‘Perceptive, wise and illuminating . . . an unmissable farewell.’ Barry Forshaw, FINANCIAL TIMES

‘The most hilarious, life-affirming book you’ll read this year.’ SAGA magazine

‘Wit and wisdom that make every page turn . . . what a fine talent the world has lost.’ STARBURST

This is the memoir Christopher Fowler always wanted to write about ‘writing’.

It’s the story of how a young bookworm growing up in a house where there was nothing to read but knitting pamphlets and motorcycle manuals became a writer – a ‘word monkey’ – and pursued a sort of career in popular fiction. And it’s a book full of brilliant insights into the pleasures and pitfalls of his profession, dos and don’ts for would-be writers, and astute observations on favourite (and not-so-favourite) novelists.

But woven into this hugely entertaining and inspiring reflection on a literary life is an altogether darker thread. In Spring 2020, just as the world went into lockdown, Chris was diagnosed with terminal cancer. And yet there is nothing of the misery memoir about Word Monkey. Past and present intermingle as, in prose as light as air, he relates with wry humour and remarkable honesty what he knows will be the final chapter in his story.

Deeply moving, insightful and surprisingly funny, this is Christopher Fowler’s life-affirming account of coming to terms with his own mortality.

‘A remarkable book by a remarkable writer: amazingly entertaining and informative and also, for obvious reasons, one of the most moving.’ SIMON MASON, author of the DI Wilkins Mysteries

‘Wonderful . . . there is no bitterness here, but a hearty celebration of how art defines a life, with dark humour on the right occasions and the deliberate aim to leave a positive message . . . his enthusiasm is infectious and sobering when you are aware that he was dying as he wrote these pages.’ Maxim Jacubowski, CRIME TIME

Developed since the sixth century, practised by the royal elite and Buddhist scholars, and packed with spiritual meaning, Japanese calligraphy has its own style: simple, elegant and gentle. Starting with a history section that illuminates thousands of years of calligraphy with inspiring examples, the core of the book is a clear step-by-step guide to creating stunning calligraphy. The 15 projects, from a greetings card to painting calligraphy motifs on river pebbles and linen hangings, represent authentic uses of Japanese scripts. The combination of simple strokes and meaningful characters that makes up each of these unique projects means you can create artworks that will give you and your loved ones truly enduring results. A clear materials section shows you exactly what you need to start, while the comprehensive techniques chapter demonstrates how to hold the brush, create characters and write pieces. Also included are 100 of the most popular Western first names, plus a series of greetings, sentiments and poems, including haikus and Zen proverbs, so you can personalise your projects.

With the invention of printing, reading books moved from being an act only performed by priests and aristocrats into an individual, even private, activity. This change helped spark the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution – in which punctuation played a crucial role. As long as texts were read out loud only by an educated elite there was no need for punctuation to mark pauses, full stops or questions.

So punctuation – the full stop, the comma, the exclamation mark, the question mark and the semicolon – helped shape modern-day Europe as we know it.