Radio Secrets

In the winter of 1983, I was alone in my parents' house. Even they weren't there. I was 22 going on 23, and writing things nobody wanted to buy, or even read, and feeling very lonely indeed. I was about to move up to a bedroom in Edgware at the start of 1984.

The nearest thing I had to company was BBC Radio 4. (I remember listening to an audio sequel to Cold Comfort Farm. Also that it was the only time I have ever managed to actually follow The Archers for long enough to know who was actually who and what they all wanted.) I would sit in my parents' empty dining room with the radio on while I wrote short stories nobody would ever read and nobody would ever buy.

But the radio helped. The radio really helped.

It's nice, and odd, to feel that I'm now part of the thing that kept me going then.

My short story "Chivalry" will be broadcast at 4:00pm to 4:30pm on the 25th of December. It's about an old woman who buys the Holy Grail in a charity shop.

There's a generation gap vast as an ocean between people who are excited that Glenda Jackson is both our narrator and Mrs Whitaker, and those who have no idea who Glenda Jackson is and why she matters (wasn't she a British politician once?) but are very excited about Kit Harington.

And as if that wasn't enough...

Playing in the Dark will be broadcast on Radio 3 on the 23rd of December from 7:30pm until 10 pm.  That's me and some guests reading things aloud, and also the BBC Symphony Orchestra (and some of the guests) making music.

Here's a video of me introducing our final reader, who read a chunk of GOOD OMENS...

(If the video below doesn't work for you, as I hear it's region-locked, you can watch it on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bbcpress/status/1198926119388565504?s=20)

Playing in the Dark will also, in edited form, be going out really early on the morning of the 25th, on BBC Radio 4 from 6 am - 7 am.

If you are somewhere in the world where you cannot turn on the radio and hear Radio 3 or 4, you can still livestream it, and once it has been broadcast it will be up for a month. ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD YOU CAN ACCESS THE INTERNET, YOU CAN LISTEN TO THEM. FOR FREE.

This is a true thing.

Labels: Chivalry, radio, Radio 3, Radio four

On Dedications & Radio Plays

I finished the last of the last of the read-throughs of Norse Mythology this morning. I caught one paragraph that had somehow duplicated itself, fixed a couple of clunky sentences, and changed the word stone to iron somewhere I had thought one thing and typed another. I checked over the glossary

And then there was one last thing.

Dedicating books is an odd process, combining whim and whimsy and debts owed and gods to be placated. Mostly you ponder who would be made happiest by having this book dedicated to them, and what the most appropriate person would be for the book you have written.

But sometimes you do not have to ponder. Sometimes it's nice and obvious.

I've dedicated Norse Mythology to someone who wasn't even around a couple of days ago, and is now here, and whom I haven't yet met and held and hugged and sung songs to (but I will, soon). My first grandchild, Everett, born to my oldest son Michael and his wife Courtney (Courtney obviously did all the hard work) about 48 hours ago.

I get a grandson. Holly and Maddy and Ash get a nephew (and Ash gets someone to play with as he grows up). I am a proud and happy grandfather.

Norse Mythology is Everett's book.



...

This is a photograph of the cast - almost all of them, there are some secrets and surprises - of the two part BBC Radio Four adaptation of STARDUST that's coming out in December. (Here's the cast list: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1CJhmxQCq99GBn26FLh7qnk/stardust-whos-who)

The BBC is holding a competition for original STARDUST art for UK residents -- details at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4m9W7cDHhnCDrBlBrkmL2YW/competition-draw-neil-gaimans-stardust-for-radio-4

You will not need to be a UK resident to listen to it, however. You can listen to it anywhere in the whole wide world, via the magic of the Internet, or the BBC iPlayer app, for a month after it broadcasts.

That's not the only Radio Four adaptation of one of my stories happening this year, though. There's also the (smaller) cast of How the Marquis Got His Coat Back:

and yes, I'm in there. I got to be in the room, acting with Bernard Cribbins and Adrian Lester and Paterson Joseph and Don Warrington and everyone and IT WAS AMAZING.

How the Marquis Got His Coat Back will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in early November (I think).

...

You can get registered to vote in the US via text messages: https://www.hello.vote/ has the details. Get registered. Vote. Your vote actually matters. Vote.

Labels: Everett Gaiman, grandfather me, how the marquis got his coat back, Radio four, Stardust