From Blue to Black
Joel Lane

‘A poet of misfits, outsiders and the forsaken, his empathy for their suffering ever poignant.’
– Adam Nevill, author of The Ritual

‘Lane's prose delivers a vicious blow to our soft, nostalgic places; like finding a discarded gig flyer from years gone by, ripe and brimming with memory. Divine, acerbic and essential.’
– Matt Wesolowski, author of Demon

‘Lane's writing is faultlessly immediate… there is a simple, unforced vividness and peeled-back clarity of perception.’
– Guardian

Birmingham, early 1990s. Triangle are a cult act on the post-punk scene, led by brilliant and troubled vocalist Karl – a man haunted by past violence and present danger, torn between fame and oblivion, men and women, music and silence.

Triangle’s bass player, David, is struggling to make sense of Karl’s reality as the band start to make waves in the music scene and Karl starts to come apart in a blur of sex and drinking.

First published in 2000, Joel Lane’s debut novel From Blue to Black is a story of passion, blood and alcohol, broken strings and broken lives – a piercing voyage through our musical and political past that cuts to the bone.

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY KERRY HADLEY-PRYCE

Praise for Joel Lane

‘A poet of misfits, outsiders and the forsaken, his empathy for their suffering ever poignant. A cartographer of Birmingham and the Black Country as necropolis and weird edgeland. A chronicler of subcultures and the urban esoteric. An intelligent radical and one of the best British post-war writers of horror and the weird. I would go to considerable lengths to acquire his books when he was alive, but, at last, his new and future readership won't have to. Joel Lane will endure for as long as there is interest in visionary writers of quality.’
– Adam Nevill, Author of The Ritual

‘Joel Lane’s debut is that rare thing: a novel about the darker edges of the rock business that carries the stamp of absolute authenticity.’
– New Statesman

‘Lane’s poetical powers of description reveal themselves… a jet-black, strangely plausible imaginary chapter in rock mythology.’
– The Times

‘Powerful first novel… the sort of rock-n-roll novel that contains all the elements you might expect – sex, alcohol, desperation and suicidal despair – without ever resorting to cliche or stereotype.’
– Gay Times

‘A dark, precise, insinuating novel that rewrites pop history into something like a perfect wish come disconcertingly true. Joel Lane’s prose manages the impressive trick of being both reportorial and objective, and as feverishly romantic as a piece of fan mail.’
– Dennis Cooper

‘Music is notoriously difficult to write about, but this novel pulls it off triumphantly.’
– Daily Telegraph

‘It is not primarily a horror novel; in fact, it’s doggedly and often miserably realistic. However, it’s no exaggeration to say that the mood of unease the author creates is essential to its effectiveness. The narrator’s occasional encounters with the inexplicable are made all the more chilling by their incidental nature… His descriptions are unique and startlingly evocative, with an uncanny knack for finding the perfect phrase, however odd it might be.’
– Sublime Horror

‘Its themes of social alienation, urban decay, class divisions, poverty, and the undercurrents of fascism in British culture have only become more relevant.’
– The Fantasy Hive

‘Set mainly in the grim and grimy bits of suburban and urban Birmingham (the places left behind in central Birmingham’s first rush to blingy rebirth), From Blue to Black is a heart-breaking Heartlands classic. Totally recommended.’
– The Crack

‘What sets this book apart is Lane's ability to create two flawed but deeply memorable characters; he writes eloquently about beauty and love as David and Karl struggle to maintain the romantic energy of their obviously ill-fated affair.’
– Publishers Weekly

'A master of urban noir whose stories also have a brittle poetry and a deep humanity. We may find ourselves among wastelands of disused factories, derelict houses and shuttered shops, but we also encounter there an uncanny beauty.'
– Wormwoodiana

About the Author

Joel Lane was the author of two novels, From Blue to Black and The Blue Mask; several short story collections, The Earth Wire, The Lost District, The Terrible Changes, Do Not Pass Go, Where Furnaces Burn, The Anniversary of Never and Scar City; a novella, The Witnesses Are Gone; and four volumes of poetry, The Edge of the Screen, Trouble in the Heartland, The Autumn Myth and Instinct. He edited three anthologies of short stories, Birmingham Noir (with Steve Bishop), Beneath the Ground and Never Again (with Allyson Bird). He won an Eric Gregory Award, two British Fantasy Awards and a World Fantasy Award. Born in Exeter in 1963, he lived most of his life in Birmingham, where he died in 2013.

Paperback ISBN: 9781914391033

Ebook ISBN: 9781914391040

Publication date: March 2022

Formats: Paperback / eBook