In Praise of Neil Gaiman
Posted on Monday, July 5th, 2010 in: Writing
This was going to be a very long blog entry about Neil Gaiman. It was going to go off on a great sweep, covering Sandman (greatest graphic novel I’ve ever read and, in fact, the graphic novel that convinced me that it wasn’t that shameful to be caught in that particular section anyway, despite being a girl) and Neverwhere (greatest London novel I’ve ever read – although in answer to the questions that will come, no, I read it after I wrote a Madness of Angels). It was going to wave you in the direction of Stardust, Coraline, Mirrormask, and suggest a detour via his short stories – who knew that you could experience a drop in body temperature in so few lines? It might have paused for a second to mention the works of Dave McKean, illustrator, collaborator and all-round visual genius. It was probably going to linger on the Graveyard Book, which I only managed to nab a copy of this week and haven’t put down. It was, all things considered, going to be an epic entry full of wonder and praise and general admiration for the complete works of Mr Gaiman, possibly running to several thousand words and a touch of verse.
But you know what, let’s save time.
Neil Gaiman.
Read him.
Now.
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All the above is true, plus I would add that Neil is a lovely man when you meet him.
All I can say is, on Saturday I picked up three books from Forbidden Planet; the first two were – on the recommendation of a friend – A Madness of Angels and The Midnight Mayor; the other one was The Graveyard Book.
)
AdrianHJuly 6, 2010
I’d like to add a further note to the above. I’ve loved Neil’s work for years, since his first graphic work with Dave McKean, and the Sandman stories, and I think I’ve read just about everything he’s written. However, I don’t think ‘Neverwhere’
is the best fiction or fantasy book about London. I understand why it’s unseemly for an author to praise their own work, so I’ll do it instead. ‘A Madness Of Angels’ is, in my humble opinion, possibly the best book on any real city I’ve ever read, because it vividly describes the city as seen by a life-long native who has explored what seems to be every tiny little corner in forensic detail, which allows the city to come alive on the page. When I visit London, like I did very recently, although only around Picadilly and Hyde Park, I find myself looking at streets and buildings and trying to place Matthew Swift’s travels in a physical context, which is great fun. ‘Neverwhere’ describes a fantasy ‘London Below’ that largely doesn’t exist in a world that I can walk in, whereas ‘…Angels’ exists in a world I can walk in, smell, touch, taste, see…
And I can almost taste and smell the city as I read the written words on the page, as I’m doing via the Kindle app on my iPhone at the moment, and enjoying it all over again as well.
LisaJuly 29, 2010
Not to mention writer of a much anticipated episode of a little show called Doctor Who
July 6, 2010