Alan Bilton teaches American Studies at Swansea University. His nonfiction titles are An Introduction to Contemporary American Fiction (New York/Edinburgh University Press) and the three-volume (co-authored) America in the 1920s (Helm). He is currently writing a book on silent film comedians for NY University Press.
A script put together by Franz Kafka, Spike Milligan and Charlie Chaplin at a drunken party to celebrate the twinning of [The League of Gentleman's] Royston Vasey with the Gorbals. A welcome addition to Celtic Gothic. Lloyd Jones. "**** (Four-star review), The Sleepwalkers' Ball is by no means a mere ghost story. It's also a modern rom-com, a satire of the urban grind, and an exquisite study of voice and perspective, all rolled into one. I could see Guillermo del Toro or Terry Gilliam turning their hands to filming it, only with flashes of Allen Ginsberg, Neil Gaiman, and even Monty Python thrown in for good measure. The Sleepwalkers' Ball is a nightwatch like no other, filled with stormy, punchy writing, and featuring some of the best descriptions of weather, old age and drunkenness I've read in a long, long time. Above all, though, it's a rampant celebration of the simultaneity of the mind and the power of dreams, walking the tightrope between fantasy and reality with the greatest of ease." James Hogg, www.inpressbooks.co.uk A confident storyteller, using mythological structures mixed with street and shop talk... as enchanting as the ball to which the brothers Grimm send their twelve dancers, wearing out their pretty shoes by morning... Bilton has the craft of an artist, not just a writer. New Welsh Review Alan Bilton's artfully interwoven narratives, part zany city guide, part silent film, create an imaginative whole which is poetic, inventive, surprising and pulsating with life. DM Thomas, author of The White Hotel "As funny, touching and compelling as a Chaplin film. It transmutes its... contemporary material into a timeless (and frequently time-line crossing) quest which owes something to Gogol and Kundera as well as Buster Keaton... the author's joy in language and storytelling carries us along like 'crazy Klezmer music', at once sad and riotous." Caroline Clark, www.gwales.com
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