Benjamin Myers
@BenMyers1
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Short writer. CUDDY. THE GALLOWS POLE (BBC/Shane Meadows). THE OFFING. THE PERFECT GOLDEN CIRCLE. PIG IRON. RARE SINGLES out Aug 24. Agent: @woollardjessica
Upper Calder Valley, UK
Joined September 2009
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Get your dancing shoes on, babes.
🥁 NEW
@BenMyers1
incoming! Rare Singles celebrates the power of music and friendship, and it's hitting the shelves this August. Pre-order here and support independent bookshops!
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Remember when the UK used to have swimming pools?
Since 2010 the Conservatives have closed 1086.
We now have 1233, which means there is one public swimming pool per 44,606 people.
Criminal, really.
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Serious question: How the hell did someone as blatantly thick as Liz Truss get into Oxford?
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Huge if true.
We are delighted to announce that the winner of the
#GoldsmithsPrize2023
is 'Cuddy' by Benjamin Myers!
Congratulations
@BenMyers1
!
🏆🎉🍾
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Tonight's the night.
The Gallows Pole, BBC2, 9pm (then all episodes available on iplayer).
I'm dedicating this to Ian Stripe (1947-2023), who passed away yesterday and never got to see it.
Pic: Shane and me plotting back in February 2020.
#TheGallowsPole
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The verdicts are in and reactions to The Gallows Pole are split down the middle:
"It's a load of shit, who are these foul-mouthed oiks?"
"It's brilliant, it's not like anything else."
And that's Britain in 2023 for you, babes.
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Just had someone call the cops on me for swimming outdoors, as if England wasn't intolerable enough already.
I stayed in the water, told them I wasn't doing anything wrong. They looked embarrassed then left.
I carried on swimming.
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A mad night. I only went and won the coveted
@GoldsmithsPrize
for Cuddy.
Thanks to them, the
@newstatesman
and all the excellent shortlisted writers. Do investigate their work.
Further reading:
Pic by
@adellestripe
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Last night back on my home turf. 500 sold out venue, 100 yards from where I failed all my A-levels. Full of family & friends. My best mate's band backing Toby Jones. I was nervous as hell and hid at the back. 200 people at the signing after. It bent my head - in a good way.
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I've written a new novel.
I had the idea for it in August 2009 but it has taken until now to finish it.
It's nothing like the last one.
Or the next one.
Who wants to keep reading the same thing again anyway?
It's being published in 2024.
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31.05.23
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This is wasted on Twitter.
I ordered a copy of 'Waiting For Godot' ages ago but it still hasn't turned up.
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I've submitted the final edits for my next novel (it'll be published in summer 2024) AND filed my tax returns.
So I've come out for a light Yorkshire salad to celebrate.
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My novel CUDDY has been shortlisted for this year's
@GoldsmithsPrize
.
And amongst such fantastic company too.
It's out now in hardback and published in paperback in Feb 2024.
Thanks to
@BloomsburyBooks
and everyone who has read or reviewed it so far.
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I've just seen an email inviting Nick Drake - yes, THE Nick Drake - onto a Nike podcast to discuss "music, dance, entertainment, nature, struggles of life etc."
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I'm sick of this lot flapping their mouths so I've written to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards about Lee Anderson.
You can contact them here:
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So, 2023 then:
Published & promoted a novel
Got Covid (the same week)
Had a TV series on the BBC
Had a bereavement (the same day)
Did a house clearance
Finished a novel (out 2024)
Got Covid (again)
Broke my typing finger
Won the Goldsmith's Prize
Got shingles. SHINGLES.
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Rishi Sunak's "men are men, women are women, and we shouldn't be bullied etc" speech yesterday just showed him to be an utter bastard.
If you have to demonise trans people, then you're the bully mate.
Honestly. Let people be. It's not difficult.
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I'm looking forward to publishing my new novel RARE SINGLES.
It's about friendship, grief, music, opioid addiction, trauma, dancing, whisky, seaside towns, brilliant wives, useless husbands & knickerbocker glories.
