Welcome
Cathi Unsworth is a novelist, writer and editor who lives and works in London. She began her career on the legendary music weekly Sounds at the age of 19 and has worked as a writer and editor for many other music, film and arts magazines since, including Bizarre, Melody Maker, Mojo, Uncut, Volume and Deadline.
Her first novel THE NOT KNOWING was published in 2005, followed the next year with the award-winning short story compendium LONDON NOIR, which she edited, and in 2007 with the punk noir novel THE SINGER.
For the past two years she had been at work on a new novel BAD PENNY BLUES, writing paperback crime reviews for The Guardian, writing and producing a crime fiction radio show for Resonance FM and taking part in events such as 2008's Fashion & Film Festival, screen talks at The Barbican and live gigs organised by Tight Lip and The Sohemian Society.
All her books are published by and available from Serpent's Tail.
Photo: Allison McGourty 2009
Latest News Site Updated 20/10/09
Talk at the Bishopsgate Institute, London EC2, November 24 2009
Have you ever met a morrie, a boiler or a deviator? Had your drum done over by a screwsman or seen a Joe Ronce putting out girls on the bash? Using the underworld slang of their times, a handful of writers recorded a forgotten London of spielers, speakeasies, dogtracks and moody gaffs. James Curtis, Robert Westerby, Patrick Hamilton and Derek Raymond had an ear for the street and an eye for those swept under by the dark currents of criminality. Through the socio-realist crime fiction from the 1930s to the 1990's Cathi Unsworth retraces the steps of those writers whose sympathies for the dispossessed mirrored their own close proximity to the London of the lost.
The talk will be held at the Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 4QH
Event starts at 7.30pm
SORRY THIS EVENT HAS NOW SOLD OUT
Photo of Derek Raymond by Grafter by Simon Crubellier
Cathi in conversation with David Peace Tuesday 8 December 2009
312 Archway Road
London N6 5AT
FREE ADMISSION
Starts at 8pm
Cathi will be reading from her new novel BAD PENNY BLUES, published by Serpent's Tail on 3 DECEMBER 2009 and talking about the book with the acclaimed author of THE RED RIDING QUARTET and THE DAMNED UTD, DAVID PEACE. Topics under discussion will include Rippers, Strippers, Spiritualists, Pop Art and the Space Age sounds of homicidal record producers from the early 1960s. Copies of the new book will be available to buy on the night, at North London's most swinging venue. Get there early to grab a seat!
Photo of David Peace by Simon Crubellier
Website Exclusive: Transmission 3
"The river gave her up as dawn broke on 2 February 1964, stranding her body on a floating pontoon in the Upper Mall. By accident or diabolical design, she lay directly between the previous two murder sites of Chiswick and Mortlake…"
In this website exclusive Cathi reads more from her forthcoming novel Bad Penny Blues.
More about this work and High Quality Transmission 1, 2 & 3 file downloads HERE
Use the player below to listen to Transmission 3 now.
(This work is intended for Adult Audiences)
New Video Now Online
See Cathi interviewed and reading from The Not Knowing in Vox 'n' Roll on the VIDEO page.
BFI Flipside Man of Violence sleevenotes
The release includes the following special features:
Both films transferred to High Definition from the original negatives
The Big Switch (aka Strip Poker) (1968, 68 mins)
The Big Switch: Alternative export cut of (77 mins) (Blu-ray exclusive extra)
Original trailers for Man of Violence and The Big Switch
Alternative Moon title-card
Illustrated booklet with newly commissioned contributions from Cathi Unsworth, screenwriter and critic David McGillivray, and film historian Julian Petley.
BUY IT HERE
Cathi Unsworth in Punk Fiction
Cathi has a new short story Sheena Is A Punk Rocker in the new anthology Punk Fiction, in aid of the Teenage Cancer Charity Trust and on sale now. The anthology was edited by Janine Bullman and features an intro by Johnny Marr, as well as new original fiction by Joolz Denby, Lydia Lunch, Max Décharné, Stewart Home, Billy Childish and John Robb, amongst many other punk pioneers of past and present. All contributors donated their work for free and for every book sold £1 is donated to Teenage Cancer Charity. All the stories were inspired by a punk classic of the author's choice.
Buy it HERE
Covent Garden Hosts Crime and the City
Cathi Unsworth recently appeared at Crime and the City at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. Click HERE to read a review.