I read a lot of British and Irish crime fiction and enjoy it. Ray Banks, Mark Billingham, Ken Bruen, Declan Burke, John Connolly, Allan Guthrie, Declan Hughes, Simon Kernick, Val McDermid, and Adrian McKinty come to mind—alphabetically—off the top of my head; I’m sure I missed a couple. (Stuart Neville’s Ghosts of Belfast on my TBR pile, for example.) Right now there are probably more writers I would consider favourites of mine from across the pond than there are on my side.
That’s the problem. I enjoy their writing so much it’s threatening to creep into my everyday life before I realise it. Just this morning, after donning my anorak and making sure I had no flat tyres before leaving for work, it occurred to me how I must have sounded like an eejit when I told my wife a joke in a half-arsed Irish accent.
It was even worse when I commented on some blogs today. Reading these writers makes the tendency to think like them even more pronounced, though I run the risk of sounding like a real shitehawker if I try to pass myself off as something I’m clearly not, especially if I know fuck all about it. I might fool a few uninformed gobshites, but someone would grass on me sooner or later. Then even my mates would think of me as a pretentious tosser.
Oh, bloody hell. I’ve done it again.
Bollocks.
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6 comments:
Dana
No, its great glad to see the lingo crossing the sheugh, we're converting the world one person at a time.
Shitehawk though not shitehawker.
Aye, I have a ways to go. had to look up sheugh.
Hey Dana,
Were you the plonker that was clocking me today?
I'm a big Allan Guthrie fan here in Chicago. Reading SLAMMER now. Have you read Sam Millar, Irish noir author? I recommend him. I just picked up a book by British writer Leigh Russell--CUT SHORT--great reviews in Publishers Weekly. Will let you know how it is.
I got to your site though Lou Boxer's BTW.
I invite you to visit my blog: Noir Journal:
http://noirjournal.typepad.com/noir-journal/
Maybe we can interlink.
Mike L.
Dana -
I commend you on your use of 'bollocks'. There's a couple of different versions - 'bollix', 'bollux', and even 'ballocks' - but I'm pretty sure 'bollocks' is where it's at.
Cheers, Dec
v-word: deckle
@ Mike,
Thanks for stopping by. Plonker was a new one to me; I appreciate it.
I checked out NOIR JOURNAL and added it to my blog roll on both blogs. I'll drop off some comments there after a little thought to come up with something suitable.
@Dec,
I'd seen "bollix," but not the others. I chose "bollocks" because that's the one I see most, since I only read the highest quality of English/Irish fiction. Yours, for example.
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