Now for Black Hole Cinema ClubI'm excited to announce that the audiobook edition, which is brilliantly narrated by Max Dowler, also features exclusive theme music, composed by Aaron Lampert. These Black Hole Cinema Club theme songs are integrated into the audiobook to create a listening experience like no other!
However, I've not forgotten my own soundtrack duties, so here's the playlist that I've created for Black Hole Cinema Club. Kicking off with a much-sampled classic track from David McCallum, appropriately entitled 'The Edge', these are the songs that soundtrack each chapter of the book, from the moment that Lucas and his friends step into the Black Hole Cinema Club. Spy film action, monster movie scares, jungle adventures, sci-fi film thrills and other cinematic surprises, with songs from Mercury Rev, Saint Etienne, Bjork, Khruangbin, DJ Shadow, Tame Impala, Slowdive and more.
The last tracks on the soundtrack are those I've picked to play as the end credits roll: the appropriately-named 'Always Loved A Film' by Underworld and the cinematic brilliance of 'Ascension Day' by Alex Edge, a song from an album I had on repeat as I finished the edits to the book.
If you can't wait until publication day on Thursday 14th March, you can now read an exclusive extract from Black Hole Cinema Club and you can pre-order your copy of the book here to make sure you get the best seat in the house. And don't forget to play the soundtrack while you're reading...
Dare you visit the Black Hole Cinema Club? Well, take a look at David Dean's stunning cover art for the book and I think you'll find it hard to resist!
As the blurb explains, Black Hole Cinema Club is a story about five friends - Lucas, Ash, Finn, Maya and Caitlin - who meet at their local cinema, nicknames the Black Hole. They're excited about the movie marathon ahead - non-stop action, blockbuster special effects and all the snacks they can eat - but as the lights go down, Lucas and his friends watch in disbelief as a jet-black tidal wave comes crashing out of the cinema screen and they find themselves swept into an epic adventure.
Secret hideouts. Prehistoric monsters. Lost cities. Impossible missions. Being the hero of your own film should feel like fun. But as the cliffhanger scenes they're pitched into become ever more perilous, Lucas and his friends start to wonder if these movies are really make believe. Can they save the day before the end credits roll? The fate of the world might just depend on it...
Black Hole Cinema Club will be published on the 14 March 2024, but is available to pre-order now! As this article from the Irish Times explains pre-orders are hugely important in helping a book to succeed, so if you're thinking of buying a copy of Black Hole Cinema Club, I'd be incredibly grateful if you could pre-order it from your local bookshop, Waterstones, Bookshop.org, Foyles, Blackwells, Amazon or wherever you get your books from. Thank you!
I'm looking forward to sharing more about Black Hole Cinema Club in the run-up to publication, but if you sign up to my newsletter hereyou'll be the first to hear all the news about the book and also have a chance to win an exciting Black Hole Cinema Club package in the new year! Don't forget you can follow my Amazon Author Page too for the latest updates.
Escape Roomwas published on Thursday and I’ve been absolutely thrilled by the reception it’s received so far from readers. As well as The Times Children's Book of the Week review of Escape Room which described it as a "mad, intense thriller... reminiscent of Lord of the Flies, Squid Game and the Indiana Jones films", it has also been reviewed by GeekDad, My Book Corner, The Teacher Bookworm, Scope for Imagination and many more book bloggers.
Waterstonesselected Escape Room as one of their Best Children's Books to Look Out For in February, describing it as "a wildly imaginative and pacey novel", whilst Booktrust also picked it out as one of their favourite books of the month, writing, "This fast-paced adventure is full of twists and turns, and some seriously tough puzzles for readers to try and work out. A fabulous and thought-provoking read."
If you pop into your local newsagent, you'll find an interview with me in the latest edition of The Week Junior. I also spoke to ReadingZone about Escape Room and you can read a Q&A and watch a video with me talking about the book here. And on Tuesday 8th February, I'll be speaking to Mr Dilly in a special livestream for schools and you can sign up to take part in this here.
Finally, and most excitingly, you can now enter The Escape yourself by playing the virtual Escape Room game! Follow this link to see if you can Find The Answer and Save The World!
