The September Competition [closed]
Enter the September competition for your chance to win a triple-whammy title fest from Bookhugger publishers.
This month, for three lucky winners we have sets of:
- The Dark Tourist, by Dom Joly (Simon & Schuster UK)
- The Wilding, by Maria McCann (Faber)
- The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi, by Andrew Stott (Canongate)
- Each winner also gets a Bookhugger mug!
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The Dark Tourist, by Dom Joly
‘Dark tourism is the act of travel and visitation to sites, attractions and exhibitions which have real or recreated death, suffering or the seemingly macabre as a main theme’ Ever since he can remember, Dom Joly has been fascinated by travel to odd places. In part this stems from a childhood spent in war-torn Lebanon, where instead of swapping marbles in the schoolyard, he had a shrapnel collection — the schoolboy currency of Beirut. Dom’s upbringing was interspersed with terrifying days and nights spent hunkered in the family basement under Syrian rocket attack or coming across a pile of severed heads from a sectarian execution in the pine forests near his home. These early experiences left Dom with a profound loathing for the sanitized experiences of the modern day travel industry and a taste for the darkest of places. And in this brilliantly odd and hilariously told travel memoir, Dom Joly sets out on a quest to visit those destinations from which the average tourist would, and should, run a mile. The more insalubrious the place, the more interesting is the journey and so we follow Dom as he skis in Iran on segregated slopes, spends a weekend in Chernobyl, tours the assassination sites of America and becomes one of the few Westerners to be granted entry into North Korea. Eventually Dom journeys back to his roots in Beirut only to discover he was at school with Osama Bin Laden. Funny and frightening in equal measure, this is a uniquely bizarre and compelling travelogue from one of the most fearless and innovative comedians around.
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The Wilding, by Maria McCann
In her second novel Maria McCann returns to 17th-century England, where life is struggling to return to normal after the horrific tumult of the Civil War.
In the village of Spadboro Jonathan Dymond, a 26-year-old cider-maker who lives with his parents, has until now enjoyed a quiet, harmonious existence. As the novel opens, a letter arrives from his uncle with a desperate request to speak with his father. When his father returns from the visit the next day, all he can say is that Jonathan’s uncle has died.
Then Jonathan finds a fragment of the letter in the family orchard, with talk of inheritance and vengeance. He resolves to unravel the mystery at the heart of his family – a mystery which will eventually threaten the lives and happiness of Jonathan and all those he holds dear.
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The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi, by Andrew Stott
The son of a deranged Italian immigrant, Joseph Grimaldi (1778-1837) was the most celebrated of English clowns. The first to use white-face make-up and wear outrageous coloured clothes, he completely transformed the role of the Clown in the pantomime with a look as iconic as Chaplin’s tramp or Tommy Cooper’s magician. One of the first celebrity comedians, his friends included Lord Byron and the actor Edmund Kean, and his memoirs were edited by the young Charles Dickens. But underneath the stage paint, Grimaldi struggled with depression and his life was blighted with tragedy. His first wife died in childbirth and his son would go on to drink himself to death. The outward joy and tomfoolery of his performances masked a dark and depressing personal life, and instituted the modern figure of the glum, brooding comedian. Joseph Grimaldi left an indelible mark on the English theatre and the performing arts, but his legacy is one of human struggle, battling demons and giving it his all in the face of adversity.
The Question
To win, answer one simple question, the answer to which can be found somewhere on Bookhugger…
- Question 1: What did Joseph Grimaldi apply to his face before any other clown?
Terms and conditions
- Closing date for entries: 8th October 2010.
- Open to residents of the United Kingdom only.
- Entry to the competition is by completion of the above form only. Anyone submitting multiple entries will be disqualified.
- The winners will be selected at random from those correct entries received before the closing date.
- Only the winning entrants will be contacted by Bookhugger. Our decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
- The winner’s name(s) may be published on the Bookhugger website after the closing date of the competition.
- The competition is not open to Bookhugger employees and their families, or to employees of Bookhugger publishers and their families.
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:26 am
Great prize, I will cross all my fingers!
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:30 pm
I desperately want that Dom Joly book and I’m too skint to buy it!
September 25th, 2010 at 6:26 am
Good mixed selection for a prize, thanks.
September 25th, 2010 at 8:27 am
What a nice selection of a good read
September 25th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Time is coming to sit by the fire and ralax with a real good book
September 25th, 2010 at 11:51 am
great prize will keep me reading through winter month
September 28th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
Mmmm Hot chocolate in a Bookhuggers mug…what could be better?
September 29th, 2010 at 11:47 am
“The Dark Tourist” looks an intruiging read! Toes crossed that I win!