Today is of course the 76th anniversary of D-Day. War artist (and mater children's boom illustrator) Edward Ardizzone travelled with British troops as the D-Day invasion took place, sketching on the landing craft as the men prepared to hit the beach.
Before the war Ardizzone wrote and illustrated the first book that would bring him to fame: Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain, published by Oxford University Press. Post-war he did many Penguin covers for children's books.
But in 1940 Edward Ardizzone began to work full-time for the War Office as an official war artist. He followed the British Expeditionary Force to France and covered it's retreat through Dunkirk.
The War Office felt Ardizzone’s intimate and understated style would help Britons better understand the War and what life in the forces was actually like. After France, Ardizzone was posted to Cairo and then Italy, before joining British troops for the D-Day landings.
Edward Ardizzone won many awards for his illustrations during his lifetime, and a blue plaque commemorating his work can be seen at Albion Quay in Ipswich.
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What are the pulp archetypes? Pulp novels are usually written quickly and rely on a formula, but do they use different archetypal characters to other fiction?
Let's take a look at a few...
The Outlaw is a classic pulp archetype: from Dick Turpin onwards lawbreakers have been a staple of the genre. Crime never pays, but it's exciting and trangressive!
Some pulp outlaws however are principled...
As Bob Dylan sang "to live outside the law you must be honest." Michel Gourdon's 1915 hero Dr Christopher Syn is a good example. A clergyman turned pirate and smuggler, he starts as a revenger but becomes the moral magistrate of the smuggling gangs of Romney Marsh.
Given the current heatwave, I feel obliged to ask my favourite question: is it time to bring back the leisure suit?
Let's find out...
Now we all know what a man's lounge suit is, but if we're honest it can be a bit... stuffy. Formal. Businesslike. Not what you'd wear 'in da club' as the young folks say.
So for many years tailors have been experimenting with less formal, but still upmarket gents attire. The sort of garb you could wear for both a high level business meeting AND for listening to the Moody Blues in an espresso bar. Something versatile.
Today in pulp I look back at the publishing phenomenon of gamebooks: novels in which YOU are the hero!
A pencil and dice may be required for this thread...
Gamebooks are a simple but addictive concept: you control the narrative. At the end of each section of the story you are offered a choice of outcomes, and based on that you turn to the page indicated to see what happens next.
Gamebook plots are in fact complicated decision tree maps: one or more branches end in success, but many more end in failure! It's down to you to decide which path to tread.