“Remember, all you need to succeed is hidden inside The Escape. The puzzles that you find and the challenges you face might seem impossible at first, but for you nothing is impossible. Look around carefully. Everything is part of the game. Use your mind to find the Answer. Find the Answer before it’s too late.”
And if you succeed in finding the Answer before the end of February, you have the chance of winning a signed edition of Escape Room too! Good luck!
Just one week to go until Escape Roomis published on the 3rd February and you can now pre-order an exclusive signed bookplate edition from Waterstones here. (And if you're not keen on me scribbling inside your books, you can also pre-order unblemished copies of Escape Room from a host of other retailers here.) Escape Room is a story I'm really proud of and I've written a blog post for Nosy Crow, where I discuss how I wrote the book and some of the inspirations behind the story.
I was thrilled today to discover that The Times have reviewed Escape Room as their Children's Book of the Week, with Alex O'Connell commenting, "Gamers will love this mad, intense thriller" and describing it as, "Perfect for puzzle-hungry beginner horror fans who require lashings of jeopardy" and you can read the full review here.
The publication of Escape Roommarks a decade for me as a published author and this sent me back in a haze of nostalgia to a blog post I wrote on the eve of the publication of Twelve Minutes to Midnight, way back in 2012, about the childhood day when I first dreamed it was possible to become a writer and I thought I'd reshare this blog post here. (WARNING: Contains Neil Gaiman)
It Was Twenty-Two Years Ago Today
Actually, I doubt it was to the day, but I couldn’t resist the Sergeant Pepper’s reference, even though it doesn’t scan. Anyway, it was twenty-two years ago when I made the fateful decision to bunk off school and go along to a book signing by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean instead.
I was fourteen years old, just starting my GCSEs at a rather bleak comprehensive school in Salford. This was the kind of school where the P.E. teacher forced you to do press-ups in an icy puddle at the start of every lesson, Woodwork and Metalwork were mainly concerned with the production of concealed armaments, and Chemistry lessons a constant battle for control of the gas taps between the kids who wanted to blow up the Science block and those of us who wanted to live. It wasn’t the kind of school where authors popped in to chat about their latest books and reveal the secrets of the writing life. To me the idea of meeting a writer was as strange and exotic as the idea of meeting an astronaut (another childhood ambition, as yet sadly unfulfilled).
It wasn’t that I didn’t know about authors; my brain was full to bursting with their names. I was the Incredible Book Eating Boy before Oliver Jeffers had even drawn him, devouring the shelves of my local library. J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Susan Cooper, John Wyndham, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Cormier, Ursula Le Guin. With every book I took out, a new favourite author could be discovered and I’d then eagerly seek out everything that they had written.
As well as books I loved comics, a passion born from my paper round. As I waited for the newsagent to load up my delivery bag, I flicked through old DC and Marvel comics on a spinner at the back of the shop, the worlds of these four-colour heroes a welcome escape from the slate-grey streets. Then when Saturday came around, I’d spend every penny of my wages on these comic books: Batman, Detective Comics, Daredevil, 2000AD. That newsagent must’ve loved me!
After a while though, I’d finally depleted his stock of comics and had to look further afield for a fresh source. I’d seen an advertisement in the pages of 2000AD for a comic shop called Odyssey 7 in Manchester. So one Saturday morning, leaving the paper shop with my wages in my pocket for a change, I jumped on the bus into town to search out this shop. Trudging down Oxford Road, I turned into the shopping precinct at Manchester University and entered an Aladdin’s Cave.
Odyssey 7 didn’t just have a single spinner filled with comics; it had boxes of them running down the central aisle of the shop. Flicking through them, I could see comics about every superhero I had ever heard of and dozens more that I hadn’t. Along the walls were posters, magazines, and on a section of shelves filled with large, glossy books, something called graphic novels. That’s where I discovered Violent Cases.
I can’t remember what initially drew me to this book. Maybe it was the illicit promise of the title that appealed to my teenage mind. But when I picked it up and started to flick through the pages, I was entranced. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. It was like nothing I had ever read before. In black-and-white and without a superhero in sight, it was a story about childhood told in the most remarkable way. This wasn’t a comic book, this was something else. Leaving behind the handful of Batman comics I’d already picked up, I took the book to the counter and bought my first graphic novel.
