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Richard Blandford

richardblandford

About Me

richardblandford.com
Hound Dog - A novel of redemption and rock’n’roll, masturbation and morality. Out now in Vintage paperback. A Jonathan Cape original.
He’s an Elvis impersonator who hates Elvis. An ex-con who learnt his craft in prison yards to avoid a beating. Now on the outside he gigs at social clubs in the Cambridge area, fuelled by cocaine, shagging anything that moves (though he’d like his conquests a little less … mature) and bullying and belittling his assistant performers who he cruelly calls Gay and Fat Elvis. After his performances he dreams about Bridget; the sister who hung herself many years ago. And Eddie. Eddie, the Elvis-loving deviant who changed his life forever … and is willing to help him out again. Hound Dog is a must-read from an exuberant new talent.
"This summer's essential read" Dan Rhodes
"Phoenix Nights meets American Psycho. In Cambridge." Kevin Sampson
"Hound Dog is distressingly, worryingly funny. With skill and sensitivity Blandford keeps the reader laughing, even through the depravity, even through the despair, even, indeed, through the moments of startling ferocity. Blandford does for fat, middle-aged, coke-addled, sex-deviant Elvis impersonators what Peter Guralnick has done for the man himself." Niall Griffiths
Buy Hound Dog here! NEW Vintage paperback edition (UK)
Trade paperback UK USA AU NZ

My Interests

Art, books, stuff.

Music:

Air, The Archies, The Associates, The Association, The Babys, Burt Bacharach, Badfinger, Syd Barrett, The Beta Band, Big Star, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Bee Gees, David Bowie, The Buzzcocks, John Cale, The Carpenters, Johnny Cash, Cheap Trick, Sam Cooke, Chairmen of the Board, The Count Five, Lou Christie, The Delfonics, Neil Diamond, Doris, Bob Dylan, The Electric Prunes, The Flatmates, Fleetwood Mac, The Four Seasons, Bobbie Gentry, Robin Gibb, Philip Glass, The Go-Betweens, Hall and Oates, Francoise Hardy, Lee Hazlewood, Nick Heyward, John Howard, The Human League, Tommy James and the Shondells, Jefferson Airplane, The Kinks, Kraftwerk, The Left Banke, Love, Joe Meek, Mercury Rev, Moby Grape, The Monkees, Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls, The New York Dolls, Randy Newman, The Nightblooms, Harry Nilsson, The Osmonds, Shuggie Otis, The Osmonds, Plush, Procol Harum, Brian Protheroe, Lou Reed, Minnie Ripperton, The Roches, The Rolling Stones, Todd Rundgren, The Shoes, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Joe South, Super Furry Animals, Strawberry Switchblade, Television, This Mortal Coil, T.Rex, Townes Van Zandt, Scott Walker, Jimmy Webb, Stevie Wonder, The Who, The Young Knives

Movies:

Adaptation, Aguirre, Wrath of God, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, The Apartment, Being There, Bleak Moments, Blue Velvet, Breathless, Carnival of Souls, Charade, Chinatown, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Days of Heaven, Detour, The Exorcist, Happiness, Heimat, It's a Wonderful Life, King Kong, Koyaanisqatsi, Last Summer, Little Big Man, M, Metropolis, The Night of the Hunter, O' Lucky Man!, Pandora's Box, Paper Moon, Peeping Tom, Persona, The Purple Rose of Cairo, The Realm of the Senses, The Royal Tennenbaums, The Rutles, The Shining, Shock Corridor, Smile, Sweet Smell of Success, The Swimmer, Switchblade Sisters, Taxi Driver, That Man From Rio, The Wicker Man, Vertigo

Television:

Peep Show, Lost, The Sopranos, Life On Mars, Extras, Doctor Who, Modern Toss

Books:

F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby, James Joyce - Ulysses, William March - The Bad Seed, Nathaniel West - The Day of the Locust, Iris Murdoch - Under the Net, Keith Waterhouse - Billy Liar, Terry Southern and Mason Hoffernberg - Candy, Ken Kesey - Sometimes a Great Notion, Daniel Defoe - Moll Flanders, Herman Melville - Moby Dick, Evelyn Waugh - The Loved One, John Fowles - The Magus, Cervantes - Don Quixote, J.P. Donleavy - The Ginger Man, Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita, Joseph Conrad - The Secret Agent, Jack Kerouac - On the Road, Jack London - John Barleycorn, Jorge Luis Borges - Ficciones, Paul Bowles - The Sheltering Sky, Guy de Maupassant - The Dark Side, Henry Green - Loving, Hubert Selby Jr. - Last Exit to Brooklyn, Margaret Drabble - The Ice Age, Booth Tarkington - The Magnificent Ambersons, Sinclair Lewis - Babbitt, Ian McEwan - First Summer, Last Rites, J.G. Ballard - Crash, Franz Kafka - Amerika, Charles Dickens - Great Expectations, Albert Camus - The Plague, Jean-Paul Sartre - Nausea, Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre, Truman Capote - The Grass Harp, Evan Hunter- Last Summer.

