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Tall tale
‘IN A NOVEL YOU CAN TURN EVERYONE INTO AN OCT OPUS IF YOU WANT'
Inspired to be a writer by Trainspotting, Richard Milward is doing for Middlesbrough what Irvine Welsh did for Edinburgh. Malcolm Jack meets him
edraggled old residential tower blocks are
gradually being demolished in towns and
cities across the UK. Yet. young Middlesbrough author Richard Milward has reversed the trend in his own small way. by erecting a sky-high tale from a solid stack of funny. heartfelt and fantastical streaming prose. Milward's second novel. Ten Storev Love Song. follows tip his warmly received 2007 debut Apples. published when he was just 23. It experiments with an unusual writing structure by squeezing the narrative into one 286-page long paragraph. ‘l‘ve always been interested in how the form of a novel can influence the subject matter.‘ Milward explains. ‘So this book just looks like one big block of text. I use the concept by setting the story in a block of flats. It‘s like a theatre backdrop for all these characters to come in and out of.~
Raised in the Middlesbrough commuter town of
Guisbrough. Milward drifted into a bohemian existence. spending his late teens and early twenties writing. studying fine art and binging on pills. boo/.e. Kerouac and Basquiat. The various seamy characters he's met and weird experiences he’s lived through populate his fictional Peach House. ‘1 wanted to get a lot of stories off my chest. Sex and drugs and all these kind of things were boiling up in my head. It seemed like a good environment to spew them out in.~ Bobby
the Artist paints freakish. gaudy. nude depictions of his Haribo-munching girlfriend while wildly out of
his face: across the hall his chavvy best mate Johnnie frets over pleasuring his tarty Iayabout girlfriend Ellen. between casually dealing ecstasy. robbing
28 THE LIST 19 Feb—5 Mar 2009
mobile phones and battering anyone that so much as looks at his missus. lilsewhcre. a rag-lag assembly ol supporting misfits linger in the towers corridors.
A big fan of Irvine Welsh. Milward embellishes real life events colourfully. yet he isn't scared to admit
where the joins occur. "Things like erapping my self
on pills in a nightclub: I‘m not afraid to say I‘ye done that.‘ he reveals. laughing. .-\nother personal strand is woven through Bobby ‘s experience of becoming reluctantly l'ainous when a London gallery discovers his work: Milward became a ”bit disillusioned‘ b} the Big Smoke as a student at (’entral Saint Martin's College. ”When I was w riting this book. xi/t/l/t'y was
just taking off and l was going to all these parties lull
of literary darlings and people who just kiss your arse. ljust wished I was back in Middlesbrough with my friends haying a pint.‘
Comfortably resettled in the North liast. \lilward spends his time writing. getting ‘ofl his head'. resisting approaches to pen scripts for SAT/1v l‘l hate it: posh kids getting money from mummy and daddy to be a bit wacky‘l and working on a l’ls' l‘illli Council-funded screenplay for xi/l/l/cy. albeit slowly.
‘With novel writing you can conjure anything tip. If
you want to suddenly turn everyone into an octopus you can. But if you do that in a screenplay. someones got to film it. I don‘t know if it's something I'll do again. There are no real restraints on my writing. and that's what makes it beautiful.‘
Ten Storey Love Song is published by Faber on Thu 19 Feb.
THE BEST BOOKS & EVENTS
* Jason Donald Born in Dundee and raised in South Africa. Donald came back to Scotland to study creative writing at Glasgow. See the spectacular results at the launch of his debut novel. Choke Chain, a gripping tale of grownng up in the threatening backdrop of South Africa. See feature. page 14. Waterstone's. Glasgow, Thu 79 Feb; Jonathan Cape.
* Dirk Wittenborn In a novel of intrigue. murder and the pains of mental illness. Wittenborn manages to create a sootal commentary that spans five decades yet never lacks depth. See review. page 29. B/oomsbury.
* Richard Milward See preview. lett. Faber.
* Doug Johnstone Another young Scottish writer filled to the brim with talent. Celebrate the release of his paperback concerning the exploits of eponymous band, The Ossz‘ans, with an evening of readings and music. Word ‘ Power Bookshop. Edinburgh, Thu 26 Feb.
* Writers’ Bloc: Doyle M for Murder Expect laughter and a pleasurable bewilderment with the spoken word group's unique retelling of the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. May include Nazi dinosaurs. The Pleasance Cabaret Bar, Edinburgh, Thu 26 Feb.
1|! Fundraising event for Gaza Give your support to the civilian victims of the latest conflict In the disputed land. Hear spoken word takes from Scottish literature legends such as Tom Leonard and Alasdair Gray in an event supported by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign. The Argyle Bar, Edinburgh, Sat 28 Feb.