The Mark Hodder Interview Part Four

 

 

 

For some time now I`ve been posting my recent interview with Sexton Blake author Mark Hodder on this blog in instalments.

 

Parts 1 - 3 apppeared on 8, 15 and 19 October respectively so now it must be time for Part Four !

 

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Q)  From comments you`ve posted online* I would think you have a very different worldview to that of Blake, yet you clearly have an enduring fascination with his world. Why do you think that is ?

 

A) Yep. There you have Blake upholding the superiority of the British Empire and British principles and British character...and here you have me putting the boot in at every opportunity.

 

Here`s the truth. When you look at propaganda it tells you more about what it`s seeking to defeat than what it`s striving to support. It`s that old truism of psychology : listen to how people insult others, for it reveals what they`re most deeply afraid of. 

 

Blakes` world is intriguing to me because, in the early years, it is so crammed with self-confidence : this is right, that is wrong, end of story. That unquestioning attitude then gets a kick in the teeth with the First World War , and we have this sudden explosion of super-criminals most of whom can be read as physically or psychologically damaged, or as people who can no longer understand how they fit into society.

 

The Second World War knocks the Blake world even harder. Now the adventures are suddenly about ordinary people effected by crime, as if all the big world-spanning ideas and conflicts have been relocated to the average persons` kitchen. Aristocracy becomes an irrelevance. And on into the `50s and `60s , during which time Blake hardly represents anything but himself, in a manner that often feels rather empty and soulless.

 

So for me, the Blake saga, from beginning to end, is a historical document, but rather than examining history from on high, as historians tend to do,  it observes it from pavement level  and so gives a far better feel for how the world was.

 

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That concludes Part Four of my interview with Mark Hodder, author of The Silent Thunder Caper and one of the contributors to the short story collection Zenith Lives. Both titles can be acquired from publisher Obverse Books at http://obversebooks.co.uk .

 

Part Five will be along soon, so watch this space !

 

 

* "The capitalist system, in divorcing itself from social responsibility, has so undermined itself that people are now waking up and fighting back." Mark Hodder - `More Thoughts on Steampunk` -  Mark Hodder Presents, 27 Feb 2012 ( http://markhodder.blogspot.co.uk ).

 

 

 

The Mark Hodder Interview Part Three ; Plummer v Zenith

We come now to the third part of my recent interview with Mark `The Silent Thunder Caper` Hodder.

Parts One and Two were posted on this blog on 8 and 15 October of this year and are still to be found lurking there.

We turn now to my third and most predicable question ;

Q) Who are your favourite characters from the Blake tales and why ?

A) I`ve always had a soft spot for George Marsden Plummer , simply because his early tales, by the mysterious Michael Storm*, are exceedingly well-written, and also because I think it`s a great idea : a high-ranking Police detective who uses his knowledge of the criminal underworld to his own advantage. That was ahead of its` time for sure. I like the psychology of Plummer. He believes he deserves better by virtue of his family connections to aristocracy , and thinks his less lordly status is an unfortunate quirk of fate that flies in the face of what`s `right`. I really connect with that , as my mother had the same attitude, though she never became a super-villain.

Zenith, of course, is right there at the top of the league. Anyone who`s read Zenith loves Zenith. He has an otherworldliness that really appeals. In some respects he`s an interesting counterpoint to Plummer in that he has the aristocratic position but considers it worthless.

This question of the value of the aristocracy  and the difference (if any) between an aristocrat and a commoner was integral to the zeitgeist of the inter-war years and has always fascinated me. It`s even become a theme of my own `Burton and Swinburne` series. Perhaps it`s why I chose to revive The Three Musketeers**. Three common criminals hiding behind a facade of `Hooray Henrys` ..that`s got to be fun ! A trio of psychopathic Bertie Woosters !

That concludes part three of my Mark Hodder interview, watch this space for more from me and him !

In the meantime you can keep up to date with this literary lad by visiting these sites ;
http://obversebooks.co.uk and www.mark-hodder.com .


* For more on Michael Storm ; http://bearalley.blogspot.co.uk/2007/07/michael-storm.html

** Not the Dumas characters, but three villains from Sextons` illustrious past ;
  http://www.mark-hodder.com/Blakiana/musketeers  .