Over the next week I must have read Violent Cases more than a dozen times, each time finding some new detail to obsess over. For those who haven’t yet read it, I won’t give away too much, but something in this story sang to me. Its depiction of the narrator’s memories of his childhood: a fuzzy and confusing world, where adults lied and the threat of violence was never far from the surface, fascinated and troubled me at the same time.
The next Saturday I was standing at the counter of Odyssey 7 again, and, using the same logic that had served me so well in the library, asked if they had any more books by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. The man at the counter pointed me in the direction of a couple of new comic books, Black Orchid and the first issue of something called The Sandman, and then he told me something that changed my life.
“They’re coming in to do a signing next week.”
I looked up at the poster in the shop window. Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean would be signing copies of Violent Cases, the book that had blown my mind, next Friday afternoon. It was incredible – here was a chance to meet a real live author and a fantastic artist too. There was only one problem. The only way I’d be able to get to the signing in time would be to bunk off school at lunchtime. I think the time of the signing was 2pm, enough time I reasoned to get the bus into town, get my new favourite author to sign my books (I’d now bought the first issues of both Black Orchid and The Sandman as well) and still get home before my mum got back from work. That way I could pretend that I’d been in school all day, just like normal.
That was the plan. When Friday arrived, I sneaked out of school as the lunchtime bell rang and caught the bus into town. But arriving at Odyssey 7 just before two in the afternoon, I discovered my plan’s first flaw. Outside the store a queue snaked across the shopping precinct and out onto Oxford Road. (Remember, this was a signing for his very first book – Lord knows what kind of monstrous wyrm a Neil Gaiman signing queue looks like nowadays!) Joining the back of the queue I slowly started to worry. With the speed the queue was moving at, there was no way I’d get back home in time to pretend I’d been in school all day. If I stayed put, I was going to be in trouble. Big trouble.
Standing around me in the queue were trench-coated university students, their comic books and graphic novels tucked under their arms. I was still wearing my school uniform, my copy of Violent Cases, Black Orchid and The Sandman shoved in the depths of my school bag. This was the only chance I’d ever have to meet the extraordinary people who had created these stories. I stayed in the line.
Eventually, sometime after four I think, I made it inside the shop, the remnants of the queue now snaking around the central aisle and back up to the counter where two guys were seated, patiently signing each book that was thrust in front of them. They didn’t look much older than students themselves, but the face of one of them was strangely familiar. From my bag, I dug out my copy of Violent Cases and turned to the first page. There, staring out at me in black and white was the same face. This was Neil Gaiman.
It’s funny, I’m trying to remember now what happened next, but my memories are turning out to be as fragmentary as those of the narrator of Violent Cases. I don’t really remember getting to the front of the queue, can’t recall what I said when I handed over my books to Neil and Dave to be signed. But when I finally stepped out of the comic shop and started walking back to the bus station and the inevitable mountain of trouble I was in, I remember thinking one thing: I wanted to be a writer.
Fast forward twenty-two years. Neil Gaiman is now one of the most famous authors on the planet. He’s written a mountain of books that I love: Coraline, Stardust, The Wolves in the Walls, American Gods, The Graveyard Book; not to mention all his comics and graphic novels, film screenplays and TV scripts (including possibly my favourite-ever episode of Doctor Who). Dave McKean is an award-winning artist, author and filmmaker.
As for me, well, as a childhood dream is realised and Twelve Minutes to Midnight is published, I’ve got my first signing session at Octavia's Bookshop in Cirencester.
Unfortunately, it’s on a Saturday, so I’m not going to present any school-age children with the same moral dilemma I faced, but when I finally got confirmation of the event, I tweeted about how twenty-two years after I’d skipped school to go along to a book signing by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, I finally had my own to announce. And then to my utter astonishment, Neil Gaiman replied!
“That makes me so proud! And so old!”
With a grin as wide as the Joker’s on my face, I tweeted back to try and thank him in 140 characters or less for all the inspiration he’d given me and, more importantly, finally let him know how much trouble he’d indirectly got me in. (I was grounded for a month for bunking off school!) Then a few minutes later, his reply popped up.