It's out August 1st 2024.
.
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Some very nice news to end an insane & challenging week: CUDDY has won the Winston Graham Historical Fiction Prize, awarded to novels "centred on a strong sense of place".
Thanks to the judges, fellow shortlisted authors and everyone in Cornwall involved in the WG organisation.
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Pilgrimage to the flat where Patrick Hamilton died (and Ralph Vaughan Williams lived). Hamilton wrote several classic novels, my fave being Slaves Of Solitude, but also Rope (filmed by Hitchcock) and Gaslight (which spawned the modern usage of the phrase gaslighting). Read him!
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Cuddy has been longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize 2024.
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I've finished writing my next novel.
The first word in it is "the".
The last word is "heart."
Between the two lies 67,820 words, not all of them different.
I started writing it on 18/08/21.
It'll be published by
@BloomsburyBooks
in 2024.
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Hi friends.
News: I've submitted my next novel. It'll be published by Bloomsbury in 2024.
It has a two word title. Special prize for anyone who can guess what it is.
I'm the meantime I'm sitting in a nettle patch to celebrate.
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Having a hot egg in St Pancras to celebrate.
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Went to the best ever funeral this week. Sunshine and laughter. Scones. The Kinks. No Goddy chat, just a humanist celebrant and blackbird singing in the dead of night. Negronis. A summer haze settling over the motorway. A solitary deer sniffing the air. England, out there.
Life.
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Merry Christmas to readers, booksellers, reviewers and book fiends everywhere, from beneath the cruel lighting of the public bogs.
I've a new novel out in summer 2024 (and a film being made!).
Thanks for all the support -
Your friend in the North.
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It's the final episode of The Gallows Pole tonight.
BBC2 at 9pm, and all on the iplayer.
Thanks to everyone who made this happen, from
@Ofmooseandmen
and
@ElementPictures
to Shane Meadows &
@NickieSault
.
It has been a blast. Life-changing, really.
#thegallowspole
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Hello book fiends. I've got a signed paperback of CUDDY (published last week) here that's seeking a home.
Simply re-tweet this to be in with a chance of winning it.
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Favourite The Gallows Pole review headlines (so far):
'Loachy Blinders'
'Hebden Bridge Over Troubled Water'
'This Was England'
'Carry On Coining'
'Reservoir Clogs'
'Hebden's Gate'
'King Of New York(shire)'
My(tholmroyd) Own Private Idaho'*
( *This one might be mine.)
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"Filmed in a 400-year-old building which was a museum, until the council closed it. However, the production company helped to restore its interior...and a drama about a local legend has helped save a museum and given a new lease of life to the community."
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There are close to 200,000 books published in the UK per year, so it's pleasing to see Cuddy has been chosen as one of the Best Books of 2023 by
@Waterstones
.
(And The Perfect Golden Circle as one of their paperbacks too).
Onwards...
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6 or 7 years ago I got some funding from Arts Council Funding to research the life of St Cuthbert and today CUDDY - my novel about him - has been longlisted for the 2024 Ondaatje Prize.
Hurrah for
@ace_national
and thank you
@RSLiterature
.
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Writing and getting published entails years of struggle, rejection, doubt and penury, so I still can't believe that this happened last night.
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Tonight I was inducted by Bernadine Evaristo as a Fellow of the
@RSLiterature
. I got to sign the hallowed book with Charles Dickens' quill and hang out with my ace editor
@AllegraLeFanu
& writer pals
@wednesdayerskin
and
@jenni_fagan
.
Then jerk chicken in the park to celebrate.
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Awoken to the news that dear pal Neil Kulkarni (
@KaptainKulk
) has died. Neil was super-smart, massively supportive, a fantastic writer and, more than anything, funny as hell.
He told the 21 year old me that writing's the best job in the world. I still think about that most days.
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A nice end to a mad/eventful year: CUDDY has been longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize.
(The paperback of CUDDY has been brought forward to February 1st 2024 and is available to pre-order now.)
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Cuddy is out in paperback on Feb 1st 2024.