The Mark Hodder Interview Part Two : The Blakiana Guy

As you may know, Sexton Blake was recently reborn, his first new adventure being Mark Hodders` The Silent Thunder Caper, available from Obverse books via their website.

Mark was kind enough to let me interview him for this blog recently, and I am posting the details here in instalments.

In the first part of the interview (this blog, 8 Oct 2014), Mark told us that his intial encounter with Sexton Blake was far from encouraging. Still, this plucky young chap persevered. His investigations were both ardent and intrepid and soon he became The Blakiana Guy.

But let him tell his own tale...

Q)  Clearly you were not discouraged for long and eventually set about amassing a fairly impressive Blake collection and running the much-missed (by me, anyway) Blakiana website. Tell us about that.

A) The first thing you need to know is that the Blakiana site is alive and well, here ; www.mark-hodder.com/Blakiana .

The site came about through a mix of boredom and fascination. The boredom was caused by me working at an office job in which I completed my assigned daily tasks so quickly and satisfactorily that I was finished by lunchtime. I knew that if I admitted this to my manager I`d end up with a bigger workload but the same pay, so I kept my mouth shut...better to hand in my work at the end of the day and pretend my time had been filled by it !

Next problem ; what to do with the spare hours ? By this point I was hooked on Blake , so it felt natural to build a website about him. Blakiana was thus created in office hours behind my boss`s back. I can confess to that now since i can`t be fired in retrospect !

The site was fine - and ever-expanding - for about five years but then got infected by malware and had to be taken offline.

This happened at the same moment I got my first publishing deal, and I was so consumed by writing novels that I had no time to restore it. However, earlier this year I took time out to rebuild it and move it to a new server. So Blakiana is back and I`m very happy about it.

That`s the end of this exciting episode. The next instalment will be along as soon as it can be done, so remember, Watch this Space for more musings from the Blakianas Guy as he takes up the tale of how he went from fansite geezer to bona fide Blake author.

The Mark Hodder Interview. Part One - An Initial Encounter ; "THIS was Sexton Blake !"

As I`ve mentioned before, celebrated Saville-Row-suited sleuth Sexton Blake has been reborn, re-invigorated and and renewed by the undoubted skills of Mark Hodder and the determination of  Stuart Douglas.

It is with great pleasure that I bring you this interview with the redoubtable Mr H, whose penmanship is equalled only by his courtesy and his commitment to the cause of Sextonianism.

The interview will be delivered to you in instalments, hopefully at very regular intervals but interspersed with other items relating to the excellent Mr Blake.

It may enhance your reading pleasure if you try to imagine this meeting of minds taking place in some appropriate fictitious setting. I personally would want to imagine the encounter occurring in a dimly-lit basement bar somewhere near Londons` dockland in the immediate post-war period.

Q) I believe your initial encounter with a Sexton Blake adventure was not exactly encouraging ?

A)  It was the Sexton Blake Library fifth series novel `The Witches of Notting Hill` by W A Ballinger (actually W Howard Baker).

I`d come to Blake by way of the modern-day Robin Hoods (or `Durable Desperados`) ; characters like The Saint, Bulldog Drummond, Tiger Standish, Nighthawk, Blackshirt, The Toff and so forth. Among them I`d encountered Norman Conquest and Zenith the Albino, both of whose origins lie in Blake tales.
 
My initial research into Blake wasn`t promising. "A cheap Sherlock Holmes rip-off" about sums it up (a judgement I now know to be totally erroneous). As a huge Holmes fan I wasn`t much enthused.

It kept nagging at me, though ; "I ought to read some Sexton Blake". So when I saw `Witches...` in a secondhand bookshop I snapped it up and... God it was awful ! I couldn`t understand how such drivel could have such an incredibly long history.

After recovering from that wasted reading time I thought I should give it another chance and perhaps look out for some of the earlier material. Not long after, a complete set of 1919 Union Jack magazines came up on E-Bay. It co-incided with me having a bit of cash to spare so I bid and won. The moment I eased open one of those browned and crumbly pages with its` tiny print and advertisements promising manly moustaches  and cures for blushing , I was hooked. THIS was Sexton Blake ! 