“You did the right thing.”
And I know he’s right. That day twenty-two years ago, was the first time I believed it was possible to become a writer. An outlandish dream sparked into life as I stood in front of the counter in that Manchester comic shop and met Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. The day that changed my life.
Postscript
One year after the publication of Twelve Minutes to Midnight, I had the pleasure of meeting Neil Gaiman again at an event at the Oxford Playhouse (which I blogged about here) and, as Escape Roommakes it way out into the world, I hope our paths might cross again one day and I'll get the chance to say thank you once more for helping me to start to dream this life I've led for the past ten years into existence.
It's not long now until Escape Roomis published on the 3rd February, but in the immortal words of Mike D it's time to let the soundtrack, "Mmmm, D-r-r-r- rop!"
The book has twenty-two chapters, but the soundtrack to Escape Room ends with a twenty-third song. This is 'Jubilee Street' by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and I chose this song for its transcendent beauty, especially the climatic closing lines which I imagine playing as the end credits of the book scroll by.
If you can't wait until publication day, you can now read an exclusive extract from Escape Room and you can pre-order your copy of the book here. And a huge thank you if you do.
My latest novel, Escape Room, will be published on the 3rd February 2022 and here’s a sneak preview of the blurb from the back of the book to tell you a little more about the story.
Escape Room is a story filled with thrills and adventure. There are puzzles to solve and mysteries to unlock. It's a story about finding the Answer and saving the world.
I'm looking forward to sharing more about the story in the run-up to publication day, but some early proof copies of Escape Room have already escaped into the world and it's been wonderful to see the following responses to the book from authors I admire:
"A mind-twisting, page-racing stormer of a read! Loved it." Kieran Larwood, author of the Five Realms series
"Reads like a Doctor Who adventure." A. F. Harrold, author of The Imaginary
"Amazingly inventive, punchy and profound. Unputdownable!" Darren Simpson, author of The Memory Thieves
"Escape Room is a super-smart, super-fast read. High pace, high stakes and rip-roaring! MARVELLOUS!" Julie Pike, author of The Last Spell Breather
"Twisty and mysterious." Alastair Chisholm, author of Orion Lost and ADAM-2
"A spine-tingling brain-teaser that will keep you guessing to the very last page. I loved it." Patience Agbabi, author of The Infinite
"A tense, terrifying tale with a powerful punch." Finbar Hawkins, author of Witch
"A fast-paced, adrenaline rush to save the world and with a twist I didn't see coming!" Gill Lewis, author of Sky Hawk
Now you might not know, but pre-ordering a book helps an author in so many ways as this great article from the Irish Times explains. So if you're thinking of buying a copy of Escape Room, I'd be incredibly grateful if you could pre-order it from your local bookshop or one of the following booksellers:
My new book Space Oddityis out now and, with the country in lockdown and the doors of bricks-and-mortar bookshops shut, it's safe to say that Thursday 7th January was a publication day unlike any I've ever experienced before. With so many people suffering at the moment and the endless tide of grimness on the news, it can lead one to question whether it's even worth sending another story out into the world, but as this eloquent tweet from the brilliant children's author Jonathan Meres wisely states, stories are what we need now more than ever. I really hope Space Oddity is a story that will help young readers to look up at the stars with a smile, which feels important right now.
As it's my first story for slightly younger readers, I really hope it's a book that parents and children will enjoy reading together, so I was thrilled to see Booktrust describe Space Oddity as "a perfect read for children and parents to share, and a great book with which to encourage children who usually only like funny stories to read something with more emotional depth." Picking it out as one of the best new books published this month, Booktrust go on to say, "it reads like a quiet classic."
It was also wonderful to see The Timesname Space Oddity as their Children's Book of the Week and in the review, Alex O'Connell described it as "a bright, brainy book ... spiced with a good pinch of humour and lashings of emotional intelligence." You can read the full review here.
