www.markpiggott.com

This is the web page of author and journalist Mark Piggott

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Mark Piggott is the author of two novels, “Out of Office” (2010) and “Fire Horses” (2008 ), both published by Legend Press, London. Magazines to have published his short stories and creative non-fiction include Aesthetica, Prole Books, Pulp Books and 3:AM. He’s had major features in the Times, Guardian, Independent, Mail, Express, Sunday Express, Telegraph, Observer and more. He has appeared on TV and radio and lectures in creative writing and journalism.

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Letter: World made safe for holiday snaps

Posted on May 21, 2012 at 6:35 AM

Read my letter about Greece and Facebook in today’s Indie:

“As Facebook floats on the stock exchange for $100bn, for the want of a similar amount a European country (Greece) is allowed to go down the pan. So a website on which people post their holiday sn...

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Olympic countdown: 70 days to go...

Posted on May 17, 2012 at 8:00 PM

A couple of years back in “The Independent” I pondered what had become of the English “state of the nation” novel; the sprawling, all-encompassing book that tackles the state we’re in, in a way the Americans seem to do so well:

As the author of two novels set in modern England, I want my fiction to reflect some of the themes of the modern age, such as terrorism, r...

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Olympic countdown: 80 days to go...

Posted on May 7, 2012 at 8:00 PM

After 7/7, a website appeared called “we are not afraid”, sending out a “message” to terrorists that they would not prevent ordinary people carrying on (regardless?) In response, another website appeared, “I am fucking terrified”, its rallying cry: “join us in showing the world how shit scared we are”,

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Olympic countdown: 90 days to go...

Posted on April 27, 2012 at 8:00 PM

As the London Olympics approach, Chris Hook finds himself becoming bitter about his own life and the way the city he loves seems to be falling apart. He has always prided himself on his impeccable socialist credentials and his tolerance; for a variety of reasons, partly due to the ongoing terrorist threat, partly because of his daughter’s problems at her north London secondary school, partly because he is stuck in a rut and doing a job he h...

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"How to make Archway Tower disappear"

Posted on April 26, 2012 at 5:50 AM

Great to be invited to the launch of artist Ruth Ewan’s latest project last night: “How to make Archway Tower disappear”. The project is all about the aforementioned tower, which has loomed large over my life for much of the past thirty years. I have a rather rambling monologue in the accompanying booklet and am proud to have been included.

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Read my feature about mobile phones in today's "Sunday Express"

Posted on April 22, 2012 at 5:55 AM

Are mobile phones safe for our children to use – or not? Read my major feature in today’s "Sunday Express". As usual, I’m not going to post a link so if you want to read it you’ll have to buy it. Support our papers or they’ll go under...

 

Olympic countdown: 100 days to go...

Posted on April 16, 2012 at 8:00 PM

My most recent novel, “Out of Office”, is set in London during this summer’s Olympics. Although it wasn’t written as prophecy, quite a few of the events in the book have come to pass since it came out in 2010.

We now have a coalition government – not so surprising, maybe, for anyone who remem...

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The Prolitzer Prize for Prose writing 2012

Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:35 PM

Returned from Skye (as staggeringly beautiful as I remember) to discover I’ve been asked to judge this year’s “Prolitzer Prize” by the fabulous Prole Books. Open to writers of fiction and creative non-fiction, the prizes include cash and publication in the magazine, which is actually more like a book, a sort of mini-Granta.

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Over the sea to Skye

Posted on April 1, 2012 at 5:20 AM

Tomorrow first light we fly to Inverness, from where we drive across the Highlands to Skye. Very excited about taking the kids back to a place I spent several happy holidays as a child (except when the midges were around). Last time I went to Skye, almost 30 years ago, there was no bridge; be interesting to see how the place has changed.

It will also be good to do something to take my mind off...

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"Learning on the hoof": read my feature in the new "Flaneur"

Posted on March 13, 2012 at 5:05 AM

You can read my feature on my short time as a lecturer in the current issue of “The Flaneur”.

Here’s a link...

 

101 reasons to read George Orwell

Posted on March 10, 2012 at 7:30 PM

Reading the collected essays, journalism and essays of George Orwell, I’m struck not only by his beautifully clear, precise writing – eighty years later it’s as if he’s talking directly to me – but by the way he was able to report on a world which to the middle classes was as unknowable as life in the Sahar...

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"Tea at the Grand Tazi" launch

Posted on March 2, 2012 at 4:55 AM

Last night I returned to one of my former haunts, Clerkenwell, for the launch of “Tea at the Grand Tazi” by the lovely Alexandra Singer. Great to catch up with some old friends from Legend Press and meet some new people, including fellow Manc Alexandra and her family. The event was filmed by a Chinese TV station and Alex has also b...

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The final countdown...

Out of Office

 

“He possesses a way with metaphor and analogy which, when utilised sparingly and with a lightness of touch, rivals Martin Amis.”

- “Outside Left” magazine, issue 22

 “Mark Piggott is a talented and exciting writer; his novel is original, powerful and fast-moving, and takes the reader, all unprepared, into places he would probably have avoided had he been warned. But from page one it is too late; he is being hurtled along and he cannot get off.”

- Paula McMaster, “Bookgroup.info”

 “This is a book that really makes you think about contemporary Britain and the difficult issues of race and class with which it is still grappling. It's also a book that resists easy answers and skewers political correctness.”

- Andrew Blackman, author, “On the Holloway Road”

 “A great British voice – pithy and powerful"

– Bill Coles, author, “Dave Cameron’s Schooldays”

Fire Horses

“Reading Fire Horses is like riding pillion on a motorbike driven by a poet”

– Jonathan Trigell, author, “Boy A”

“As a debut novel it shines, both in the quality of the writing and the insights into mankind and modern history”

– Mike French, “View from Here”

“Passionate, powerful, poetic – a fine debut from an original talent”

- John King, author, "The Football Factory"

“Piggott’s debut novel is a plausible evocation of seamy ‘80s life viewed through the prism of complicated male friendship. Piggott’s eye for social detail is acute, and his love for his characters shines through.”

– John O’Connell, “Time Out”

 “The words themselves, from start to finish, are written with a flair and lyrical fluency that make this book difficult to put down and overall a deservedly worthwhile read.”

– “Frank Mask” literary blog