Fuzzy Fiction On The Mail Rail

I was late.

By the time I had arrived at the British Postal Museum Archive, last Wednesday night, the inaugural event of Cityread 2015  had already begun.

This year's book is Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London, which is the first in his series of novels, dealing with the unusual investigations of magic cop, PC Peter Grant. The event was an exclusive reading of a brand new Peter Grant short story, written by the series creator and performed in the Mail Rail tunnels, beneath Mount Pleasant.

Yes, that is a thing.

Being a fan of the books, I was very excited to have nabbed a seat for the reading. Unfortunately, the fates conspired to delay me (although, it may well have been irate river goddesses rather than fates on this occasion) and I was really very late indeed.

Thankfully, not too late.

I'd missed the drinks, but I was directed to the tunnels by a very nice lady, who eventually found the right door to the secret railway.

Inside, I attempted to descend the clangy, metal staircase as inconspicuously as possible (ie. not very inconspicuously).

Looking down, I saw a small cluster of seated people, facing a lectern.

Behind the lectern was Peter Grant.

It is quite a disconcerting thing to arrive, harassed and embarrassed, in the middle of someone's performance. It's quite another thing when that person is a fictional character, whose adventures in the tunnels beneath London, you were three quarters of the way through reading.

"Come down, we're just setting the scene," said PC Grant.

I swiftly clunked down the steps and found an empty seat.

It turned out that the walls between fiction and reality had not begun to blur and the Peter Grant-a-like was, in fact, the actor and MC, Doc Brown. He is the spit of Grant, though. Which is odd, as Grant is made of words on a page.

Doc Brown returned to his recitation.

Peter Grant (Doc Brown) makes his statement

In keeping with this unreal mood, the new story possessed a fuzzy resemblance to reality, being set in the location where we were all sat at that very moment.
There were added river spirits and rat-people to differentiate it from what was actually happening in front of us, but having said that, the tunnels were long, so you never know.

It was a great story, brilliantly performed. There were plenty of laugh out loud moments and ended with a wish that it could have gone on even longer.

After the reading, Ben Aaronovitch hosted a short Q and A, where he talked about his process and his plans for the future of the series. He was charming and funny and open to discuss anything anyone asked, for as long as the time allowed.

Explaining how he had deliberately created Grant to be much younger than himself, he thus ensured that there would never be any danger of him having to write about the character's retirement. The stories could keep on going for as long as Aaronovitch himself did the same.

The author will be visiting libraries in all the 33 London boroughs throughout April and you should really take the time to catch him if you can. Also, don't forget to get hold of a copy of Rivers of London and join in the Cityread mega-book group this April.

I'm fighting the urge to pile straight into Broken Homes, right now. It seems especially appealing as the story is set south of the river (my ends) this time.

Instead, I'm going to rewind and reread the first book, along with the rest of the population. Maybe I'll tease out some things I missed first time around, hidden within the twists of the city.

London is a real place, made of fiction.

Occasionally, if you're lucky, you get lost between the lines.

UPDATE - (17/04/15)

Cityread have uploaded a re-recording of the short story, King of the Rats to Soundcloud and can be heard below;