Dan Rhodes Blog

Little Hands Clapping is now officially out, in a magnificent hardback edition at a no-need-to-wait-for-the-paperback-price (a tenner, maybe even a bit less if you shop around). And how did Rhodes spend his publication week? Was it a giddy whirl of late nights, champagne and limousines? No, it wasn’t. Sources close to the author have confirmed that he spent the week indoors, laid up with a virus – we suppose this must be nature’s way of keeping him humble. Rhodes’ team of physicians have declared him to be over the worst, so the 2010 leg of his Tour Without End will be kicking off as planned at Blackwell’s in Edinburgh at 6 o’clock this Wednesday (10th Feb). It’s free, just turn up. Louise Welsh will be reading too.

Reviews are still alarmingly good:

While his contemporaries waste their time scrambling around for the zeitgeist, Rhodes has ploughed his own idiosyncratic furrow, time and again delivering quirky little books of genius, stories that brilliantly marry a perfectly precise prose style, a wonderfully dark comic manner and a heart-mangling dose of pathos… Almost every page of Little Hands Clapping has superb quirks or asides which will have the reader laughing. A sublime, brilliant novel. The Scotsman

While never losing sight of the monstrousness that ensnares his characters, Rhodes remains gloriously, mordantly funny. The Independent

Little Hands Clapping ought to be the book that brings Rhodes out of the “cult favourite” bracket. If the writers behind The League of Gentlemen or The City of Lost Children wanted a piece of tear-jerking Grand Guignol for their next film project, it would be ideal. Indeed, the most moving aspect of the book is not what happens to the characters, but what it does to the reader: reading it is like taking a deep breath into the lungs of your imagination. Scotland on Sunday

In other news, Rhodes has given an interview to Savidge Reads. Click here to find out what people who complain about unhappy endings are invited to do to his sock.

And his interview with The Skinny lives here. Full marks to the interviewer, Keir Hind, for spotting the Les Dawson reference…

We can hear the helicopter dropping off our massive consignment of copies of Little Hands Clapping, so we’re off to the helipad on the roof. More to follow. Happy reading…

Our silent vigil is almost over. After 35 months with no new book from Dan Rhodes, his new one – Little Hands Clapping – will be hitting the shops this week. Reviews are coming in already. According to The Observer, “After reading Rhodes’s book, many little hands should be clapping very loudly indeed.” We are sure ours will be.

The List says  “This is a unique, sparkling story. Dan Rhodes is a writer to treasure. (Five stars)”

Not a bad start.

Rhodes will be surfacing for events in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Laugharne in the coming weeks. More dates to follow – details on our Readings page.

Lovely new editions of Timoleon Vieta Come Home and Anthropology are out this week too – Anthropology is, at last, in a cheap-as-chips pocket edition. Buy it for all your friends.

Happy reading.

Hello people. The time is almost upon us. Dan Rhodes’ new book, Little Hands Clapping, will finally hit the shelves on February 4th (Alice Cooper’s birthday). Here at the skyscraper we are holding a silent vigil until our truckload of copies arrives, and we suggest you do the same. Rhodes has also announced some tour dates:

10th February: Edinburgh, Blackwell’s

12th March: Glasgow, Aye Write

9-11th April: Carmarthenshire, The Laugharne Weekend

Check the Readings page for details.

We are currently queuing in shifts at the Welsh and Scottish embassies here in the heart of downtown Taipei. If you see several hundred painfully beautiful 18-23 year old Taiwanese girls down the front, that’ll be us – come and say hi!

In other news, the girls in our IT department, way down on the 24th-27th floor, have finally worked out that the best way to get a screen grab is to just take a photo of the telly. So at last we are able to bring you front-line reports of Rhodes’ triumphs on the silver screen. It can all be found over on our new Stage & Screen page.

More news to follow very soon, we’re sure. Until then, happy waiting…

Welcome to our new-look site. It’s official – after months of uncertainty, we are finally able to confirm that the Dan Rhodes franchise is being rebooted in spectacular fashion.

On 4th February his new book, Little Hands Clapping, will hit the shelves – in a magnificent Canongate hardback edition for just £10. Here’s what Douglas Coupland has to say about it: “Dan Rhodes is totally sick and brilliant in all the right ways. He sucks you into his world and before you know it, you’re willingly trapped. So very smart.  I loved it.”

Also imminent is a handsome new edition of Timoleon Vieta Come Home (‘A masterpiece’ – The Observer) and, to mark an extraordinary ten years since it first came out, a cut-price, pocket edition of Anthropology (‘A book you’ll want to hurl from rooftops at passers-by to spread the word’ – Uncut). Finally, Anthropology is available for not much more than a pint and a packet of peanuts. Or maybe even less:

FREE DAN RHODES. Yes, it’s true. Waterstone’s Quarterly will be giving away a free copy of Anthropology with their current edition. This is all very selected-stores-only/while-stocks-last, so keep ’em peeled and act fast…

This is set to be a busy year for Rhodes, and we’ll be posting news here and on our brand new Readings page. A massive international tour is already in the offing, with events being finalised for Edinburgh, Laugharne and Glasgow, with more to follow.

Other News

People of Vardø, people of Vindafjord, people of Vestvågøy – take to the streets in jubilation because Rhodes’ book Gold is now out in a handsome Norwegian edition, thanks to our friends at Baskerville. Here it is:

On the subject of Gold, Michael Holroyd chose it for the Guardian’s Books of the Year round-up:

“In a year of mostly reading fiction my great discovery has been Gold by Dan Rhodes. This is an original novel, funny, dark, pitched somewhere between the pub novels of Patrick Hamilton and the early fiction of Beryl Bainbridge. It’s hilarious and heartbreaking.”

Rhodes has also contributed to some Books of the Year pages, recommending Neverland by Simon Crump, They Is Us by Tama Janowitz and The Maintenance of Headway by Magnus Mills.

Rhodes is known for his chameleonic image changes, so just in case you were wondering what he looks like these days, here is his official new author photo – taken at home in Edinburgh in November 2009. Win points by spotting dogs.

That’s it for now, but there will be plenty more news as the year unfolds – tour dates, foreign editions, win-a-year’s-supply-of-yeast competitions, etc etc..

Happy reading.