The Myth of Brilliant Summers

PARIAH PRESS’ debut release • The Myth of Brilliant Summers • is a work of suspicion and delicate menace. Spanning decades of educational and state abuse, these interlinked stories/modern day parables about outsiders and dreamers follow in the cult tradition of Junky (William Burroughs) and Post Office (Charles Bukowski). An exciting work of flash-fiction which represents a fascinating portrayal of the times we live in.

'This book is designed to be read on the bus or in the pub before or 
after they try to slowly kill you at school or in work or even at home.'

The Myth of Brilliant Summers is Austin Collings’ debut work of fiction.
Austin co-wrote Renegade: The Lives & Tales of Mark E Smith, published by Penguin.
He has written for a variety of national magazines, newspapers and websites including The Guardian, The Times, Sight & Sound, New Statesman and Tate Etc, and many others.

Praise for The Myth Of Brilliant Summers:
“With a ruthless rush of witty adroit prose Collings whisks us in his series of short stories through the madness of human eccentricity. Not for the faint hearted, the light hearted or even the young at heart – in fact it’s better if you don’t have a heart at all.” John Healy – author of The Grass Arena

“The Myth Of Brilliant Summers is the work of a powerful writer who insists on taking risks with language and structure. Austin Collings writes prose that is compressed, angled, droll, sure, but also evocative and swooping when he wants it to be. These stories are so tight they have an elegance of form that somehow does not jar against the rough, darkling content.” Daniel Woodrell – author of Winter’s Bone and Tomato Red

“A stream of haunting images, familiar but not tired, illuminate powerful descriptions of noble ordinariness. Collings has a mastery of his language, relationships and environment. Authenticity ripples through every sentence. The working class have a new literary hero.”
Kevin Mitchell – chief sports writer, Observer and The Guardian

“This impressive collection is a breath of fetid air. Collings’ characters seem to come of age and then carry on careening through a world gone horribly wrong. Their summers may not have been brilliant but his prose certainly is: staccato bursts infused with energy, punches to the gut of society’s artifice, low, low blows. Austin knows where the bodies are buried. And now so do you.”
Larry “Ratso” Sloman – co-author of Mike Tyson’s Undisputed Truth and Scar Tissue

“Forget bogus pessimism, this is real pessimism like mother used to make. Austin Collings says ‘no’ in a thousand inventive ways. Good on him.”
Ian Pattison – novelist and creator of Rab C. Nesbitt

“Austin Collings writes some of the best new stories I’ve read in ages. Cutting to the very heart of what matters, his terse prose forces us to take a good hard look at the world about us and at ourselves. This is frontline reporting from Britain’s city streets. Truly powerful and uncompromising. Collings is a major new talent that deserves to be read and celebrated. A very fine collection.”
Ron Butlin – Scottish Poet Laureate (2008-2014), and author of The Sound Of My Voice

“These terse and haunting stories from the decayed heart of England are percussive and unforgettable. A truly impressive collection.”
Howard Cunnell – author of Sea On Fire and Marine Boy

“‘Summer days, when things go wrong,’ is the opening to one of the stories in Austin Collings’ collection, The Myth of Brilliant Summers, but it could just as well be true of all of them. Young lads muck about together in the holidays, but they’re not engaged in the Blytonesque plunging into pools and riding ponies that the title suggests. These lads watch pigs being slaughtered, see a man and woman engage in a very public fight, get texts from blokes who’ve been in the nuthouse. Their world is urban and harsh, encapsulated in graphic prose whose cynicism rolls back to reveal clear-sighted observation and ultimately

Myth of Brilliant Summers