Audible extracts, interviews & podcasts

'Half overheard secrets' - Interview on 'End of All Things' podcast

'Speaking in tongues' - winner, The Casket of Fictional Delights flash fiction competition 2018

The Night Brother, at audible.co.uk

Vixen, at amazon.co.uk

The Palace of Curiosities:
Extract 1, at audioboom.com
Extract 2, at amazon.co.uk

An unexpected & encouraging piece of news!
Northern Soul has selected 'The Night Brother' as a Best Northern Read

Desmond Bullen, Northern Soul writer
“In days that can seem desolate and uncertain, there’s a lot to be said for windows into a better world and, ultimately, joyfully, that is exactly the view that The Night Brother by Rosie Garland affords. Not that its window seat is cheaply achieved. Far from it.
Rooted with disbelief-suspending specificity in Manchester at the end of the 19th century, Garland’s novel blossoms compellingly from the exquisite simplicity of its central conceit, one which owes the tiniest debt to the 1971 horror film Dr. Jekyll And Sister Hyde. Edie and her brother Gnome are joined in a very particular symbiosis, so that their singular sibling rivalry threatens to be the undoing of both. Themes that could be leaden in other hands emerge from the premise with a beautiful lightness of touch, developing into a persuasive fable of inclusivity and self-acceptance. This is a book that sings a rainbow at its end.”

https://www.northernsoul.me.uk/books-best-northern-reads-part-one/

I’m thrilled to announce that Val McDermid has selected me as one of the 10 most compelling LGBTQI+ writers working in the UK today!

Val said: “These writers are writing for everyone. These are not words for a niche readership. These are not writings for a ghetto. These are the works of writers who have something to say that can be – and should be – heard by as many people as possible.”

She continued: “Auden was wrong when he claimed “poetry makes nothing happen”. Words do change the world, reader by reader. They open our eyes, they provoke thought. The work of these 10 writers… will awaken in us fresh delight in the wonder of words.”

The list was commissioned by the National Centre for Writing and British Council, supported by Arts Council England as part of a two-year programme to promote writing from the UK to an international audience. It also includes the amazing Colette Bryce, Juno Dawson, Juliet Jacques, Keith Jarrett, Kirsty Logan, Andrew McMillan, Fiona Mozley, Mary Paulson-Ellis & Luke Turner.

The Guardian - The Word Is Out. Val McDermid selects Britain's 10 most outstanding lgbtq writers

There’s a great article in Visit Manchester about the walking tour of the city inspired by The Night Brother!

“A Gothic style novel inspired by the streets and stories of late nineteenth century Manchester – ‘The Night Brother’(2017) by Rosie Garland – is soon going to be coming to life, in the form of a unique walking tour on Saturday 3rd November at 3pm - 4.30pm.devised by Rosie herself and local guide Anne Beswick.

This walk will be titled ‘Manchester Dark, Manchester Light - the inspiration behind The Night Brother’ and certainly is special.

‘The Night Brother’ is after all a novel of urban exploration, familial intensity and a dark delve into Manchester at the turn of the twentieth century. Guests will be able to ponder this as they will take in the sites of the city – including Northern Quarter backstreets, Victorian markets and subterranean spaces…”

Read the full interview here:
https://www.visitmanchester.com/ideas-and-inspiration/haunt-manchester/places-product-list/night-brother-novel

Huge thanks to Kaite Welsh, Books Editor at Diva Magazine for this superb review of The Night Brother!
Here’s the full text of the review…

Diva review October 2017

"A must for anyone missing Sarah Waters’ foray into the Victorian era, siblings Edie and Gnome explore the delights of 19th century Manchester in Rosie Garland’s third novel - he during the night, her during the day. The prose is lush and vivid as gender fluidity mingles with magical realism. Edie grows increasingly jealous of her brother’s freedom and exhausted by her double life and the restrictions society places upon her. In The Night Brother, Garland crafts a study in dualism that would make Henry Jekyll jealous, and establishes herself as one of Britain’s best new historical novelists."

