Guest Post: Devil's Blood Blog Tour

Four years ago I wrote a review of Black Arts by debut YA writers Andrew Prentice and Jonathan Weil. Black Arts was billed as the first of The Books of Pandemonium, but then book 2 never materialised. Truth be told, I had given up hope of ever seeing it, but then, out of the blue a couple of months ago I spotted the authors tweeting about their new book. Devil's Blood was published a few days ago, and it was well worth the wait and I am delighted to welcome Prentice and Weil to The Book Zone today as part of the Black Arts and Devil's Blood blog tour, to tell us about the Devils of London.

Prentice & Weil on The Devils of London

Our devils were born out of desperation and despair.  In two years we’d written three drafts of our book Black Arts.  Although it had its good bits, the story was still ungainly, overlong and not flying at all.  Following the savage and wise advice of our new editor Simon Mason we trashed the whole lot, keeping only a few chapters and characters.  It was a mightily bleak spot.


We walked and walked, talking through our fresh start.  We had discovered that one of the problems about writing a book with both magic and time travel is that it gets a little complicated.  Magic works in books when it seems natural and easy.  The minute that you have to launch into convoluted explanations about method and mechanics, you tend to lose the reader’s interest.  We went round and round in circles trying to simplify our system.  But nothing worked – that is until we went for a fateful walk down the Regent’s Park Canal.

I can remember the exact spot where everything changed.  It was on the odd, graffiti-covered stretch between Broadway Market and Victoria Park.  Jon and I were discussing Dr Dee – and how he had believed he was summoning devils and angels when he did magic.  

‘What if we used that?’  A simple suggestion.  We both looked at each other – and suddenly, just like that, we were flying again.   The greatest joy of writing as a team is when an idea starts soaring and lifts you both up with it.  The miles disappeared with our talking.

‘What if all magic was done with devils?  You summon them and then they do what you want.  That’s how magic works!’

‘What if some devils got lost?’

‘What if some devils got forgotten?  What if London was full of them?’

‘What if the devils left behind in hell want revenge?’

In that walk, the whole thing (more or less) fell into place.  It’s hard not to believe that a devil of inspiration wasn’t buried somewhere beneath our feet, granting us a sweet moment of clarity.  The walking definitely played a part, but so too does the city where you walk – and that is the essence of our idea.

You must know some places that make you feel a certain way.  Some of these are obvious: a ruined castle, a forest path, the secret corner in your gran’s greenhouse.  But others are more hidden and subtle – but no less powerful.  Cities are full of these places.  Especially London, where the ancient city hides in plain sight. 

There are buried devils everywhere. Alan Moore, Ian Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd have all written compellingly about the city’s psychogeography.  But that really is a complicated word for a very simple thing.  The paths that we take through life affect us.  Your environment shapes you and your experience.  All we’ve done is spice that common truth with a little pinch of Hellfire.

The funny thing was that when we went hunting for lost devils we hardly had to look.  Dig a little beneath the streets and their history and you can find them yourself.  Black Dog really was a ghost that haunted Newgate Prison.  The spirit that we call Lud has had many names over the years, and the London Stone, where Lud lives, can be visited today.  It sits, at pavement level, embedded in the wall of a bank in the City.  Smithfield has been drenched in blood for millennia: Druids held rituals there, Romans held executions, medieval Londoners made it their slaughterhouse (and in a few days time we’ll have a book launch there too.  Let’s hope it’s not too bloody!)  Wherever we looked we found details that made it seem like we were discovering a truth rather than making things up.

Of course we took liberties, and I don’t expect you to believe that there is a giant leech sitting beneath Smithfield market.  All the same, next time that you are out and about in the city where you live, close your eyes, take a deep breath and imagine all the lives that have passed along the street where you are walking now.  Their treasure and their trash is buried beneath you, layer after layer after layer.  When you open your eyes again, try not to feel dizzy, because you are looking straight down into the abyss.

Author’s Note:  We have been exploring the devils of London in our tumblr: http://londondevils.tumblr.com/.   Go there to find some more devils that we have dug up while tramping around the city.  The pictures in the article are sketched using Alkahest-infused goggles.

Review: Black Arts by Prentice and Weil (The Books of Pandomonium Book 1)

Elizabethan London: a teeming city of traders and thieves, courtiers and preachers, riff-raff and quality, cut-throats - and demons. When scrunty Jack the 'Judicious Nipper' picks the wrong pocket at the Globe Theatre, he finds himself mixed up in an altogether more dangerous London than he could have imagined - a city in which magic is real and deadly.

An outbreak of devil-worship has led to a wave of anti-witch fervor whipped up by the Elect, a mysterious group of Puritans recognizable from their red-stained right hands, led by the charismatic Nicholas Webb, a growing power at Court. Rumour has it that he wants to purge the city entirely and build a New Jerusalem. Jack has his own reason for hating him: he saw him kill his mother.

Helped by Beth Sharkwell the Thief Princess of Lambeth, Kit Morely the Intelligencer and Dr Dee the Queen's Wizard, Jack pits himself against Webb's Puritans. But this is no straightforward struggle. Things are not as they seem. In fact, ever since his encounter with Webb, there has been something wrong with Jack's vision. He keeps seeing things. Demons.

