Mark My Words – March 2026
Cover Reveal!
Dear Friends, New and Old,
The proof copy of the hardback version of Final Approach has arrived and I’m so thrilled with it! It really is the book I imagined creating when I began submitting it in hope. I was thrilled when Claret Press agreed to print the paperback, but understandably they weren’t going to commit to a more expensive big glossy book. But now that’s what we’ve created between us and I’m absolutely delighted with it.
Tickets for the London event are flying out but the Somerset launch hasn’t yet taken off to the same degree. You can book tickets below. It’s at 6.30pm at Brendon Books in Taunton on Thursday 23rd April where I’ll be in conversation with author Elizabeth Delo (Becoming Liz Taylor). Brendon Books do charge a fiver for these events but they do give you a glass of wine or a soft drink!
Friends on the Shelf Issue 13
I love Friends on the Shelf, the biannual journal of true-life stories. I’ve already appeared in issues 8 and 11 with tales of Bowie and punk rock, and the music theme continues – I’m delighted that my new story ‘Boys Keep Swinging’ (see what I did there) appears in issue 13, due out imminently. You can sign up to the next two issues below, or wait until #13 is available as a stand-alone purchase – I can guarantee there will be the usual mix of hilarious and heart-rending (sometimes both at once) tales.
Calendar of Events
EVENTS 2026
Fri 20th March
Silly Point Poetry, Long Sutton Cricket Club – 7.30pm
Fri 27th March
Dirty Laundry, Archangel, Frome
Thurs 23rd April
Final Approach Hardback Somerset Launch – Brendon Books, Taunton – 6.30pm
Sat 25th April
‘Taming Trauma’ with Victoria L Humphreys, Bournemouth Writing Festival
Thurs 30th April
Final Approach Hardback London Launch – Society of Authors
Sat 16th May
‘Flights to Freedom’ with Pen Farthing, Dorchester Library
Sat 20th June
Stroud Indie Book Fair
Sat 4th July
Frome Independent Publishing Fair
Weds 23rd September
Final Approach Event Westlands Centre Yeovil
Book Review – The Other Way, Victoria L. Humphreys
Next month I’m giving a talk with the writer and artist Victoria L. Humphreys at the Bournemouth Writing Festival – Taming Trauma: Fiction or Non-Fiction (see below for tickets). In preparation I’m reading her book The Other Way, in which there is a lot of fictional trauma. It’s certainly harrowing – I was considering the working title ‘War and Pieces’ for the review. ‘Pieces’ literal and figurative – fragmented bodies and fragmented lives, and the play on War and Peace because this book has an epic scale, covering the eventful lives of multiple generations in half a century from the start of World War II to the early 1990s.
That said, the book briskly paces along through the decades in its two hundred and forty odd pages, with occasional jumps of a few years. Every possible disaster which can befall a family does, and every imaginable challenge that needs to be overcome obstructs the matriarch Lil’s family; I won’t spoil by going into detail. Initially, the reader expects that Lil might be the protagonist of the novel, but this role shifts, as the book progresses. This begs the question; does the family bring all this upon themselves? Is the trauma suffered early on relived by its inheritors; is there an escape? I’ll leave you to find that out. All I can say is that I am left with plenty to discuss with Victoria in Bournemouth…
Link below to Victoria’s book.
And Finally
To celebrate the launch of the hardback version of Final Approach I’ve decided to actually give some books away! (Those who know me well will know how hard this is for me, laughing emoji.) With every ‘pre-order’ of a signed and numbered copy of the limited edition illustrated hardback, I will give away a copy of the original Final Approach paperback or one of my Brian the Bear books. I will either send it to you when I post your hardback, or send it to any UK address, dedicated to whoever you like.
If you do buy or read one of my books, please consider leaving a review on Bookstore UK/Goodreads/Amazon or wherever you can – it makes a massive difference.
That’s all for now; you can view all my my work here.
markblackburn.co.uk 