Odour Issues and The Senseless CounterfeitÔÇöthe third and fourth volumes in Richard CravenÔÇÖs genre-defying Bristolian ChroniclesÔÇöare now available in paperback and Kindle editions.
These latest instalments continue CravenÔÇÖs bold literary experiment: to drag the grandeur of classical form through the detritus of contemporary Bristol, exposing what is grotesque, sublime, and farcical in equal measure.
About the New Titles
In Odour Issues, Craven turns his lens on Lord Snatch, a squattocratic Odysseus figure, whose journey through a defiled and declining city is anything but heroic. Drawing freely on Homeric structure while gleefully rejecting its redemptive arc, the novel trades mythic gods for ideological grifters, sirens for social workers, and sacred trials for bureaucratic indignities. This is a Bristol of municipal decrepitude and crumbling delusion, where the heroÔÇÖs longing is not for home, but perhaps for an end to the stench.
By contrast, The Senseless Counterfeit offers a full-length Jacobean revenge tragedy for the stage. It is an orgy of retribution, deception, and baroque excessÔÇöanchored by Squalor, a cider-swilling chorus of the grotesque. Craven draws upon the theatrical language of Jacobean drama and Restoration farce to tell a tale of double-crossed libertines, tantric con-artists, gimps, ghosts, and ketamine peddlers. If Odour Issues maps the aftermath of decay, The Senseless Counterfeit revels in its theatrical performance.
The Bristolian Chronicles
From the genital blight of Amoeba Dick to the ketamine-induced fall of Pretty Poli, the Bristolian Chronicles describe a city in perpetual collapse. Across four loosely connected volumesÔÇöeach one playing with form and toneÔÇöCraven has constructed a parallel literary Bristol: absurd, deranged, and unnervingly familiar.
These books do not ask to be liked. They demand to be confronted. Their characters, settings, and even their punctuation groan under the weight of bodily, civic, and linguistic breakdown. And yet, through this aesthetic of abjection, Craven conjures something remarkable: a coherent satire that draws equally from Aristophanes, Swift, and the local councilÔÇÖs planning department.
About the Author
Richard Craven is a British-Canadian writer and former academic philosopher. Based in Bristol for the past twenty years, he has turned away from conventional literary realism to create a body of work that is formally virtuosic, politically unruly, and profoundly irreverent. His writing draws on classical structure, theatrical tradition, and a deep disdain for modern sanctimony. Each book is composed with a scholarÔÇÖs ear and a disconcertingly conservative saboteurÔÇÖs grin.
Further information and supplementary materials can be found at www.richardcraven.uk
The Bristolian Chronicles (So Far):
Amoeba Dick: Or, A New Tale of a Tub
https://amzn.to/4kMs0DX
A bathhouse allegory of bacterial vengeance and bureaucratic psychosis.
Pretty Poli: Or, Monsieur PerroquetÔÇÖs Descent from a High Perch
https://amzn.to/43ZFMO2
A parrot architectÔÇÖs hallucinatory ascent to BristolÔÇÖs mayoralty and beyond.
The Senseless Counterfeit: An Idle Frippery or Play
https://amzn.to/3FHlGyM
A revenge tragedy in verse featuring gimps, gurus, ghosts, and grime.
Odour Issues: A Novel
https://amzn.to/3HnRh99
A post-Odyssean nightmare of squattocrats, scent-based trauma, and ritualised decay.
Series page: https://amzn.to/4kKHKaC