Howard Cunnell – författare

The legendary 1951 scroll draft of On the Road, published word for word as Kerouac originally composed it.On the Road chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent with his friend Neal Cassady, "a sideburned hero of the snowy West." As "Sal Paradise" and "Dean Moriarty," the two roam the country in a quest for self-knowledge and experience. Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz combine to make On the Road an inspirational work of lasting importance.

When they were young men, Kim and his best friend, Garland Rain, travelled the world. They worked as dive guides, living free and easy by the sea. Garland is still out there, but Kim’s life is different now. He’s married and a father of three.Still longing for the freedom of the water, Kim agrees to help Garland run a one-time trip to the spectacular Brothers Islands in the Red Sea. What neither man expects is just how badly wrong it will go. Drugs and violence collide, and not everyone returns safely.Back on dry land, Kim finds that the decisions you make in the moment can come back to haunt you, even follow you home.

When they were young men, Kim and his best friend, Garland Rain, travelled the world. They worked as dive guides, living free and easy by the sea. Garland is still out there, but Kim’s life is different now. He’s married and a father of three.Still longing for the freedom of the water, Kim agrees to help Garland run a one-time trip to the spectacular Brothers Islands in the Red Sea. What neither man expects is just how badly wrong it will go. Drugs and violence collide, and not everyone returns safely.Back on dry land, Kim finds that the decisions you make in the moment can come back to haunt you, even follow you home.

Was he thinking, do I have to be this kind of boy to survive? Is this what being a boy is?As a boy growing up on the south coast of England, Howard Cunnell's sense of self was dominated by his father's absence. Now, years later, he is a father, and his daughter is becoming his son.Starting with his own childhood in the Sussex beachlands, Howard tells the story of the years of self-destruction that defined his young adulthood and the escape he found in reading and the natural world. Still he felt compelled to destroy the relationships that mattered to him.Saved by love and responsibility, Cunnell charts his journey from anger to compassion, as his daughter Jay realizes he is a boy, and a son.Most of all, this is a story about love - its necessity and fragility, and its unequalled capacity to enable us to be who we are.Deeply thoughtful, searingly honest and exquisitely lyrical, Fathers & Sons is an exploration of fatherhood, masculinity, authenticity and family.

‘There is so much aching love in this book, such pain and beauty. Behold, and rejoice.’ – Tim Winton, author of CloudstreetWas he thinking, do I have to be this kind of boy to survive? Is this what being a boy is?As a boy growing up on the south coast of England, Howard Cunnell’s sense of self was dominated by his father’s absence. Now, years later, he is a father, and his daughter is becoming his son.Starting with his own childhood in the Sussex beachlands, Howard tells the story of the years of self-destruction that defined his young adulthood and the escape he found in reading and the natural world. Still he felt compelled to destroy the relationships that mattered to him.Saved by love and responsibility, Cunnell charts his journey from anger to compassion, as his daughter Jay realizes he is a boy, and a son.Most of all, this is a story about love – its necessity and fragility, and its unequalled capacity to enable us to be who we are.Deeply thoughtful, searingly honest and exquisitely lyrical, Fathers and Sons is an exploration of fatherhood, masculinity, authenticity and family.

‘There is so much aching love in this book, such pain and beauty. Behold, and rejoice.’ – Tim Winton, author of CloudstreetWas he thinking, do I have to be this kind of boy to survive? Is this what being a boy is?As a boy growing up on the south coast of England, Howard Cunnell’s sense of self was dominated by his father’s absence. Now, years later, he is a father, and his daughter is becoming his son.Starting with his own childhood in the Sussex beachlands, Howard tells the story of the years of self-destruction that defined his young adulthood and the escape he found in reading and the natural world. Still he felt compelled to destroy the relationships that mattered to him.Saved by love and responsibility, Cunnell charts his journey from anger to compassion, as his daughter Jay realizes he is a boy, and a son.Most of all, this is a story about love – its necessity and fragility, and its unequalled capacity to enable us to be who we are.Deeply thoughtful, searingly honest and exquisitely lyrical, Fathers and Sons is an exploration of fatherhood, masculinity, authenticity and family.

