Description

‘Wish I Was Here is a masterpiece’ Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk

‘It will surprise you, sometimes astound you, and leave you profoundly changed’ Jonathan Coe, author of The Rotters’ Club

M. John Harrison has produced one of the greatest bodies of fiction of any living British author, encompassing space opera, speculative fiction, fantasy, magical and literary realism. Every book is subversive of genre and united by restless intelligence, experimentation and rebelliousness of spirit.

This is his first memoir, an ‘anti-memoir’, written in his mid-seventies with aphoristic daring and trademark originality and style, fresh after winning the Goldsmiths Prize in 2020. Many of our most prominent younger writers now recognise him as the most significant British writer of his generation. He is ‘brilliantly unsettling’ (Olivia Laing), ‘magnificent’ (Neil Gaiman), ‘one of the best writers of fiction currently at work in English’ (Robert Macfarlane).

Publisher Review

Infectiously engaging, packed with rueful wisdom and a distinctive sense of mischief — Keith Miller * Times Literary Supplement, Book of the Year 2023 * One of the best writers currently at work in English — Robert Macfarlane, author of The Wild Places Hilarious and haunting — William Gibson, author of Neuromancer ‘Harrison is the shape-shifting master of absent and elusive things, many of them absent and eluding in Barnes and the Peak District. In this mesmerising book, the author – or rather his style – goes in search of what may have been his memories of different versions of his life. The result is an enchantment of instability, usually ungraspable, always intense.’ — Neil MacGregor, author of Living with the Gods A deep dive into the back-and-forth, up-down, sideways mind of a true genius. An immersive pleasure and a literary adventure — Monique Roffey, author of The Mermaid of Black Conch He is one of the very great writers alive today — China Mieville, author of Perdido Street Station An extraordinary writer and an extraordinary book. I don’t know how to describe it, which is to say that I’ll read it again, and again — Helen Castor, author of She-Wolves M. John Harrison puts to work a writerly consciousness and imaginativeness like no other. Wish I Was Here doesn’t reinvent memoir; it quietly constructs an entire new ballpark — Isabel Waidner, author of Sterling Karat Gold I love this book, even if I don’t know how to describe it. Is it a memoir? Is it a handbook for writers? As always with M John Harrison, you’re never quite sure what you’re reading or where it will take you next. There are only a few certainties: that it will surprise you, sometimes astound you, and leave you profoundly changed — Jonathan Coe, author of The Rotters’ Club Wish I Was Here is a masterpiece. I don’t use that word lightly: I’ve not loved a book as much as this for years. Pleating together the quotidian and fantastic, the material and ineffable, it is at once a beguiling autobiography and a sustained interrogation of genre, craft, and the uses of history, and a perfect instantiation of what it is to write and what it is to live. Formally inventive, constantly surprising, M John Harrison has written an archaeology of fragments that shivers with wholeness. It’s exquisite — Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk What Wish I Was Here does triumphantly is to capture the feeling of living in the 21st century with all its anxieties … wondrous and self-defining and defiant * Guardian * M. John Harrison, the best British writer you’ve never heard of, operates on the margins. Unusual and impressive, Wish I Was Here is also a writing manual of brilliance’ * Sunday Times * This book is old school experiment, several unrelated episodes from a literary reality show, a kind of negative biography with a big author-shaped hole in the middle waiting for the reader to fill based on all the evidence around it. It’s also one of the best books I’ve read so far this year * International Times * This is one of the most original books about writing that I have read, in part because Harrison is as profound about the art as he is helpful on the craft … destabilising, witty, exhilarating – an important contribution to the genre’s evolution * i Paper * So wholly original that a label doesn’t do it justice … Wish I Was Here will leave you bewildered * New Statesman * Harrison captures the stultifying and and generative landscape of post-industrial England better than anyone else * Totally Dublin * It’s extraordinary. Profound, hilarious, precise, vagrant and speculative. And always intensely good company. The sort of book that makes writing seem possible again. (Or is it impossible?) * Brian Dillon * M. John Harrison’s ‘anti-memoir’ is a masterpiece. Broad in scope and beautifully written, this unconventional autobiography contains some of the best advice struggling writers will ever receive * Nicolas Lezard, The Spectator * Delightfully oddball and original — Fiona Sturges * Guardian Book of the Year * A stand-out playful reframing of the memoir form — Eley Williams * Granta, Book of the Year 2023 * Read it. You will want to press it on others like a mildly deranged Ancient Mariner haranguing those poor wedding guests as they try to go about their business — Roger Luckhurst * LA Review of Books *