The next instalment follows shortly. In the meantime you can learn more of the activities of Hodder and Douglas by clicking on these links ;


http://obversebooks.co.uk  

www.mark-hodder.com

Stuart Douglas - Zenith`s End

Stuart Douglas - Zenith`s End

Stuart Douglas` Zenith`s End is the final story in the admirable `Zenith Lives` collection published by Obverse Books. But is it an end for our eponymous anti-hero, or simply a new beginning ?

Not strictly a Blake story but one that centres around the enigmatic and intriguing character of Zenith the Albino, a worthy opponent of Blakes from the early years. IIRC, Douglas` story is the only one to refer to Blake, albeit rather obliquely. It is also (I think) the only one told by Zenith in the first person.

It begins with the central character, now rendered immortal due to some mysterious dealings in the past, pondering his current situation and feeling more than a little world-weary and out of place in `70s London ( "Baker Street looked empty and grey in the winter rain, and more than ever I was aware that my time had passed").

He embarks on a quest that takes him from Baker Street to Scotland Yard`s Black Museum and then, perhaps unexpectedly, to the home of a flamboyant rock star. There events take a turn that surprises even him.

In the early part I was not quite sure what to expect. To tell the story from Zenith`s point of view, to see the world through his eyes is a master-stroke but one that has pitfalls for the unwary. To over-emphasise his world-weariness would be to cheapen it, overdo the understatement and you may miss the mark.

As the story progresses, however, I was carried along with it and there were some lovely touches, particularly in the visit to the Black Museum.

The tale has a twist or two before it runs it`s course, and is none the worse for that.

I myself am an admirer of post-war Blake, a period that I gather holds little appeal for Mr Douglas. Most of my favourite authors are dead. It follows I am what marketing types used to call a "tough sell" when it comes to this sort of think. If Mr D and the other contributors to this collection can win me over - and they have -  the chances are it will appeal to others as well.

Stuart Douglas and Obverse Books can be found at http://obversebooks.co.uk .

Most of the other stories in this worthy tome have already been reviewed in this blog - you`ll find them easily enough if you search about a bit.

Obverse Books Acquires License to Sexton Blake From IPC Media

It gave me great pleasure earlier this week to receive a Press Release from Obverse Books announcing  their "acquisition from IPC media of the license to the famous Baker Street detective Sexton Blake."

The release goes on to give a quick summary of the history of our fictional sleuth before explaining their plan "to resurrect the famous Sexton Blake Library, commencing with a new novella by best-selling genre author George Mann entitled `Sexton Blake and the Vengeful Dead` , combined in one hardback and electronic volume with a reprint of a rare, classic Blake story from the inter-war years. "

For more information contact Stuart Douglas at Obverse Books via their website www.obversebooks.co.uk .

I for one will be very happy to see a  re-invigorated SBL with new titles by current authors. I personally would hope that they will also seize the chance to reprint some of the more interesting post-war Blakes as well as the pre-war stuff, but that may be just me.

Anyway, it`s a worthy venture which I hope all Blake fans will support.

Zenith Lives ! Review Part Two (George Mann)

It`s quite a time since I first began to review Obverse Publications` Zenith Lives ! collection, but finally, here we are again.

George Mann - The Albino`s Shadow (Short Story)

I`ve never read anything by George Mann before but I`ll admit I`m keen to try more of his stuff.

I was particularly impressed by the author`s writing style. Somehow, he manages to keep the thing moving at quite a sprightly pace but still introduces enough detail - about a given character`s mannerisms etc - to make it convincing ("Rutherford blew smoke from the corner of his mouth, watching as it was quickly dispersed on the frigid breeze").

I also like the way one is quite quickly drawn into the little world the author has created, particularly during a visit to the home of the character Professor Angelchrist ("Rutherford had a sense that the house was crowded with the accumulated detritus of decades, paraphernalia of a thousand long-forgotten adventures. He longed to explore, to go rummaging and digging amongst all this wondrous stuff, to unpick the tales attached to each item").

I don`t want to say anything too much about the plot, except to remark that the story involves very little action, but still holds the reader`s attention, something I found admirable.

For me, the ending worked perfectly, though I can see that others may not agree.

I have a fondness for the short story as a genre which obviously means I`ve read some of the very best (H G Wells, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) and some of the worst (I won`t name names !). Whether this miniature gem of a story stands up amongst the best only time will tell, but it`s a long, long way from being one of the worst.

