Review in The Scotsman

Great review for my novel Push Process in The Scotsman today by Robert Cox:

I have long been a fan of works of literature such as, say, Steven Hall’s The Raw Shark Texts, which experiment not just with the way a novel can be written, but also with its physical format. In Push Process, Walker not only weaves atmospheric and often somewhat enigmatic black and white photos of Venice throughout the text of his story about a history postgrad who falls in love with photography, he also includes a selection of some 48 images at the end, all his own. .... [The book's treats include] not just the never-less-than-fascinating discussions about photography and art, but also a genuine sense of being transported – by both words and images – to an atmospheric world of fully-realised characters for whom these questions are not merely of academic interest, but the stuff of life itself.

Two Videos

Just a quick reminder of two videos I did. The first is an introduction to the photosequence included in Push Process, my novel from Ortac Press.

 

The other is an introduction to Five Wounds, my first novel, which was originally published by Allen & Unwin, but is now available in a revised second edition.

A Zone

I have just self-published my zine A Zone, which is a photographic survey of the neighbourhood where I lived from 2018–21 – close to Glasgow city centre, in the shadow of the Kingston Bridge and M8 flyover. Everywhere pictured can be reached on foot within forty-five minutes from my old flat, and the photographs were taken from March to October 2020. 

This area includes a wide variety of different sites: the various tributaries and slip roads of the M8 and M74; the ‘leisure complex’ of Springfield Quay arranged around an enormous car park; budget hotels; several retail or industrial parks; brownfield areas and construction sites; small offices for businesses of the sort that don’t need or attract walk-in customers; a couple of car dealerships; a homeless shelter in a nineteenth-century building that used to be a public library; takeaway restaurants; and so on. 

Not a neighbourhood then: a zone. 

The zine is 32 pages, full colour, on coated, heavy paper, £6.50/$9 plus P+P. Available from the link below. 

https://www.thegreatbritishbookshop.co.uk/products/a-zone

A Couple of Reviews

Jonathan Walker’s new novel Push Process (Ortac Press, 2024) pushed a bunch of positive buttons for me.

A nice write-up for Push Process at the well-known Vertigo blog, dedicated to novels with embedded photographs. 

And a positive review at 10 Million Hardbacks:

Just as a photograph compels the viewer to look at something afresh, a new perspective on the familiar, this unique work offers the reader another way to frame the magical city of Venice.