Kaite Welsh

http://www.divamag.co.uk/

Edinburgh Book Festival & Fringe 2017

I’m very excited to announce my debut appearance at Edinburgh International Book Festival 2017! The event is ‘Fluid Love’ (with the lovely Jess Richards) on Sunday 27th August.
And that’s not all – I’m headlining at ‘That’s What She Said’ (Bar Bados, 22.8.2017 – voted Top Ten LGBT shows at the Edinburgh Fringe 2017 by Vada Magazine)

She Grrrowls (Black Market, 23.8.2017)
Hammer & Tongue (Banshee Labyrinth, 25.8.2017)
AND
The Freak Circus Poetry Bordello (Woodland Creatures, 10.8.2017)

http://vadamagazine.com/entertainment/arts/top-12-lgbt-shows-edinburgh-fringe-2017

Please check my Gig Page for more details…

Delighted to be featured as Commonword Writer of the Month, June 2017!

Thank you for the interview... it was a lot of fun talking with you.

Tell me about you, as an artist. How do you define art? What art do you make?

I come from the DIY ethic of punk: my post-punk band The March Violets set up its own record label in the 80s. When I moved to Manchester in the late 80s its industrious, can-do, will-do, stuff-you-if-you-say-I-can’t-do attitude was a good fit, right from the start.
I write. Not to provide answers. Rather, I’m exploring the questions that roll around in my head, and am wary of easy conclusions. I’m not interested in creating narrow worlds. I want to tell stories that create possibilities of non-conformity. It’s always been important, and never more so than now. Stories that break the mould and toss out the template. Stories that aren’t part of the relentless onslaught of blue for boy meets pink for girl. In the words of Emily Dickinson, ‘to tell the truth but tell it slant’. Stories where we celebrate ourselves – complete with all the marvellous, uncomfortable, colouring-outside-the-lines contradictions we encompass.

Continues…
Full text of the interview:
http://www.cultureword.org.uk/writer-of-the-month-rosie-garland/

Absolutely delighted – ‘The Night Brother’ has received good reviews in both The Times and The Sunday Times!

“The Night Brother by Rosie Garland is a rich and ambitious tale set in late Victorian Manchester… Garland’s prose is a delight: playful and exuberant. There are shades of Angela Carter in the mad world she creates... Full marks for style”.

Toni Senior 3rd June 2017
Full review here:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/historical-fiction-w09l76frb

“Echoes of Angela Carter’s more fantastical fiction reverberate through this exuberant tale… Garland’s narrative is enjoyably energetic.”
Nick Rennison 18th June 2017

Full review here:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/books-fiction-at-a-glance-all-the-good-things-by-clare-fisher-the-answers-by-catherine-lacey-the-night-brother-by-rosie-garland-splash-by-stephen-glover-the-idiot-by-elif-batuman-gkbbb3852

The Night Brother – publication day 1st June 2017

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who packed out Waterstones, Deansgate, Manchester for the sold-out launch of ‘The Night Brother’!
It was a wonderful evening for my new novel, dedicated:

‘To Manchester
and all the wanderers
who have found a home in this Rainy City’

You can order it here…
https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-night-brother/rosie-garland/9780008166106

The first reviews have come in for ‘The Night Brother’ – and they’re both 5/5. Wow!

Thank you to Happy Meerkat and Little Bookness Lane for loving my words. It means so much.

“Once again I find myself lost in the reverie of Rosie Garland’s exquisite writing. Extraordinarily enchanting, The Night Brother’s emotional bounty caresses each page… Embracing the intimacies and complexities of the heart and soul, The Night Brother doesn’t feel like a story, but a delectable gift. All that remains is for me to offer a thunderous round of applause for what is simply an expressive, breath-taking wonder.”
Little Bookness Lane – read the full text here
https://littlebooknesslane.wordpress.com/2017/05/25/book-review-the-night-brother-by-rosie-garland/

“The Night Brother is a wonderful historical fiction novel with an amazing and intriguing twist… From the moment I read the first page I was hooked… A real exciting and also thought-provoking page-turner that I can really recommend.”
Happy Meerkat – read the full text here
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1888724819