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The State Of British Fiction?

StirlingStirling
edited June 2009 in - Reading
I was browsing in Waterstones on Friday and I notices a trend. I was picking up British authors, skim reading the blurb and putting it down again. I bought two books: one was by a Polish writer, the other is Scandinavian.

So I started to wonder, why am I being drawn to non-British writers? Is it me, or something to do with publishers? Are they becoming so adverse to risk, that they are squeezing out all diversity from their lists?

Is British fiction becoming generic?

Comments

  • RichardSRichardS
    I've just read 'Jeff in Venice, Deathin Varanasi' bu Geoff Dyer and there was nothing generic about that. What type of novels were you looking at, Stirling?
  • StirlingStirling
    Crime fiction.

    Never heard of it, who is the publisher?

    I've got a book on order from Creme de la Crime, the author is Geordie and the book is set in 18th century Newcastle. The sad truth is that I've had to go trawling backlists of an indie publisher to find it.
  • RichardSRichardS
    Canongate books. It's sold pretty well here and in the States. The London review of Books has it as one of it's bestsellers.

    He writes mainly literary fiction. This is like a travelogue, two stories, maybe linked, you're never quite sure. Excellent writing.
  • StirlingStirling
    Something I would expect of Canongate - another indie publisher.
  • febesfebes
    I don't know whether Val McDermid has published lately but she is a fab Crime writer. For horror, Shaun Hutson is British and a good writer, and I don't know the genre, but my partner loves Chris Ryan, he is Irish I think?

    There are some good ones out there, just got to keep looking.
  • StirlingStirling
    Val McDermid recently moved publisher, now with Little, Brown I think. She published within the last year definitely. Preferred her older books though (especially Killing the Shadows). Haven't read the latest ones because they seem rushed and/or trying to be a little too clever. Love Ian Rankin too.

    It seems to be getting harder to find the good ones.
  • forget-me-notforget-me-not
    Iain Banks is really good, but I'm struggling to think of other modern british writers I read.
  • febesfebes
    Was it Val who wrote the books on the alphabet to (Think I read a book called K is for Kill)? They were good books. I loved her Dr. Tony Hill books, my absolute favourite, probably because I want to be like him :D

    I haven't read any of her new ones though to be honest.
  • forget-me-notforget-me-not
    I thought it was a woman that wrote the alphabet crime books? I don't read them though, my mum does.
  • StirlingStirling
    No they were Sue Grafton (haven't tried them yet.) I really loved the Tony Hill novels. I love Iain Banks too.
  • Jay MandalJay Mandal
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Sue+Grafton

    The author.
  • febesfebes
    Ah Sue Grafton, haven't heard of her for a while. The alphabet crime books were good, but I didn't read them all :( I am going to I hope.
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