March 2012 has to have been one of the greatest months ever as far as the release of totally brilliant children's and YA books is concerned. I stopped announcing my Book of the Month some time ago, but if I was forced to make a decision (and it wasn't for a certain sequel by Will Hill) then Black Arts by Andrew Prentice and Jonathan Weil would be an incredibly strong contender indeed.

I received an early proof copy of Black Arts back before Christmas, courtesy of the lovely people at David Fickling Books, and I the information on the press release simply shouted "Read me now!" and so I dropped everything and did as instructed. That press release mentioned: the setting, London (London is unsurpassed as a setting for magical fantasy/horror in my opinion); in the year 1592 (one of my favourite eras for historical fiction); Satanic atrocities; a shadow world of criminals and fanatics, spies and magicians. I almost felt as if that press release had been directed at me personally, it ticked so many boxes. I was not to be disappointed.

I'm a little bit lost on how to start telling you about this book as there is simply so much I want to say. It is the perfect blend of fantasy, horror and historical fiction, with none of these 'genres' elbowing for dominance over the others. I mentioned this to my friend Liz from My Favourite Books as she had just started reading it, and we agreed that some writers of fantasy/horror set in an actual historical period (as opposed to a fantasy world of their own creation) often get bogged down in trying to ensure that all the historical details are correct, meaning that a great deal of the fun in their story gets forgotten about. The reason for this is the history nerds who seem to take great pleasure in hunting through books like this desperately trying to find some kind of historical inaccuracy. I can't attest to the accuracy of the historical aspect of Black Arts (and frankly I don't care in a story this good), but the writers certainly made it feel very real to me, and yet also managed to ensure that their story was an incredibly rewarding, fun read (some people may think I am a little bit twisted for finding fun in what is such a dark book.... perhaps I am?!) 

Sometimes when reading a book you can tell that the author had great fun writing it, and I have no doubts at all that this was the case with Black Arts. The primary piece of evidence that suggests this to me is the dialogue between the various characters. In a lesser book, the characters might have come across as stereotypes of the traditional Oliver Twist street urchin/crime story, albeit with healthy doses of magic and horror added to the mix, but the quality of the dialogue in Black Arts makes the story stand head and shoulders above its peers. Having met Prentice and Weil at the recent launch of their debut I can now easily imagine the fun they had in writing the dialogue for their richly imagined characters. The characters themselves are perfectly created, especially the villains of the story who are particularly nasty and ruthless (and again, more fun must have been had in the creation of these bad guys - P & W make exceedingly good bad villains).

12+ children who have read all of the Harry Potter books and particularly enjoyed the darker aspects of those books as the story progressed to its final conclusion could do a hell of a lot worse than turn to Black Arts for their latest fix of dark horror. The plot is exciting, and it twists and turns constantly as characters cross and double-cross each other, and with this much mystery and suspense I defy any young person to read this book and find it boring. 

David Fickling and his very small team really know what makes a fantastic children's/YA book. They don't publish many but it seems that everyone that comes out from them is an absolute corker. The impression I am always left with in finishing a David Fickling Book is that David and his team have a passion for great stories, and getting these into the hands of young people. Long may this continue!

Coming Up In 2012 #11: Black Arts by Andrew Prentice & Jonathan Weil

Back before Christmas I was sent a proof of Black Arts, a debut novel from Andrew Prentice and Jonathan Weil. I loved the premise so much that I dropped everything to read it, and I can tell you that it is superb. This Saturday just gone I was fortunate to be one of a number of bloggers invited to a brunch held by Random House Children's Books, and when one of the team was waxing lyrical about how good this book was I was the one sat at the back vigorously nodding my head in agreement. My review will follow nearer its April release date, so for now you will have to have you appetites whetted by the authors who very kindly agreed to take part in my Coming Up In 2012 feature:


Welcome to London.

Jack knows that London is dangerous. This is a place where government spies can make you disappear into the torture chamber, and where most crimes are punishable with death. As a child thief, he knows he’ll be lucky to live to the age of twenty.

He doesn’t know that London is crawling with invisible devils. He doesn’t know about the gruesome murder spree that is about to be unleashed. He doesn’t know that soon the most powerful man in the city will be hunting him to death.

He’ll find out, though, soon enough.


We set our story in London because it’s the city where we grew up, the city we love above all others; and because it’s an evil, twisted, magical place where anything can happen.

The original idea for the book came from a true London story:

Four men walk into a London pub and have lunch together. When the bill arrives, two of them disagree over who should pay, and one stabs the other through the eye, penetrating the brain and killing him instantly. The victim is London’s most successful and celebrated playwright – who happens to be a spy on the sly. He has also been accused of inciting riots and fomenting treason . . . not to mention the rumours of black magic and lewd sexual practices . . . The murderer is a petty conman, and one of the witnesses is the Queen’s own spymaster.

This happened in 1593 (the victim is Christopher Marlowe). We thought a place where that story could be true must be a good place for the sort of story we wanted to write – i.e. the sort of story we’ve always enjoyed reading ourselves. Black Arts is a story about death, vengeance, gold and devils. Anything can happen.