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Post by valdemar on Feb 5, 2013 8:58:13 GMT
Has anyone on this board had the pleasure of reading any of Malcolm Pryce's Hard-boiled Welsh gumshoe novels? I read a couple again over the weekend, and wondered why nobody has thought to make them into TV shows or movies. They're brilliant - barking mad, I grant you, but the quirky humour pushes them into 'League Of Gentlemen' territory. Philosophers who sell ice-cream. Druids, who wear sharp suits and act like the Mafia - the seaside donkey's head in the bed always makes me laugh. Little old ladies in knitting shops, equipped with electron microscopes. Wales' 'Vietnam', a war with Patagonia. Witches testing Kevlar broomsticks in a wind tunnel. Bursts of eye-watering violence. All told in the world-weary tones of Louie Knight, the best [and only] private detective in Aberystwyth. The dialogue is a delight, especially if read out loud [my job allows me to do this and not look like a nutter], in a Welsh accent [easy for me, as I had Welsh relatives, including two who spoke no English at all]. If they WERE made into a TV show, I'd like to see Rob Brydon as Louie Knight.
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Post by jamesdoig on Feb 5, 2013 19:55:45 GMT
Has anyone on this board had the pleasure of reading any of Malcolm Pryce's Hard-boiled Welsh gumshoe novels? No, but I'll certainly give 'em a go. I spent a bit of time at the National Library there when I was living in Wales and thought it was a great place. |
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Post by pulphack on Feb 11, 2013 8:00:41 GMT
These are quite wonderful. The idea of transposing big city LA to small seaside town is inspired enough, but they're peopled with eccentrics and grotesques that are totally memorable.The siren Myfanwy and her stovepipe hate and smoky tonsils; Louie's dad the retired donkey man; Dai Brainbocs, the lunatic genius obsessed with Myfanwy and Louie's arch enemy; Calamity, the schoolgirl who bunks off to be a PI...
The tone is pure Chandler and Hammett, only obsessed with end of the pier pointlessness. Big noir themes are reduced to squabbling seaside rivalries. Whereas Jasper Fforde uses a large canvas, Pryce concentrates on miniatures and makes Wales a strange, exotic place (hang on, I've been to Cardiff - it is!) full of fear, eccentricity, and monkeys looking for the organ grinder.
I've read the first four, and have the last two to catch up on. Apparently he's planning a new series about a railway detective, the first book to be about a train of disappearing nuns, known as the Hail Mary Celeste... c'mon, that joke is worth the price of admission alone!
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Post by Shrink Proof on Feb 12, 2013 17:29:20 GMT
They're excellent. Aberystwyth as a sort of Welsh Royston Vasey.
They must be read in sequence though...
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ssppookkyy
Crab On The Rampage
Long live pulp horror!
Posts: 13 
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Post by ssppookkyy on Sept 17, 2013 20:06:59 GMT
I agree, they are a delightful series of books! Great for a two weeks excursion by some sun drenched pool.
did anyone heard the recent BBC Radio 4 adaptation?
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