The Singer

An astonishingly evocative and emotional telling of the tale, a heartbreaking elegy for the blank generation. -- Jake Arnott What can I say? Cathi Unsworth has written the Great Punk Novel, so I can scratch that off my list of ambitions! The Singer is a compulsive and engrossing book, the characters and the narratives utterly convincing. -- David Peace An evocative portrait of the music industry... a cracking mystery... Unsworth writes convincingly about the raw power of punk and captures the feeling of optimism and innocence that was lost in the Thatcher years... a captivating page-turner and, for this reader, a thoroughly enjoyable pogo down memory lane. -- Laura Wilson * Guardian * The best novel I have read about the punk era, and an absorbing mystery... a sad memory of an exciting, destructive and doomed era. -- Marcel Berlins * The Times * The Singer digs deep into the boneyard of punk rock summoning the schizophrenic spirit of an explosive movement of intense passion, numbing frustration, bitter disappointment and the wild aspiration that through music and camaraderie one can actually rise above the day to day bullshit and bite off a little piece of heaven before evaporating back into the ether. Beautifully written, hard hitting and haunting. -- Lydia Lunch (I)t is impressive, enjoyable and full of insights as to what makes people become musicians and why it's so hard to have a decent life while being one. Ditto for becoming/being a music journalist. -- Charlie Gillett * www.charliegillett.com * A gripping thriller inspired by the good old days of in-your-face post-punk rock... The tension builds as Unsworth switches from the past to the present, bringing to dramatic life the players in this twisted tragedy * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *

Cathi Unsworth began her journalistic career at 19 while still studying at the London College of Fashion. Headhunted by Melody Maker, she worked there as a freelance feature writer/reviewer for several years before joining Bizarre magazine. Her own writing is inspired by the late Derek Raymond, whom she met when she interviewed him for Melody Maker and who encouraged her to follow the crime-writing path. She is the editor of London Noir, a collection of London crime stories published by Serpent's Tail.