As well as being a Children's Book of the Week, I'm very proud to let you know that Space Oddity is a Children's Book of the Month too! Blackwell's have chosen Space Oddity as their Children's Book of the Month for January and I filmed this videofor their YouTube channel to say thank you and introduce readers to the story. It would've been lovely to have visited the wondrous Blackwell's bookshop on Broad Street in Oxford to celebrate this fact - probably by buying armfuls of books! - but unfortunately the lockdown means this just isn't possible. I really hope though that you might visit Blackwell's online to buy Space Oddity there and I look forward to sunnier days ahead when we can all visit bricks-and-mortar bookshops again.
Finally, as you might know, I love creating soundtracks for all of my novels and Space Oddity is no exception! You can listen to the all-David Bowie playlist I've created for the book on Spotify below and I was absolutely thrilled to be invited onto Chris HawkinsBBC 6 Musicshow to talk about how David Bowie's life and music helped to inspire the story. You can listen to the show again hereand my interview with Chris appears at the 1-hour 42-minute mark. At the close of the interview, Chris described Space Oddity as " a wonderful cosmic adventure" and "a real joy of a read" and it was real thrill for me to speak to Chris and then hear the opening chords of 'Space Oddity' the song fade in at the end of the interview.
On the 7th January 2021, Space Odditywill lift-off the launch pad on its intergalactic journey to all good bookshops!
When Chicken House approached me to write this book inspired by a winning idea from their Big Idea competition about an alien parent, I jumped at the chance to write a story for younger readers that would allow me to stretch my funny bones.
But how might this alien parent have arrived here on Earth I wondered and, as David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ came on the radio, the answer came to me. I thought about how some of the radio waves carrying this song would escape from the Earth’s atmosphere and drift out into space, travelling at the speed of light. I thought about an alien in a distant spaceship picking up this radio signal and maybe thinking it was a distress call instead of a song. I thought about how they might come to Earth to investigate, fall in love with an earthling and settle down. And this gave me the idea for Jake, a ten-year-old boy with a very embarrassing dad and Jake’s discovery of the out-of-this-world reason why his dad’s so embarrassing.
Brilliantly illustrated by Ben Mantle, Space Oddity is a story filled with fun and adventure. From joyriding in a zorb chased by killer robots to some close encounters of the rather smelly kind, Jake’s extra-terrestrial adventures take him to the very edge of the solar system, but at its heart, Space Oddity is a story about life on Earth.
It’s a story about family, friendship and identity. It’s a story for anyone who's ever stared at the stars and wondered exactly what's out there. It’s a story that I hope makes readers smile and lets them escape from the world for a while.
And if you do, please keep hold of the proof of your pre-order as you'll be able to get an exclusive BONUS CHAPTER! Just click here to fill in your details and proof of your pre-order and you'll receive THE DAD WHO FELL TO EARTH on publication day.
The Longest Night of Charlie Noon was published one month ago and I’ve been absolutely thrilled by the reception it’s received so far from readers. Frank Cottrell Boyce recently commented that "a new children's book needs help to find its way into a child's hands", so I'm incredibly grateful for these following reviews:
The Times chose The Longest Night of Charlie Noon as their Children’s Book of the Week, with Alex O'Connell commenting, "Christopher Edge — the coolest science teacher you probably never had — is no ordinary author. There’s no one quite like him writing now. His stories fizz with scientific ideas, the perfect fodder for the child with more questions than answers."
The Sunday Times named The Longest Night of Charlie Noon as one of their Best Summer Reads, with Nicolette Jones describing it as, "A heart-stopping adventure with thrills and twists, codes and puzzles, underpinned by an intense evocation of the natural world."
The Guardian featured an amazing review of The Longest Night of Charlie Noon in their Review section this weekend, with Tony Bradman commenting, "It isn’t every day that a novel for 8- to 12-year-olds reminds you of TS Eliot’s Four Quartets, Dante’s Inferno and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. There’s a dash of The Twilight Zone in there too, plus a hint of the Wild Wood from The Wind in the Willows, all swirled together at the same time. A writer of genuine originality ... Edge creates strong characters who come alive on the page, and he has a thriller writer’s feel for suspense."
The Week Junior chose The Longest Night of Charlie Noon as their Book of the Week, describing it as "A gripping story with hints of science, history and philosophy that will keep you guessing right to the end."
