Which one of you told me to ‘write some fiction’ after the Charlton game in December 2019? It was one of you. Anyway, over the past 18 months I’ve done just that, although ‘The Case of the Shot-shy Strikers,’ inspired by that particular game, didn’t make the final cut on this occasion. December, and specifically Christmas Eve, marks the 10th anniversary of my first book, My Only Boro: A Walk Through Red & White. To mark the occasion I have written an anthology of the kind of stories, literary or otherwise, that have influenced my work. Bank Notes is as much influenced by Round the Twist, Tales of the Unexpected, and Tales from the Crypt, for example, as it is by Boards of Canada, and Henry Bolckow. Add to this the type of disorderly episodes I usually find myself in, on this occasion involving French mobsters, a pair of moody suitcases, and a very precocious cat, and you have a recipe for a particular brand of mysterious chaos, shot through with a streak of Teesside that’s as thick as a Boxing Day *****. I’ve even thrown in a free palindrome, for the more discerning reader.
An interplanetary package holiday takes a dark turn. A man is driven to madness by an unseen torturer. Construction workers discover a tunnel beneath the streets of Nice. The author’s quest for a royal relic does not go to plan. A cat plays an unlikely role in the historical genesis of Middlesbrough. A boardgame is the undoing of a seemingly unshakeable alibi.
These, and other strange tales, form an anthology of the arcane as Will Nett’s short stories are collected together for the first time. Journey with the author, where little is as it seems, as the reader is drawn in to the blurred reality that is Bank Notes.
Bank Notes is available from Book Corner, Saltburn, Drake, Stockton, Amazon, Kindle, Sixth Element Publishing.
Will Nett
Find Will on Twitter: @will_nett
An interplanetary package holiday takes a dark turn. A man is driven to madness by an unseen torturer. Construction workers discover a tunnel beneath the streets of Nice. The author’s quest for a royal relic does not go to plan. A cat plays an unlikely role in the historical genesis of Middlesbrough. A boardgame is the undoing of a seemingly unshakeable alibi.
These, and other strange tales, form an anthology of the arcane as Will Nett’s short stories are collected together for the first time. Journey with the author, where little is as it seems, as the reader is drawn in to the blurred reality that is Bank Notes.
Bank Notes is available from Book Corner, Saltburn, Drake, Stockton, Amazon, Kindle, Sixth Element Publishing.
Will Nett
Find Will on Twitter: @will_nett