Norminton, Gregory
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1976- ) UK anthologist and author whose first novel, The Ship of Fools (2002), places an exorbitantly various and marginally fantasticated examples of Homo sapiens taken fairly directly from "The Ship of Fools" (before 1500) by Hieronymus Bosch (circa 1450-1516) (see Ship of Fools), where they disport dismayedly. Arts and Wonders (2004) exploits another medieval/renaissance topos, the dwarf in the court of a cruel ruler (see Doppelgangers), but with no element of the fantastic. Some of the tales assembled in Thumbnails (coll 2013) and The Ghost Who Bled (coll 2017) are sf. Of direct sf interest is Norminton's fifth novel, The Devil's Highway (2018), which braids three narratives around a real Roman road which runs south-west from the edge of London. Each tale is set in a different epoch: Roman times, before the land has been domesticated; the early twenty-first century, already showing the signs of savage Ecological degradation; and a thousand years hence, after Climate Change has desertified the south of England. In this blasted-heath future young migrants raid tiny villages as they roam, keeping clear of the poisons emanating (as sadly usual in this kind of narrative) from London, and speaking an evolved English (see Linguistics) reminiscent of the intensely realized diction Russell Hoban created for Riddley Walker (1980).
Beacons: Stories for our not so Distant Future (anth 2013) is an Original Anthology assembling stories about the fate of the planet in an era of Climate Change; contributors to the volume include Alasdair Gray, Liz Jensen, Toby Litt, Lawrence Norfolk and others. [JC]
Gregory Norminton
born Berkshire: 1976
works (selected)
- The Ship of Fools (London: Sceptre, 2002) [hb/from Hieronymus Bosch]
- Arts and Wonders (London: Sceptre, 2004) [hb/]
- The Devil's Highway (London: 4th Estate, 2018) [hb/John Walker]
collections and stories
- Thumbnails (Glasgow, Scotland: Vagabond Voices, 2013) [coll: pb/]
- The Ghost Who Bled (Manchester, England: Comma Press, 2017) [coll: pb/]
works as editor
- Beacons: Stories for our not so Distant Future (London: Oneworld, 2013) [anth: pb/]
links
previous versions of this entry