Martin Millar

Martin Millar is the author of Love and Peace with Melody Paradise, Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation, Lux the Poet, The Good Fairies of New York, Dreams of Sex and Stage Diving, Ruby & The Stone Age Diet, Lonely Werewolf Girl, and Suzy, Led Zeppelin, and Me ... and other novels and plays and short stories and articles.

Bookslut called Lonely Werewolf Girl "a combination political thriller and werewolf soap opera -- if your idea of soap opera includes some seriously bloody confrontations between creatures that can rip your arms off.... Basically, this book is a delicious 550-page romp through urban fantasy versions of London and the Scottish countryside that draws you in from the first few pages and does not let you go."

At the end of last month I asked Millar what he was reading. His reply:

I like Japanese comics, or Manga. In the past few months I've worked my way through a large bundle of Naruto, by Masashi Kishimoto. Naruto features hordes of fighting Ninja, which is basically what I want from Manga. I've been reading some of Bleach, too, by Tite Kubo. Both Naruto and Bleach are very popular Manga but I've been reading a few other interesting titles too, such as Apothecarius Argentum by Tomomi Yamashita, an unusual tale about a Japanese apothecary.

Also on the comic front I've been reading some huge volumes of Neil Gaiman's Collected edition of Sandman, which is great. I did read Sandman when it first came out, and I'm very pleased to have these collected editions.

Other than that I've been re-reading the collected short stories of Somerset Maugham. Somerset Maugham is one of my favourite writers, and an excellent story-teller, though I'm not sure if many people read him nowadays. I particularly like his stories based on his travels in the far east, through the rubber plantations of Malaysia and Singapore, in the 1920s.

I greatly enjoyed Sons of Avalon: Merlin's Prophecy, by Dee Marie, an Arthurian novel concerning the early days of Merlin, and now I've moved on to Selected Political Speeches by Cicero. I'm keen on classical history, and Marcus Tullius Cicero is my favourite Roman. We know a lot about him, thanks to all the letters and speeches he left behind. He was executed on the orders of Marc Anthony; I've never liked Marc Anthony because of that.

Visit Martin Millar's website, blog, and MySpace page.

--Marshal Zeringue