The acclaimed author of the Bryant & May series and the award-winning Paperboy writes about how he became a writer and what it's meant to him while weaving into this a candid, moving (and often surprisingly funny) account of having to confront his own mortality in what he knows - and we know - will be the final chapter in his personal story.
This is the memoir Christopher Fowler always wanted to write about 'writing'.
It's the story of how he, 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. It's a book full of brilliant insights and sharp observations, about the highs and lows and pitfalls and pleasures of the profession, about his favourite and not-so-favourite novelists, and offers sage advice for the would-be writer on what they should watch out for, approach with caution or, indeed, avoid at all costs.
But woven into this singularly entertaining volume is an altogether darker thread. Because in Spring 2020, as the world went into lockdown, Chris was diagnosed with terminal cancer. And yet Word Monkey is anything but a misery memoir. In prose as light as air, Chris recounts what he knew, in his heart of hearts, would be the final chapter in his story. The result is a deeply moving, often very funny and surprisingly uplifting account of someone suddenly having to confront and come to terms with their own mortality.
