Tuesday, July 18, 2006,

BBC Radio Cumbria

[Man] Would you like to give me the précis? Helen, this is your genre, isn’t it?

[Helen] Yeah, Andrew knew that I would like this.

[Man] Is that because it is gritty and a book with balls?

[Helen] Because it had a bit of a fantasy element, I think that’s why he thought it would appeal to me. It is a really grim book to be honest; it is fantastic, I loved it, but the basic plot is it’s set in modern day Sierra Leone in Africa and this man

masquerading as a Catholic priest has invented these little men, homunculi out of like Voodoo magic and scavenged body parts from other dead people and he’s turned them into fighting machines that are infected with the Ebola virus and (laughs) it’s a great plot. And he decides he wants to sell out and move to South America, instead, to retire and he gets a South African mercenary to arrange an auction [for] all the worst people in the world to come Sierra Leone to bid for these little men to fight in their guerilla wars. And it’s set on this back-drop of civil war and strife and some of these passages are brutal and grim and it’s just relentless. It’s incredibly funny and you love it, but you’re like “I shouldn’t love it; I feel guilty” and you feel like you need a wash afterwards. It’s just totally in your face.“

 

THEN MORE IN THE SAME VEIN UNTIL AUTHOR INTERVIEW (SLIGHTLY INCOHERENT FROM AUTHOR'S SIDE DUE TO AUTHOR ENJOYING A HIGH FEVER)” —H