It won the
@GoldsmithsPrize
.
Christ, I'm insufferable. But what are you gonna do?
I'm not going back to labouring on a building site*, selling ad space** or watches door to door***.
(* 3 days, 1995)
(** 2 days, 96)
(*** 1/2 day, 96)
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I've been getting some nice feedback for CUDDY this week.
It took 5 years to write. One of those projects that you finally hold in your hand and think: 'Where the hell did that come from?'
And you know you can never pull it off again.
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New novel incoming...
Presenting: RARE SINGLES
Published August 1st 2024 by
@BloomsburyBooks
Cover art by
@GregHeini
Pre-order now:
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I thought this, by
@PhelpsieSarah
, was the best true crime drama in years because it was all about empathy for the victims. It was so mannered, restrained and English, and showed the villain to be the banal coward he was.
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Happy St Cuthbert's Day to all who celebrate.
Personally, I'm not religious or a believer but I am into people, stories, history, place and, in a broader sense, the concept of "faith".
I believe all can co-exist.
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Proofs!
I suspect there's a perception that I "knock them out", but I really don't. This one's been percolating since 2009
RARE SINGLES published in August 2024 by
@BloomsburyBooks
.
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Liz Truss tanked the economy and just went into the book charts at
#7
.
I failed A-level economics but my latest book went in at
#11
or something.
WHERE'S THE JUSTICE??
#lettuce
#porkmarkets
#psychohosebeast
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'James Broadbent', 'David Hartley', your humble narrator, the lady who made it all happen.
At the cast and crew screening of The Gallows Pole in Leeds.
#thegallowspole
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5 years ago I was in Durham, studying the new masonry on the cathedral, and then heading off to Lindisfarne, wondering how the hell I was going to tell the story of a saint who died 1300 years earlier (and furthermore: why?)
And tomorrow that story is out in paperback...
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Being a working writer is a constant battle to keep your work alive & in print, and yourself solvent. It's not ideal for the insecure or the anxious, which all writers are, and involves years of solitary repetition punctuated by moments of joy.
A rum life. I wouldn't change it.
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Burger King at Birtley services, Co. Durham. I helped build it during my three (3) days as a labourer back in the hazy, crazy, not-that-lazy summer of 1995. The lads called me 'Poet' - and not in a complimentary way.
It was also a time that influenced Book IV of my novel Cuddy.
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I think Britain should stop messing about and rejoin the EU.
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I seem to have stumbled across some sort of hidden kingdom.
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First thing this morning I wandered out into the field where I first had the idea (in June 2019) to write THE PERFECT GOLDEN CIRCLE.
Then this afternoon I have learned that it is one of
@waterstones
' Paperbacks Of The Year.
Seems like...synchronicity?
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For those of you born in the mid/late '70s: have a Proustian rush on me.
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Come and see Toby Jones & Samantha Neale perform a reading from Cuddy in the city where it's set. Also livestreaming.
Musical accompaniment by The Shining Levels (
@MrJKetch
).
Book / merch signing afterwards.
Produced by
@JackMcNamara81
of
@LiveTheatre
.
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Episode 2 tonight.
It features a lovely looking bit of pie and some right good music.
#thegallowspole
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The Gallows Pole is no. 32 in The Guardian's best TV shows of 2023.
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One damp evening you wander into an amusement arcade in an off-season northern seaside town, and 6 years later you find you've written a new novel.
It'll be published in 2024.
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I'm about to embark on what is already shaping up to be the greatest book ever written.
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You're sitting in Durham Cathedral in Jan 2018 & a thought strikes: Could I write something? Have I got the energy? And who cares?
Then - flash! - it's Dec 2023: where did that come from? Is this all a form of mental illness?
Strangest life I've known.
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Just to clarify: after rigorous research Liverpool is indeed England's best city (followed by Newcastle and London), despite hard lobbying from some Mancunians.
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The Oxbridge boats race down a frothing river of effluence, the leaders of tomorrow puking from the bacteria, is surely the final, closing scene of the British Empire.
