Canterbury Christ Church University Bookshop

Bowie Fixated Firestarter in Murder Trial of the Century

Read all about it! We have, and it's a fiery debut from an exciting new author.

Andrew McGuinness, who graduated from the MA in Creative Writing at Canterbury Christ Church University, is to publish his debut novel A Portrait of the Arsonist as a Young Man next February.

How far would you go to live your dream? Would you lie? Hurt those you love? Destroy a building? Kill a man? On the anniversary of his brother's death, 25-year- old Ben Tippet’s dream of becoming famous ends in a nightmare. Abandoned by his novelist lover and about to stand trial for arson and murder, he writes his anarchic 'novel autobiography'. A who’s who of cultural icons, from Kafka to King Kong, Chaucer to Chekhov, Marlowe to Mailer, Brando to Bowie, Proust to Presley, and the Wizard of Oz to the White Cliffs of Dover - this darkly humorous debut is a contemporary portrait of identity crisis and personality disorder; a story of secrets, lies, love and a modern obsession with fame and fortune.

This beautifully written, unputdownable novel lays bare a 21st Century tale of celebrity-obsession, identity crisis and personality disorder. Ben Tippet's "novel autobiography" is ostensibly a self-portrait, but the arsonist's tale takes broader strokes, painting the landscape of a contemporary world hooked on sex, fame and fortune. Nuanced with literary and pop-cultural references, it explores universal themes of love, loss, sex and death.

You can pre-order direct from Bluechrome Publishing, receive a mystery free novel, and at the same time enter their competition to win a Stylophone, as played by David Bowie on his classic Space Oddity. If waiting for all good things is more your bag, and you're of a less excitable breed, then we'll have a signed copy on publication ready and waiting, just drop us an email.

More information (including a link to the website dedicated to the novel) and a very clever tease of a film-trailer for the novel can be found by getting in touch with the author's dog, Tom, at http://www.andrewmcguinness.blogspot.com/