In the Margins #4: Highlander book incoming
Hello from a sunny Edinburgh, where I’m just back from a trip to the nearby town of Linlithgow and a stroll along the canal. Autumn is on the way, and I want to try and wring the last vestiges of summer out of my September while I can.
Hopefully everyone reading this is getting through lockdown OK.
To be honest, I’m not really sure what constitutes lockdown anymore as everywhere seems to be doing it differently, but as long as you’re keeping well, you’re probably doing something right.
The big news this newsletter is that my new book, A Kind of Magic: Making the Original Highlander, is almost here, and will be released in the UK on 17th September.
I meant to email earlier about this, but COVID-19 got in the way of the publication date and I didn’t want to bother you with confusing information. This time I know the book is on track because yesterday I received a copy through the post.
For anyone who’s missed my infrequent updates on the book, it covers the making of the 1986 film and features brand new interviews from various cast and crew who were there, including director Russell Mulcahy, actors Christopher Lambert, Clancy Brown, Roxanne Hart, Beatie Edney, Hugh Quarshie, plus a chat with Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor, and many, many more.
A few reviews are out already, with Total Film magazine stating that “For anyone with any affection for Russell Mulcahy’s genre-bending oddity, it makes for an engrossing read”, while Starburst said “It’s hard to believe that it’s taken 35 years for a definitive history of Highlander to come out, but Melville has written one which every fan should read!"
Yesterday I filmed a short unboxing video to show the world what to expect, which you can watch below:
As for getting hold of a copy, that needs a bit of explaining…
As I currently only have a UK publisher, the book will be printed here and is out on 17th September.
Because the publisher needs to send large pallets of books to Amazon and bookshops in the US, those won’t arrive until November, meaning fans there will have to wait longer to read it if they order locally, but there is a way to get it faster…
Copies of the book can be bought direct from the UK publisher - anyone who buys it from them by 14th September can have it signed by me with a personal message of their choice, so ‘To Heather, best wishes, Jon’ or whatever you want. After the 14th I’ll only be signing them rather than personalising them.
As well as sending copies to the UK, they can send them to the US by airmail, so they should arrive in just a few weeks. Just select the option on the page.
In addition, anyone who buys the book direct from the publisher will receive a limited edition photo booklet with 20 photos we couldn’t fit into the book. This is the only way you’ll be able to get this as we won’t be able to sell it on Amazon or anywhere else. Copies are limited to 1536 booklets, a date familiar to fans of the film as being the year Connor “became” immortal.
So there are a lot of benefits to ordering it from the publisher. Alternatively it’ll be available from the 17th on Amazon UK and can be ordered from local bookshops.
Pre-order links:
Direct from UK publisher (signed/personalised with ltd edition booklet)
I also recently added it to Goodreads in case you want to add it to your Want to Read list.
You can find the book on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
After all that, I’ll just say that it’s been fun spending time in the world of Highlander for the last few years, and anyone who enjoyed going behind the scenes of Tremors in the first book should hopefully enjoy this one as well.
Speaking of Tremors, Universal recently released the trailer for the SEVENTH film in the franchise, Tremors: Shrieker Island, and it looks like another action packed instalment with more Burt Gummer and Graboids.
I still don’t have plans to update my 2015 book, Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors (Amazon UK / Amazon US), partly because they’re turning these films out so regularly that I probably won’t be able to keep up with the next one, but I still think the first edition stands up as a worthy history of the franchise for old and new fans.
I can say that I have written about the post-Stampede films for a thing in the last few months, but I can’t yet say what that thing is quite yet… hopefully next time!
With A Kind of Magic taking up much of my time recently I’ve not been reading as much as I’d like, but I did recently start what I hope will be a read through of all the Ian Fleming James Bond books in August, starting with Casino Royale. I’ve tried this in the past and not got too far, but I’m hopeful I can this time due to a few fan sites running special Book Club events, including The Bond Experience and Spybrary.
Live and Let Die is next.
I’ve also started reading a new book on the cult production company, Cannon, called The Cannon Film Guide, Volume 1: 1980–1984 (Amazon UK / Amazon US). Cannon play a part in the history of Highlander (they bought the company that originally funded the film) and I’m interested in their output generally, so this is a fun read.
The other book I’m reading (I tend to read two or three at a time) is Peter Geoghegan’s Democracy for Sale (Amazon UK / Amazon US), described as “a compulsively readable, carefully researched account of how a malignant combination of rightwing ideology, secretive money (much of it from the US) and weaponisation of social media have shaped contemporary British (and to a limited extent, European) politics.” I know, cheery.
You can find out what films I’ve been watching via Letterboxd - last night it was 1996’s Scream.
That’s it from me for now, I hope you don’t mind the Highlander overkill. If you do buy a copy then I really appreciate it, but I also know it’s a tough time for people with COVID still around and not everyone can afford to be buying books and DVDs.
I’ll try to organise some giveaways on social media, so feel free to follow me on Twitter and Facebook for more on that.
Have a great weekend (what’s left of it) and I’ll be in touch again soon.
In the meantime, don’t lose your head…
Jon