Second frame of third page:
I thought this was brilliant. I love deep local histories anyway – the Irish word is dinnseanchas, the lore of places – and the fact that I know very little about that part of the world possibly enhanced my enjoyment as Talbot makes his immediate geographical landscape relevant to the cultural references which I know much better. It’s a little demanding in that some knowledge of Talbot’s other work, and much knowledge of Lewis Carroll, is assumed, and I guess when this was first recommended to me I probably lacked the former. But I also suspect that readers who know less about the writer can skip the more Talbot-centric parts and get a lot out of the rest. Nice also to see some photography by
Alice in Sunderland was shortlisted for the BSFA Award for Best Novel of 2007; as Niall pointed out at the time (NB Talbot responds several times in comments), it is only tenuously sf and not really a novel, and duly lost to Brasyl. But it’s great that its genius was recognised by BSFA nominators.
This was the top unread comic on my shelves. Next on that list is volume 1 of Paper Girls, by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang.
He has also done cheese: http://i.imgur.com/AEYUEjF.png – seems to hang out on Reddit which is likely the best place to make a request!