'One of Britain's most distinctive and trustworthy voices ... A beautiful book' TIM WINTON'A book to lose yourself inside, and emerge from with enhanced clarity and wisdom' FRANCES WILSON'Tender and unflinching ... A masterclass in clarity and feeling' JIM CRACE'Cunnell writes with so much sensitivity to the sacredness of the everyday' SARA BAUMEA beautifully written, courageous and deeply moving journey from sorrow to acceptance, from loss to hope, shimmering with coastal light and hard-won wisdom. In Sun Country, Howard Cunnell returns to the southern England beachlands of his boyhood after the death of his mother. A love letter to the changing coast and sea, Sun Country is a book alive with light and shadow, where the white spaces between words are as charged with tension and power as the words themselves. It is a reckoning with the things we inherit silence and absence, stories told and untold and the transgression involved in turning a life into art. At the heart of the book is Gillian, his devoted single mother, and the small yet unforgettable details of her life that are woven into a powerful meditation on impermanence, grief, class and solitude. At once intimate and expansive, this luminous memoir traces one man's journey from loss back towards life. Through stories about the writers and painters with whom he feels a kinship including the English Romantics, W. H. Hudson and Agnes Martin and the history of his own Sussex working-class family, Cunnell writes his way home to a place, to a culture and to himself as an artist. Cunnell's descriptive power, so widely praised in his first memoir, reaches a new breathtaking level, with the simplicity that only comes from the finest craft and poetry.

'One of Britain's most distinctive and trustworthy voices ... A beautiful book' TIM WINTON'A book to lose yourself inside, and emerge from with enhanced clarity and wisdom' FRANCES WILSON'Tender and unflinching ... A masterclass in clarity and feeling' JIM CRACE'Cunnell writes with so much sensitivity to the sacredness of the everyday' SARA BAUMEA beautifully written, courageous and deeply moving journey from sorrow to acceptance, from loss to hope, shimmering with coastal light and hard-won wisdom.In Sun Country, Howard Cunnell returns to the southern England beachlands of his boyhood after the death of his mother.A love letter to the changing coast and sea, Sun Country is a book alive with light and shadow, where the white spaces between words are as charged with tension and power as the words themselves. It is a reckoning with the things we inherit – silence and absence, stories told and untold – and the transgression involved in turning a life into art. At the heart of the book is Gillian, his devoted single mother, and the small yet unforgettable details of her life that are woven into a powerful meditation on impermanence, grief, class and solitude.At once intimate and expansive, this luminous memoir traces one man’s journey from loss back towards life. Through stories about the writers and painters with whom he feels a kinship – including the English Romantics, W. H. Hudson and Agnes Martin – and the history of his own Sussex working-class family, Cunnell writes his way home to a place, to a culture and to himself as an artist.Cunnell’s descriptive power, so widely praised in his first memoir, reaches a new breathtaking level, with the simplicity that only comes from the finest craft and poetry.

‘One of the books of the year. Cunnell’s style is matchless: intimate, dark, sincere, wry and exquisitely beautiful’ – Irish Times‘A cracking, urgent page-turner of a novel’ – ObserverThe painter Terry Godden was on the brink of his first success. After a violent crisis, he finds himself outcast.In his fifties, and with little money, he retreats to a small island. Arriving in the winter, the island at first seems a desolate and forgotten place. As the seasons turn, Terry begins to see the island’s beauty, and discovers that he is only one of many people who have sought refuge here. These independent outsiders, all with their own considerable struggles, have made a precarious home.The island is owned by the business man and art collector Alex Kaplan. His decision to enforce a rent increase as he seeks to improve his property looks set to destroy this community that cannot afford to lose the little they have left. As an artist, Terry believes making the invisible struggles of the island visible to the world will help – but will his interference save anybody other than himself?The Painter’s Friend shows the human cost of gentrification for those dispossessed. The novel also explores the role of art in protest, and asks who gets to be an artist and what they owe in return. Written with visual lyricism and driven clarity, Howard Cunnell’s incendiary story about class and resistance builds to an unforgettable climax. It is an urgent novel for our unjust times.‘I loved it. Cunnell’s writing has an unforgettable visual and moral clarity’ – Melissa Harrison, author of All Among the Barley