Paul Cornell
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First British Edition Gollancz (2002) |
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Paperback - Gollancz (2004) |
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British Summertime
Alison Parmeter can read anything: body language; expressions; where to find a chip shop in a strange town. Which means that when she starts worrying about the End of the World, it might mean something more than just a wet autumn in the city of Bath.
Squadron Leader Leyton is a pilot from a future where a united, utopian humanity is at war with alien aggressors. He’s dropped back in time to a present day he finds startlingly different from anything he learned in history lessons.
Jocelyn is his navigator, a head without a body, who finds herself captive in a world she can’t trust and doesn’t understand.
Frederick Cleves is from British Intelligence, and has been wafting all his life for wonder to come to Earth.
The Golden Men are angels, here since the time of the Old Testament, with swords for tongues and power over time and space. And they have plans for all of the above.
‘Cornell is capable of genuinely moving, eloquent scenes, as well as wild invention and some splendidly outrageous heresy’ Locus
‘Cornell is capable of genuinely moving, eloquent scenes, as well as wild invention and some splendidly outrageous heresy’ Locus
‘One of the most relentlessly imaginative books I have ever read. The level of invention would be exhausting, were it not leavened with humour, charm and an impeccable pastiche of Dan Dare’ Steven Moffat
| Paperback - Gollancz (2002) |
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|
First British Edition Gollancz (2001) |
|
Something More
In the far future, Britain is a divided land, ruled by the great families. In the wilderness between the cities lies
Heartsease, a grand country estate, now quite empty, but mysteriously well-tended.
Reverend Jane Bruce of the Reformed Church of England is sent to bless the house for the Campbells, one of the families who wish to occupy it. But there’s something her soldier bodyguard isn’t telling her about the house’s past.
Booth Hawtrey, cursed to live forever, is investigating the house for the Aurigans, the alien masters who have recreated him in their own image and turned him into something not quite human. But why is their concern at once so urgent and so trivial?
David Hawtrey, decadent and hedonistic militiaman, has dangerous plans for the house. But are they truly his own?
Rebecca Champhert is Booth’s biographer, David’s ex-lover and Jane’s unwilling victim. And it’s up to her to unravel the story of Heartsease, a story that takes in the history of Britain, the gap between life and death, and the future of the human race.
'Just brilliant' amazon.co.uk
`It’s a big book, the work of a big imagination, with big concepts: birth, life, death - and those puzzling bits in between - time, religion, God and resurrection. The plots are beautifully pulled together to create an almost palpable sense of tension. And like the best science fiction, or writing in any genre, this is stimulating, thought provoking, haunting. And totally spellbinding. Something More may be an ambitious title - but the book thoroughly lives up to it. And something more besides’ SFX
‘Cornell’s writing feels loaded with uncertainty at the best of times, and his evocation of that spooky feeling you get when you might have heard something outside your bedroom door in the middle of the night raised all the hairs on the back of my neck . . . Cornell writes very well indeed and deserves praise for trying something just that little bit more challenging and off-kilter’ Infinity Plus
About The Author
Paul Cornell is a widely respected writer, born in Wiltshire, who has been writing for six years, his credits include episodes of Coronation Street, Casualty, Doctor's, Children's Ward and Springhill along with two seasons of his own children's series Wavelength. He has also written twenty?two books including several Doctor Who books and a number of books about television (including co-authoring The Guinness Book of Classic British TV). He currently lives in Bath.
His interests, when he gets the time include, cricket, politics and religion, He's due to get married in 2002. He cites his favourite cricketer as Mark Alleyne, his favourite politics as Socialist, his two favourite religions as Anglicanism and Wicca. But we can't tell whether he's joking! So far he has no pets, but he hopes to graduate to a cat...
Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.
British Summertime
(Gollancz,
2002)
Gollancz Pbk Feb 04
Something More
(Gollancz,
2001)
Gollancz Pbk Jun 02
British Summertime
by Paul Cornell