Heroes:

Thor, Iron Man, Henry Pym (aka Ant-Man, Giant Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket, the Wasp, the Hulk, Rick Jones (his faithful sidekick), Captain America, Hawkeye (aka Goliath II), Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, the Swordsman, Hercules, Black Panther, the Vision, the Black Knight, the Black Widow, Mantis, the Beast, Moondragon, Hellcat, Wonder Man, the Whizzer, the Two-Gun Kid, Ms. Marvel, the Falcon, Jocasta, Tigra, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, Pulsar, Starfox, Mockingbird, the Thing, Firebird, Moon Knight, USAgent, Namor, Doctor Druid, Marrina, Ravonna Lexus Renslayer, Yellowjacket II, Demolition Man, Gilgamesh (the Forgotten One), Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Quasar, Paula Wilcox.

My Blog

Shut the Fuck Up (a love story) (a short story)

SHUT THE FUCK UP (A LOVE STORY)Honey, I love you, but shut the fuck up. Not just now, but yes, now would be good too, but generally. You see, the thing is, I don't think you realise just how boring ...
Posted by Richard Blandford on Sun, 04 May 2008 10:13:00 PST

Nannicock, McKendrick and the Post-Death Experience (a short story)

AFTERLIFE PROPOSAL NO. 4'NANNICOCK', MCKENDRICK AND THE POST-DEATH EXPERIENCESearching through an anthology of attitudes to death as part of my wider research, I chanced upon the poet Giacomo Leopardi...
Posted by Richard Blandford on Sun, 04 May 2008 10:11:00 PST

The Chain (a short story)

THE CHAINAt nineteen minutes past seven and forty-three seconds, a man feels considerable unease about the inevitability of his own death. The idea of total annihilation of the self troubles him imme...
Posted by Richard Blandford on Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:17:00 PST

Fabrication no. 4 (Confrontation) (a short story)

FABRICATION NO. 4 (CONFRONTATION)MAN: Hello there, sorry to trouble you, but I live in the flat upstairs.NEIGHBOUR: Oh right.MAN: Yes, and I’ve come down really to talk to you, well, about th...
Posted by Richard Blandford on Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:15:00 PST

The Wizard (a short story)

THE WIZARDI couldn't believe it when Pandita told me she'd got her first boyfriend, or at least she thought she had. Not only was it shocking that my little mouse of a sister was actually going out w...
Posted by Richard Blandford on Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:42:00 PST

’I Surrender!’ (a short story)

'I SURRENDER!'Not long ago, in one of the world's most oppressive dictatorships, there was a relatively bloodless revolution. All across the country, in places of work, employees would find themselve...
Posted by Richard Blandford on Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:27:00 PST

Flying Saucer Rock ’n’ Roll

My second novel, Flying Saucer Rock 'n' Roll is out August 7th in the UK. Jonathan Cape have just released this blurb:t's the dawn of the Nineties in suburban Quirely. Chris and Neil go way back, but...
Posted by Richard Blandford on Mon, 18 Feb 2008 08:59:00 PST

The Man Who Drew the Brook (a short story)

ART AND MORALITY 4THE MAN WHO DREW THE BROOKI was ambling cross-country alone, as I often did on the infrequent days I could temporarily free myself from my business affairs. It found it cleared my h...
Posted by Richard Blandford on Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:03:00 PST

The Cover-up (a love story) (a short story)

THE COVER-UP (A LOVE STORY)You know, well, you remember, don't you? That thing we did, yesterday. You see, the thing is, and I'm not saying we shouldn't have done it or anything like that, but I don...
Posted by Richard Blandford on Thu, 24 Jan 2008 02:50:00 PST

Bad Sue (a short story)

BAD SUEShe entered the shop with a quivering step, as she wished the bell would not ring quite as loud as it did. Loud bells were not for the likes of her, stupid, selfish people. Loud bells should ...
Posted by Richard Blandford on Sun, 06 Jan 2008 12:05:00 PST