The Happy Reader - #4

A labyrinthine tour through the mind of stage and screen legend ALAN CUMMING, and an exploration of a doomy and mysterious early sci-fi novel, THE PURPLE CLOUD.

CONTENTS

PART 1

A library visit, an autumn briefing, and a commodious confab with ALAN CUMMING.

Returns

Snippets

The Interview: ALAN CUMMING by Alex Needham — A fascinating, footloose conversation with a book-hooked actor

Autumn reads

PART 2

The Book of the Season is M.P. Shiel’s THE PURPLE CLOUD, with polar truths, volcanic omens, doomsday devices and Middlesex mauve.

Introduction: After the apocalypse by Seb Emina

Travel: Bear food by Naomi Alderman — The bracing indifference of icebergs

The colour of rare by Simon Garfield — A short history of purple

Film: Where is everybody? by Steven Poole — Armageddon can be a guilty pleasure

Beauty: Bathtime in Bordeaux by Aaron Ayscough — To the original vinotherapy spa

Science: The inventor of the doomsday bomb by Harriet Alida Lye — A world-changing genius

They keep erupting by Charlie Connelly — Volcanoes are always out there and always will be

Just give us a time machine by Sophie Harris — Who’s at the sci-fi bookstore?

Letters

In winter

Slight Creased Cover