It`s different, but give it a try. You might like it.

Zenith Lives ! Review Part One

Stuart Douglas and others - Zenith Lives - Obverse Books - 2012

As explained previously, this is not a Sexton Blake book as such, but a collection of contemporary short stories featuring the character of Monsieur Zenith (Zenith the Albino), one of Blake`s pre-war adversaries.

The enigmatic Zenith was created by writer Anthony Skene but in these stories he lives again
 even though his creator is long since under the ground.

I`ve decided to review each story individually. As this may be a touch time-consuming, and knowing that people tend to have a short attention span I`ve decided to post the review in instalments. This posting contains my review of the first two stories in the collection, and my thoughts on the rest will follow in due course.


Mark Hodder - The Blood of our Land

The Blood of our Land is an absolute gem (as the plot concerns itself with a group of precious stones that have a particular significance, I should stress that the pun is entirely unintentional !). In the earlier parts particularly the writer creates almost an illusion of realism in the way character`s movements are observed ( "He reached into his velvet jacket and pulled out a flat platinum case, took from it a small hand-rolled cigarette, then produced a box of matches and struck one.") and this is very effective.

Towards the end we are in serious `big showdown` territory. Something more restrained might have been at least as effective, but let`s not quibble. The ingenious plot twists and  the quality of the writing make this an excellent tale.


Paul Magrs - All the Many Rooms

This is not really my bag of chips but I gave it my best shot. There seems to be more than a hint of a William Burroughs influence here. That style of writing can be strangely evocative  ("I arrived late, not because I was keen to seem fashionable or blase, but because I was tied up with some important papers and shapes of things, blurred as more snow fell in tireless shifts"), it can be intriguing ("I nodded to the doorman, snug in his den behind the window, and scurried up secret stairs"). It is certainly not predictable.  Mr M introduces some welcome touches of humour (the guest list at a party includes "Ziggy and Alvin Stardust") . Against that, the reader is dropped into an unfamilar literary landscape with no signposts or explanations and as the piece goes on the danger is that the reader will too readily dismiss it as an intellectual`s game, a riddle with no solution other than that the reader provides for themselves. It`s not for everybody but those who like it will love it.

On a purely personal note, and it makes no sense at all really, for me this piece brought back memories of working away from home in younger days, and of a workmate who unfortunately died not so long ago. I think it was "blurred as more snow fell in tireless shifts" and "I nodded to the doorman, snug in his den behind the window." . Funny the way a few words can reverberate in a way the author can never have anticipated or intended.

As I`ve explained above, these are only the first two stories in the colection, and I`ll be reviewing the others in the very near future.

Zenith Lives

"Arrayed in full evening dress and habitually smoking his opium-laced cigarettes, Zenith repeatedly outwits the Police by doing what no sane man would dare. Such considerations as death have no influence on his conduct. What is life to him that he should fear to lose it ?

Yet, though an ambitious criminal,  the albino has a strict code of conduct. Zenith`s honour, which would allow him to steal or even, upon occasion, to kill, would not permit treachery. His word is his bond and so, strangely, there are times when he can be trusted."

Mark Hodder, Blakiana

"The way I look at it is that I want to read more stories featuring the life of Zenith and nobody else was publishing them."

Stuart Douglas, Obverse Books

Regular visitors to this blog will no doubt have noticed my distinct preference for post-war Blake stories.  Taken as a whole, the earlier Blake stories are just not my bag. Still I am not such a philistine as to assume there are no high points in the Blake saga pre-WW2. I`ve been impressed by the few works of Pierre Quiroule (W W Sayer) that I`ve read, and who could fail to be intrigued by the complex gothic anti-hero, Monsieur Zenith (Zenith the Albino) ?

We are fortunate that this enigmatic villain has not been consigned to the grave along with his creator (writer Anthony Skene if I recall correctly), but has in fact experienced a literary re-incarnation in a new collection of short stories from those nice people at Obverse Books, the aptly-named Zenith Lives.

A review of their book will be appearing on this blog very soon, but as it is already available, if anyone wants a copy and doesn`t feel the need to wait to see what I think about it (which would be entirely understandable), then it can be ordered from Obverse via their website.