Doug Devaney BLACK VINYL:

About Doug Devaney BLACK VINYL:

Doug Devaney Brings Debut Novel Black Vinyl to Nixons Music & Books, Hurstpierpoint

The Japanese concept of Kanreki states that to turn sixty is to be born again. If this is true, then Doug Devaney has been reincarnated as a novelist in his seventh decade. On Sunday 11 October from 2:30 pm, Devaney will appear at Nixons Books, 124 High Street, Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, BN6 9PX, for a public reading and signing event celebrating his debut novel, Black Vinyl.

The event will offer readers the chance to hear Devaney read from the novel, chat with shop proprietor Sam Nixon about the road to publication, and have copies signed. Devaney, a stalwart of Brighton Fringe and creator of The Plastic Podcasts, a series of interviews with the Irish Diaspora, began writing his first draft just as lockdown began to sweep the nation. Now, six years, innumerable rewrites and a whole host of emails later, Black Vinyl has been published by Hawkwood Books of Blackpool.

The book, a darkly comic mystery (with traces of lipgloss), tells the tale of Maxwell Reid, bass player with post-punk darlings La Plage. Once upon a time, he toured the world with the band’s solitary hit single “Kreuzberg Wiedersehen”.  Forty years on - and now a part-time lecturer, part-time Northern Soul DJ - Max finds himself investigating the death of his old lead singer, Jimmy Endicott: a journey that brings him face to face with bitter ex-bandmates, post pandemic cults, corrupt council employees, conspiracy theorists and a messianic club owner.

Told over 45 “tracks”, divided into Side A and Side B and interspersed with illustrations, hand-written notes, interventions from Max’s publisher and occasional tales of the record industry ,“Black Vinyl” is part mystery, part alternative history, part fractured memorial to the ghosts of the 80s music scene, all played out as though on a scratched record that keeps skipping back to the same haunting refrain: “Jimmy Endicott was murdered.”

Black Vinyl is available in paperback from Waterstones and Amazon, or can be ordered from your local bookshop. Copies will also be available at the Nixons Books event.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in 1965 in Berkshire, and now living in Newhaven, East Sussex, Doug Devaney is a writer, actor and voice artist who has worked with Netflix, BBC Radio 4 and Audible. He has been heard on productions of 1984, Lead Children, The Sandman and I, Robot. He has had short stories published in American literary journal The First Line and post-apocalyptic anthology Rise Of The Badger And The Great Shrubbery.

 WHAT’S BEING SAID ABOUT “BLACK VINYL” 

“There are books that tell a story, and then there are books that feel like an old record spinning in a darkened room, cracked with age, heavy with memory, and impossible to forget. Black Vinyl by Doug Devaney is one of those books.”
– Dee Cooper, Travellers Times

“A great mix of alt mythos, pop culture and murder. Black Vinyl was a blast to read.”
-Joseph D., Amazon Reviewer

“This is a huge achievement of a book... full of humour and nostalgia for our slightly older generation!”
-Sara Clifford, Foyles Reviewer

“A great read that truly catches you by surprise with where it ends up.”
-Tabitha P., Waterstones Reviewer

“An amazing first novel from a writer with a distinctive style that we can only hope will spawn many follow ons.”
-Jonathan Gimblett, Goodreads Reviewer

“A jagged journey through memory and myth”
-The Irish Post

About the Venue

Nixons is an intimate venue with a licensed bar.

This is an accessible venue, but please bear in mind the toilet facilities are accessed by two steps.