Word Monkey
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Word Monkey
Narrated by:
Sean Pertwee
Buy Now for $28.50
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Narrated by:
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Sean Pertwee
Summary
It's the story of how a young bookworm growing up in a house where there was nothing to read but knitting pamphlets and motorcycle manuals became a writer - a 'word monkey' - and pursued a sort of career in popular fiction. And it's a book full of brilliant insights into the pleasures and pitfalls of his profession, dos and don'ts for would-be writers, and astute observations on favourite (and not-so-favourite) novelists.
But woven into this hugely entertaining and inspiring reflection on a literary life is an altogether darker thread. In Spring 2020, just as the world went into lockdown, Chris was diagnosed with terminal cancer. And yet there is nothing of the misery memoir about Word Monkey. Past and present intermingle as, in prose as light as air, he relates with wry humour and remarkable honesty what he knows will be the final chapter in his story.
Deeply moving, insightful and surprisingly funny, this is Christopher Fowler's life-affirming account of coming to terms with his own mortality.
'A delight . . . a glorious, witty and life-affirming ragbag of autobiography, cultural commentary and hard-won wisdom.' ANDREW TAYLOR, author of The Shadows of London
'Perceptive, wise and illuminating . . . an unmissable farewell.' Barry Forshaw, FINANCIAL TIMES
'The most hilarious, life-affirming book you’ll read this year.' SAGA magazine©2023 Christopher Fowler (P)2024 W.F. Howes Ltd
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It made me laugh and cry. It informed of things I didn't know my husband had suffered through cancer treatment. It made me question my own decision never to have chemotherapy but mostly it made me wish Christopher Fowler survived to give us more wonderful stories from the London he loved so much.
Sadly, he didn't.
So now I will just have to continue rereading all his books over and over.
Vale Christopher Fowler
A beautiful, funny and sad finale
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The whole is exceptional when one considers that Fowler was dying when he wrote this. The final short story, written several years earlier, is unbearably moving.
Sean Pertwee's reading of Christopher's Fowler's memoir is perfect.
Outstanding reading of a truly moving memoir
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