Tangerine Press

The Uncorrected Billy Childish was first published in 2009 as a ''Penguin Art Edition'' by L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, in tandem with handbound, limited editions by the Tangerine Press. Penguin''s lawyers intervened, insisting that all paper-backs be destroyed, resulting in an infamous book burning event in central London. A new edition was forthcoming in 2018 from the Tangerine Press, with edits and additions. This latest iteration is fully updated, expanded, and revised, with a new pre-title. Selections have been made from various volumes published during the 1980s right up to the present time. A significant change is the addition of two extra sections: Madrigals and Poeming & Paintry, a decision deemed necessary due to Mr Childish''s vast and wide ranging poetic output. Each section begins with a woodcut illustration by Bill Hamper. Finally, it should be noted by the reader that Mr Childish is dyslexic and the poems appear as written by himself.

In the midst of an apocalyptic event of unknown provenance - a mass of red spreading north from the southern counties - a young girl sets out on a journey. Along the way she encounters a series of eccentric characters, the few left behind in the wake of a widespread evacuation. Some of these individuals are ravaged and on the edge of death, while others are immersed in their own hermetic practices, be they solipsistic, nihilistic, or otherwise. None wish to engage for more than the brief time necessary to offer their meagre assistance. There is talk of ''anti-spores'', pools of blood, and of a hum spreading through communication wires. The hum has altered the very appearance of written language, pushing words apart, leaving only single syllables behind. This constraint is present in the third-person narration we read but is removed during periods of dialogue. This results in a rhythmic, chantlike flow to the prose. As with the best of work that employs the tropes of apocalyptic fiction, Rebecca Gransden''s unusual novella ends with many of its questions floating in the scarlet haze it generates, leaving them for the reader to ponder in the wake of what is surely a singular literary experience.