Agents of Oblivion - Softcover

Sinclair, Iain

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1783807717 ISBN 13: 9781783807710

Publisher: Swan River Press, 2023

Synopsis

"How long have things been coming apart in this way?" - The Lure of Silence

"Generally speaking the dead do not return," pronounced Antonin Artaud. But the dead are permitted to visit those who welcome them. Their spectral, machine-made voices echo in deep tunnels under London. Voices without hosts. Without agency. They make their oracular pronouncements even when nobody is listening on the vast empty platforms of the Elizabeth Line. They have their codes and their secret meanings.

Four stories starting everywhere and finishing in madness. Four acknowledged guides. Four tricksters. Four inspirations. Algernon Blackwood. Arthur Machen. J. G. Ballard. H. P. Lovecraft. They are known as "Agents of Oblivion". And sometimes, in brighter light, as oblivious angels . . .

As host, as oracle, Iain Sinclair moves through this quartet of tales, through a spectral London that once was, or might never have been.

About this title

About the Authors

Iain Sinclair has lived in Hackney since 1968, working at a variously titled London project. He has published widely through mainstream and independent presses. These crimes have been comprehensively collected in a three-volume bibliography/biography by Jeff Johnson. Now published by Test Centre Books. An early prose-poetry trilogy was followed by the novels Downriver and Radon Daughters. The short-story collection, Slow Chocolate Autopsy, was a first collaboration with Dave McKean. Sinclair was formerly a used-book dealer and never quite got over it.

Dave McKean has illustrated and designed many ground breaking books and graphic novels including The Magic of Reality (Richard Dawkins), The Homecoming (Ray Bradbury), The Savage (David Almond), What's Welsh for Zen (John Cale), Arkham Asylum (Grant Morrison) and Mr. Punch, Wolves in the Walls, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman). He wrote and illustrated Pictures That Tick, Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash, and the multi-award winning Cages. He has created hundreds of CD and comic covers including the entire run of Gaiman's Sandman. He has directed five short and three feature films, MirrorMask, Luna, and The Gospel of Us with Michael Sheen.

Edition details

• Publisher: Swan River Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1783807717
• ISBN 13: 9781783807710
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: McKean Dave
• Number of pages: 198