Booktrust picked The Longest Night of Charlie Noon as one of their best new books for June, commenting, "Skilfully written and structured for maximum tension, this short but powerful novel keeps the reader guessing throughout."
The Longest Night of Charlie Noon has also been reviewed by brilliant book bloggers and websites such as The Reader Teacher, Just Imagine, the Reading Zone, Book Lover Jo, Magic Fiction Since Potter, the Bookbag, Book Murmuration, Miss Cleveland is Reading, Lily and the Fae and A Library Lady, to name a few. I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who’s read and reviewed The Longest Night of Charlie Noon. In her recent essay Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise, Katherine Rundell wrote, "Those who write for children are trying to arm them for the life ahead with everything we can find that is true" and the reviewers of children's books are vital guides in helping children find the books that will shine brightly to guide them through their lives.
In the month since publication, I've been haring up and down the country talking about The Longest Night of Charlie Noon and it's been a pleasure to talk to children in Bristol, London, Manchester, Bedford, Cheltenham and many more places. However, one of the absolute highlights of the launch tour for the book was when I spoke at the Royal Institution. To be invited as an author of children's books to speak at the home of the Christmas Lectures and stand on the same stage that has been graced by esteemed scientists such as Michael Faraday, Carl Sagan and Sir David Attenborough was a real honour, and I was delighted to be joined by Bletchley Park's Tom Briggs and UCL astrophysicist Amelie Saintonge to explore the science behind The Longest Night of Charlie Noon. It was a magical evening that ended with a bang, and one of the greatest pleasures of the evening for me was getting the chance to speak to so many children in the signing after the event and hear how they've been inspired by the science in my stories.
Finally, I was thrilled to learn in June that The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day had been chosen as the inaugural winner of the STEAM Children’s Book Prize. The prize was set up by UCLan Publishing to celebrate children’s books that highlight the importance of science, technology, engineering, arts and maths. Roman Belyaev won the best information book category for How Does a Lighthouse Work?, How the Borks Became by Jonathan Emmet and Elys Dolan was named the best early years book, White Rabbit Red Wolf by Tom Pollock won the YA category, Battle of the Beetles by M G Leonard was the winner of the ‘Your Choice Award’ voted for by school pupils, while The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day won the overall prize and the middle-grade category. Science inspires and with so many wonderful books on the shortlists, I'm incredibly proud that The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day was chosen as the winner. Huge thanks to UCLan Publishing and The British Interplanetary Societyfor setting up the award, and huge congratulations to all the other shortlisted authors and illustrators.
These are the songs that soundtrack the story in my mind. Each chapter has its own track, so track one equals chapter one and so on. It starts with the song 'Wild Wood' by Paul Weller whose lyric says, 'we're going to find our way out of this wild, wild wood' and that's the challenge that Charlie, Dizzy and Johnny face. And the final song in the soundtrack is a wonderful track by Guillemots called 'Up On The Ride' which for me captures the feeling I'd like readers to take away from the novel as they turn the final pages.
I'm in the midst of a blog tour for The Longest Night of Charlie Noon and here are the stops I've made so far.
On Monday I spoke to Minerva Reads about rewilding my fiction.
On Tuesday I wrote for The Boy Can Teach about the cross-curricular links that teachers can find in The Longest Night of Charlie Noon.
On Wednesday I wrote about woods in fiction and the arboreal inspiration behind The Longest Night of Charlie Noon for BookLoverJo.
You can also read an interview about The Longest Night of Charlie Noon at Reading Zoneand I also had the pleasure of speaking to Nikki Gamble for In The Reading Corner and you can listen to this interview here.
The programmes for the Edinburgh International Book Festival have also been announced and I'm absolutely thrilled to be heading back there this year. I've got a Scintillating Science with Christopher Edge event for families and children on Saturday 17th August where I'll be exploring code-breaking, stargazing and The Longest Night of Charlie Noon, and I'm also appearing in the adult programme for a reading workshop on the classic novel, Brendon Chase. Hope to see you there or, if you can't make it to Edinburgh, maybe at my event at the Royal Institution on Saturday 22nd June.
