The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School (47 page)
Read The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School Online
Authors: Kim Newman
Among my other research sources: Angela Brazil’s
The Manor House School
and
The Third Class at Miss Kaye’s
, Evelyn Smith’s
Val Forrest in the Fifth
, Thomas Hughes’s
Tom Brown’s Schooldays
, a lot of dimly remembered books by Frank Richards and Anthony Buckeridge, and, of course, Ronald Searle’s
St Trinian’s: The Entire Appaling Business
. I should also thank Dr Morgan’s Grammar School for Boys (which did have an utterly useless fives court), Haygrove Comprehensive and Bridgwater College.
A draft of the first section of this novel was published as ‘Kentish Glory: The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School’ in my collection
Mysteries of the Diogenes Club
(MonkeyBrain Books). Thanks are due to Chris Roberson and Allison Baker for publishing that. At Titan, I am grateful to Nick Landau and Vivian Cheung, Cath Trechman (ace editor), Natalie Laverick, Jill Sawyer Phypers, Lydia Gittins, Cara Fielder, Chris Young, Katharine Carroll, Jenny Boyce and Martin Stiff (for another amazing cover). Thanks also to my agents Antony Harwood, James Macdonald Lockhart and Fay Davies. And to David Barraclough, Steven Baxter, Eugene Byrne, Alex Dunn, Barry Forshaw, Christopher Fowler, Sean Hogan, Stephen Jones, Paul McAuley and Brian Smedley.
I consulted various friends about their own school experiences – they’re mostly acknowledged by being on the Drearclff Grange register. Kat Brown, Simret Cheema-Innis, Meg Davis, Grace Ker, Yung Kha, Maura McHugh, Helen Mullane and Sarah Pinborough all get Gold Stars as credits to School.
K
IM
N
EWMAN IS
a novelist, critic and broadcaster. His fiction includes
The Night Mayor, Bad Dreams, Jago
, the Anno Dracula novels and stories,
The Quorum
and
Life’s Lottery
, all currently being reissued by Titan Books,
Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D’Urbervilles
published by Titan Books and
The Vampire Genevieve
and
Orgy of the Blood Parasites
as Jack Yeovil, and most recently the critically acclaimed
An English Ghost Story
, which was nominated for the inaugural James Herbert Award. His non-fiction books include the seminal
Nightmare Movies
(recently reissued by Bloomsbury in an updated edition),
Ghastly Beyond Belief
(with Neil Gaiman),
Horror: 100 Best Books
(with Stephen Jones),
Wild West Movies, The BFI Companion to Horror, Millennium Movies
and
BFI Classics
studies of
Cat People
and
Doctor Who
.
He is a contributing editor to
Sight & Sound
and
Empire
magazines (writing
Empire
’s popular Video Dungeon column), has written and broadcast widely on a range of topics, and scripted radio and television documentaries. His stories ‘Week Woman’ and ‘Ubermensch’ have been adapted into an episode of the TV series
The Hunger
and an Australian short film; he has directed and written a tiny film
Missing Girl
. Following his Radio 4 play ‘Cry Babies’, he wrote an episode (‘Phish Phood’) for Radio 7’s series
The Man in Black
.
Follow him on twitter
@annodracula
. His official website can be found at
www.johnnyalucard.com
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS
By Kim Newman
The Naremores, a dysfunctional British nuclear family, seek a new life away from the big city in the sleepy Somerset countryside. At first their new home, The Hollow, seems to embrace them, creating a rare peace and harmony within the family. But when the house turns on them, it seems to know just how to hurt them the most – threatening to destroy them from the inside out.
“Immersive, claustrophobic and utterly wonderful.” M.R. Carey,
New York Times
bestselling author of
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“Thoroughly enjoyable, master storytelling.” Lauren Beukes
“Deserves to stand beside the great novels of the ghostly.” Ramsey Campbell
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On the set of Francis Ford Coppola’s troubled movie production of
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, Kate Reed meets young vampire Ion Popescu. She is compelled to help him escape and begin a new life in America, where he reinevents himself as Johnny Pop. He makes his name – and his fortune – selling a new, dangerously addictive drug that confers vampire powers on its users, and becomes a hit on the decadent New York art scene.
As he stalks the steeets of Manhattan and Hollywood, haunting the lives of the rich and famous, from Sid and Nancy to Andy Warhol, Orson Welles to Francis Ford Coppola, sinking his fangs ever deeper into the zeitgeist of 1980s America, it seems the past might not be dead after all…
Kim Newman returns to one of the bestelling vampire tales of the modern era in this brand-new novel in his acclaimed
Anno Dracula
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“Serious ideas about the nature of power and evil emerge from the antic blend of postmodern intertextuality, pop culture and pulp fiction… It’s a testament to Stoker’s power of myth-making and Newman’s sparkling reinvention that the old monster is still as relevant as ever.”
The Guardian
COMING SOON FROM TITAN BOOKS
By Kim Newman
Ripped from the pages of
Empire
magazine, the first collection of film critic, film historian and novelist Kim Newman’s reviews of the best and worst B movies. Some of the cheapest, trashiest, goriest and, occasionally, unexpectedly good films from the past twenty-five years are here, torn apart and stitched back together again in Kim’s unique style.
Everything you want to know about DTV hell is here.
Enter if you dare.
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