Blackmoor

Edward Hogan was born in Derby in 1980 and now lives in Brighton. He is a graduate of the MA creative writing course at UEA and a recipient of the David Higham Award. His first novel, Blackmoor, was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize and won the Desmond Elliot Prize.

'No first novel I've read this year stays with me like Blackmoor by Edward Hogan... Hogan knows the terrain and the people, is wise beyond his years... and is a writer of great energy and fearsome powers of observation... Engaged, ambitious and deeply felt -- all the things a first novel should be. He is a writer of huge promise.' Hilary Mantel in the TLS 'There's a subtle magic to Hogan's prose, and a passionate concern for the part of the world where this novel is based, which invites comparison with D H Lawrence... [This novel] has confidence, mystery and an entrancing sense of itself' Independent on Sunday '[An] outstanding first novel... Hogan's writing is so forceful that the extraordinary elements of his plot are made utterly convincing, and more mundane aspects sparkle under his acute observation... The strength of the imagery supports the non-linear narrative; when the reasons behind the strange state of affairs are revealed, they slot into place with satisfying plausibility. But Hogan refrains from offering complete explanations of why things are as they are, a restraint which respects the complexity of the causes and effects that form individuals, families and communities, and the doubts that remain in the minds of the characters. In this powerful and sensitive novel, twenty-eight-year-old Hogan has achieved a striking debut' TLS 23/5 'Eloquent... unusual... will stay with you for a long time' Observer "An impassioned depiction of an intensely insular society choking on its own bile" Guardian "A debut novel of ambitious substance and style... writing which is charged with a bite and passion harking back to his Northern forebears: DH Lawrence, most obviously, with a passing touch, perhaps, of Charlotte Bronte. His figurative language is neatly imaginative... Hogan is a clearly a writer to watch" Independent 9/5/08 "Dead smart and heartbreaking... Offbeat and incredibly compelling. I love the way Edward Hogan writes" Miriam Toews, author of A Complicated Kindness "It's a long time since I've read such a powerful and confident first novel. Edward Hogan's voice is utterly distinctive: strong, emotive, haunting. His powers of observation seem almost supernatural... A major new talent" Hilary Mantel 'The only supernatural albino love story you'll ever need' Things that got us through last month... Arena April issue "The eloquent prose and unusual story will stay with you for a long time" Observer magazine 'The novel seeps into your mind like the subterranean gas beneath the village. It's hard to shake' Nottingham Evening Post 16/5 'Blackmoor is ambitious in both substance and style' Yorkshire Post 'A haunting tale of buried secrets and shattered lives set against the backdrop of Derbyshire's darkest days' Derby Evening Telegraph 'While the delivery is graceful, the sense of understated, growing menace is what really holds this book together... As everything else crumbles, the elements of [Vincent's] teenage world start to slot into place, bringing warmth to an already deeply felt novel' New Statesman, 16/6 'There's a subtle magic to Hogan's prose, and a passionate concern for the part of the world where this novel is based, which invites comparisons with D H Lawrence -- but that would be lazy... it has confidence, mystery and an entrancing sense of itself" 4 stars, Independent on Sunday 15/6 '[A] memorable debut novel... Blackmoor becomes a haunting study of losses which, like the firedamp accumulating in the pits, still threaten the lives of those who seem to have survived them' Sunday Times 20/7 'No first novel I've read this year stays with me like Blackmoor by Edward Hogan... Hogan knows the terrain and the people, is wise beyond his years... and is a writer of great energy and fearsome powers of observation... Engaged, ambitious and deeply felt -- all the things a first novel should be. He is a writer of huge promise' Hilary Mantel, TLS Dec issue 'For a first novel the style of this book is superlative -- wafting from present to various stages of the past, and providing a jigsaw puzzle of elements provided by the characters, the plots and the setting that add up to something most singular...[it]has so much going for it in evoking people and place that I can only recommend this to all' Bookbag.com 17/2 'Hogan shows intimate acquaintance with the eerie, industrial landscape, "bubbling and steaming like a baking pie", and the narrative is full of fatalistic touches, such as the sound of the colliery band, "now firmly established as the harbinger of misfortune and defeat". The characterisation is deft, particularly that of pale-featured Beth, whose albinism makes her stand out more than is comfortable in a community still capable of crying witch...this is a confident debut' Guardian 18/04