Lower curtains.
- fin -
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A MASS OCCULT RITUAL IS TAKING PLACE.
AT MIDDAY OLD ALBION WILL CAPSIZE AND DEMONS SHALL BE RAISED.
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Writing CUDDY involved more research than any other book I've written, including a deep dive into stained glass windows - especially those of Durham cathedral. Few things are quite as beautiful.
(Except, perhaps, the scones in the Undercroft Cafe; they made it into the book too)
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Thank you to
@NewStatesman
and
@GoldsmithsPrize
for their amazing support for Cuddy.
Special thanks also to my editor
@AllegraLeFanu
and agent
@WoollardJessica
.
I've not had a day off in months - 2023 has been a real rollercoaster - so time for a rest, I think.
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I may be a bit tired and emotional after a rather intense 2023, but this is a) an unexpectedly moving account of depression and b) strongly evokes north-east life as I remember it.
Bravo
@RealBobMortimer
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A BBC press pack interview with Shane Meadows, yours truly and the cast of The Gallows Pole.
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Shane MacGowan wrote some of the greatest music ever.
At his peak: pure poetic charisma.
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The Mary Wallopers and
@spiderstacy
are worth breaking the "never the Hootenanny" rule for:
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And so begin the line edits of my next novel.
It shall be out in 2024.
Time to disappear for a bit.
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We can grumble about North/South wealth disparity....or we can do something about it.
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Is this all a dream?
On my way to West Yorkshire for a cast & crew screening of
#TheGallowsPole
and I CAN NOT WAIT!!!
#GallowsPole
🥳🍾🥂🎉
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Just dropping the CUDDY paperback cover on you.
It's out in 2024, but for now there's some nice hardbacks out there. Signed, ink-stamped and end papers featuring medieval stonemason sigils.
A cut above, I hope.
Designer
@GregHeini
&
@BloomsburyBooks
always go the extra yard.
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A busy day by all acounts.
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The face of a man who resolutely failed to bring the tricorn hat back to the high street.
Nevertheless: big thanks to
@goatband
and
@RocketRecording
for this beautiful Gallows Pole album.
Available for
@recordstoreday
only. Exclusive!
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What I can only describe as mysterious black "pods" have appeared without warning overnight.
Proof, finally, that other life forms exist?
This is huge.
I'm about to try and make contact.
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We journeyed into the deep North on the final day of the year, to Hadrian's Wall, in search of the perfect metaphor for England in 2023...but all we found was the chainsawed, fenced-off stump of a much-loved beauty spot.
#SycamoreGap
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I'm on the final stretch of writing my first film screenplay.
My pledge (if it gets made): it won't be one of these over-long, two piss films.
I'm a firm believer that anything over 100 mins needs to justify itself to cinematic widdlers the world over.
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Cormac McCarthy had style.
Writing style.
At his best, untouchable.
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Half asleep, I stepped out the door this morning and - I shit you not - nearly got run over by a horned buck thunderously running at full speed.
It missed me by inches.
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Rewatching this. Its not on streaming services (I think?) and gets nowhere near enough love today.
Several episodes are absolute comedy writing/acting masterclasses.
The banality of English life in all its weird glory.
@babycowLtd
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Radio 4 Extra (the world's best radio station) are currently airing The Offing, read by Kevin Whately, from 2019.
One episode, three times each day:
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When the second division Britpop band reforms to play the Shiiine Weekender and the Sleeperblokes press the the intercom at the rehearsal rooms, but no-one recognises them because they've been on the skunk and Jordan Peterson podcasts since that ill-fated Bluetones co-headliner.
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I'm sure The Traitors is gripping but today I watched a massive white owl with a big flat human face circle overhead for about 5-7 minutes.
#quitefreakedmeoutatthetime
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I want to hear Scouse and Geordie accents in government.
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Sometimes you have to face your fears. All morning I deliberated: "Do I dare take it up to 5? What are the implications? Is there any way back from this?"
In the end we do it in the name of fashion.
#fashion
#Newauthorheadshot
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