Munky

Munky by B. Catling. Dublin: Swan River Press, 2020. Hardback edition limited to 500 copies out of which the first 100 were embossed and hand-numbered. This is number 34, embossed and hand-numbered to title page. Signed by both author Brian Catling and illustrator Dave McKean. Now out of print as a hardback. Rare to find one of the first 100.

Specifications

Hardback in dust wrapper. Beautiful cover art by Dave McKean; jacket design by Meggan Kehrli; edited by Brian J. Showers and Timothy J. Jarvis; copyedited by Jim Rockhill; typeset by Ken Mackenzie; published by Swan River Press. Published on 21 July 2020; 112 pages; lithographically printed on 80 gsm paper; dust jacketed; illustrated boards; sewn binding; head- and tail-bands; issued with two illustrated postcards; ISBN: 978-1-78380-033-9.

As the present copy is number 34, the book is embossed and hand-numbered to title page, and the illustrated cards are also hand-numbered.

Condition

A fine copy in like dust wrapper, now placed in an archival sleeve. Complete with two loosely-inserted and hand-numbered illustrated postcards, as issued.

About Munky (from the Swan River Press website)

When the puckish spirit of a monk begins haunting the storied village of Pulborough, known for its ancient abbey, Maud Garner, manager of the Coach and Horses Inn, arranges for the famous ghost hunter, Walter Prince, to come investigate. And from there, things spiral out of control. Peopled with richly drawn Dickensian grotesques and filled with bizarre and comical incident, Munky is as compelling as it is antic. Catling transports the reader to an interwar England in the throes of change. Part bizarre ghost story, part whimsical farce, part idiosyncratic literary experiment, it could be described as P. G. Wodehouse collaborating with Raymond Roussel, with a dash of M. R. James, if it weren’t so uniquely its own thing. B. Catling's Munky was described by The Scotsman as “M. R. James with a soupcon of P. G. Wodehouse and a dash of Viz”.

About the author Brian Catling (from the Swan River Press website)

B. Catling, RA, was born in London in 1948. He was a poet, sculptor, filmmaker, performance artist, painter, and writer. He held solo exhibitions and performances in the United Kingdom, Spain, Japan, Iceland, Israel, Holland, Norway, Germany, Greenland, USA, and Australia. His Vorrh trilogy and novel Earwig have drawn much critical acclaim. He was also Emeritus Professor of Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford. Brian Catling passed away on 26 September 2022.

Back in 2022, BBC released a wonderful documentary giving a fascinating insight into the extraordinary, late-flourishing career of maverick artist, teacher and performer Brian Catling RA. Another documentary - Brian Catling: The Cast Squid of a Lost Character - can be found on YouTube here.