliography


New First British Edition HarperCollins (2000)
A Shadow Of Myself
Attending a film festival in Prague, black documentary film maker Joseph Coker is approached by a complete stranger claiming to be his brother. George Coker, who has been brought up in East Germany by his Russian mother, tells Joseph that they share the same father, Kofi Coker, a Ghanaian now living in London.
Joseph's reluctant acceptance of the relationship propels him into a nightmare world of intrigue and murder, where warnings are delivered by way of a severed head, where sex like love - is sudden and treacherous. George is trapped in a web of violence and corruption woven by his associates in the criminal gangs of the former Soviet Union, and it's as if he has become Joseph's dark shadow, threatening his very identity. Behind them both is the enigmatic figure of Kofi, an idealistic African whose time in Khrushchev’s Moscow led to betrayal and planted the seeds of tragedy in the next generation.
A Shadow of Myself is the new, hugely ambitious novel from one of our leading black writers. Both thriller and love story, it is set against the backdrop of post-Cold War Europe and explores the impact of the Third World on its future. Gripping and moving, it traces the lives of its characters, from the fifties to the present day, as they move between the clashing ideologies of East and West
'A subversive, moving, sexy writer' Independent
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Paperback - HarperCollins (1998)
The Dancing Face
See Review by Lynda Ross
Museum piece, priceless artefact, spiritual talisman, political bargaining chip - the Dancing Face, a Beninoise mask now in Britain, means something different to each of those who seek to possess it. But whatever their motivation, such is the lure of the mask that collectors, crooks and politicians alike will stop at nothing - be it murder, kidnapping, blackmail or espionage - to get their hands on it.
Is it the dark power of the Dancing Face itself that causes sinister events to befall those who come in contact with it? Struggling to understand the source of the mask's power and how best to use it, university lecturer Gus Dixon and his younger brother, Danny, born in Britain of mixed parentage, soon find themselves out of their depth - driven by an idealism that is no match for the ruthless greed of men like corrupt Nigerian exile, Dr Okigbo.
A gripping and original thriller, combining intrigue and action with telling insights into African-European relations and the issue of racial identity.
'Full-blooded, street wise… convincing and exciting' The Times
'Phillips offers an insight into Black Britain while raising issues of international interest in a fast-moving thriller' Phillip Knightley, Mail on Sunday
'Phillips writes movingly about love, loyalty and courage and what it takes to hold them together' Philip Oakes, Literary Review
'An intelligent, fast, drily ironic writer' Maggie Gee, New Statesman
'Mordant, intelligent, slyly radical' I-D Magazine
'Mike Phillips is one of the most gifted and stimulating writers in the business, and his latest is to my mind his meatiest yet' James Melville, Ham & High
'This book is brutal, deep, cunning and unbearably beautiful' Independent
A stunning tale encompassing racial and sexual politics, ethics and loyalty… Quite an accomplishment' Maxim Jakubowski, Time Out
'Phillips's writing is charming, cosmopolitan and full of wit. The pace is fast and the action thrilling… what makes The Dancing Face stand out is its array of compelling characters and subtle interplay between them' Justin Warshaw, TLS
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Hardback
HarperCollins ()
An Image to Die For
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
She leaned towards me, her eyes looking deep into mine. Right then I knew that I was going to do what she asked.
Black journalist Sam Dean has had a bad feeling about the job TV producer Wyndham Davis is offering: tracking down a man mixed up in two brutal murders on a tough London housing estate. But when a figure from Sam's past re-emerges and puts emotional pressure on him Sam finds he can't say no.
As he embarks on his search for the missing man, Sam realises there's more than one agenda here. There are secrets from Wyndham's life influencing events and Sam is getting sucked into the dirty heart of the mystery. Tough, vivid and shocking, An Image to Die For is a disturbing and compelling read from one of Britain's foremost crime writers.
'This book is Mike Phillips's best novel, brutal and caring, totally authentic' The Times
'A cracker… At times thoughtful and sad, but always gripping' Mike Ripley, Daily Telegraph
'A tightly plotted and brutal tale of the inner city… Genuinely moving, this is the novel Phillips has been promising' Maxim Jakubowski, Time Out
'Sad, powerful, erotic stuff; skilfully paced and characterized' Philip Oakes, Literary Review
'Phillip's prose is concise, witty and fluid, and offers many mordant apercus on working-class Britain' TLS
'… black writing that… is unwilling to be filed under good causes, special interests of minority affairs' The Face
'In an Image to Die For Mike Phillips catches Black Britain' Onyekachi Wambu, Voice
'Engagingly pacy thriller… Phillips' prose is concise, witty and fluid' TLS 'Phillips… gives a mean streetwise documentary edge to his hero's hunt for a witness' Sunday Express
'There's much here to suggest that Phillips could be one of our bravest, most incisive social commentators' Mail on Sunday
'Phillips' depictions of urban London share more with Harlem and Los Angeles than the English drawing rooms of P.D.James and Ruth Rendell' Financial Times
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Paperback - Penguin
Point of Darkness
It started as a favour for a brother from back home. An old friend who was dying. Who wanted to see his daughter just one last time.
Black journalist Sam Dean, on a visit to New York, is happy to honour the request. Until he is beaten up and his life threatened...
Little Mary had gone to America looking for education and excitement. And stumbled into a bottomless cesspit of corruption and violence. Now it was up to Sam to pull them both out of it. Because this time he couldn't turn his back…
'Mr Phillips delivers quality' The Times
'A complex, spiky, exciting novel, incorporating drugs, porn, corruption, a lot of fast, bruising action and some interesting cultural insights into New York's Caribbean community' Marcel Berlins, The Times
'Phillips delivers his seamy tale with a n enviably warm spareness of effect' John Coleman, Sunday Times
'An incisive study of immigrant experience wrapped up in a ripping thriller' The Times Literary Supplement
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About The Author
Mike Philips was born in Guyana and came to Britain in 1956. He went to school in Islington and then studied for a degree and postgraduate degrees in English, politics and teacher training. After a variety of jobs in factories, garages and the Post Office, he started and lived in a hostel for homeless black youths in Notting Hill, leaving that to become a community activist in Manchester and Birmingham. He entered journalism in the 1970's and subsequently taught at the University of Westminster. As well as a number of books and screenplays, he has published 3 Sam Dean novels. The first, Blood Rights, was serialised for BBC TV and the second, The Late Candidate, won the Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger Award.
Mike Phillips wrote Windrush, the book which accompanies the BBC TV series of the same name chronicling the controversial story of how West Indian immigration has altered the face of British life during the twentieth century.

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Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

  • A Shadow Of Myself (HarperCollins, 2000) New May 00
  • The Dancing Face (HarperCollins, 1997) HarperCollins Pbk 1998 (Gus Dixon)
  • An Image to Die For (HarperCollins, 1995) (Sam Dean)
  • Point of Darkness (Michael Joseph, 1994) (Sam Dean)
  • The Late Candidate (Sam Dean)
  • Blood Rights (Sam Dean)

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