Ey up Ladies and Gents, do you guys remember all those nightmares I suffered from, the images of that creepy book I saw online, the nightmares that had me waking up at night in strange places, mostly in abandoned theme parks? No? Oh! Well anyways…the source behind those nightmares is here today to be interviewed by me innit! So please welcome master wordsmith Jim Gibson

Q1: Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into writing?
I’m currently a gardener, from a small ex-mining village in North Notts and I got into writing through reading as I’m sure most people did. Having grown up skateboarding, going to DIY punk gigs and living in that kind of world, I’ve always been around creative people who don’t need to be invited to do things so it was natural for me to enjoy reading fiction and then go, ‘Right, I think I’ve got something’ and to just have a go. Also, things like skateboarding taught me from a young age to look at the world around me with a different perspective from other people and I think that skill has been transferred into my writing, looking at the world as an outsider but also, the way that you’re out on the streets all day and night means you rub shoulders with the people that those sitting at home don’t even know exist. The weird, wonderful and sometimes not wonderful people that lie underneath society’s veil.
I think all of the facets of the world are a great inspirations and the microcosm which I know intimately has enough for me so that I don’t have to go any further to be able to portrays something that I feel is different to anything else we’ve seen in literature at this point. A lot of the characters in this book are people that would never have had their own pages previously.
Q2: Before we discuss the contents of the book tell us about the photo on the cover…well the hell is that from?
These are bollards outside the primary school up the road from my house and the picture was taken by my wife, Sophie Gibson, who is a talented photographer and designer. The story of this one particular girl is that as soon as she was installed, her face went black overnight. The people who installed her said there was something wrong, that she kept wriggling while they were trying to cast her in the post crete. At the beginning, she was scrubbed clean of the black soot in the morning and overnight it would return. A medium was called out and she communicated, said that it was Sarah Clunes, daughter of miner Pete Clunes. Said she had trouble getting much out of her for the screams. Anyway, when it was looked into, it turned out that Sarah had gone to the pit one day to pass a message to her dad and someone thought it was a good idea to take her down. Needless to say, it caved in and she was never seen again. Now they leave the black face and parents tell their children not to look her in the eye or they will hear her screams for the rest of their lives. The council were asked to remove her but people are worried about what might happen if they do.
Wow, I had no idea there was such and fascinating background to that photo.
Q3: So what is the book about?
The Bygones is a small story collection that is set out as a journey through a location, meeting some of the people that live there and letting them show you whatever story they want to, in their own voice. It plays around with the idea of modern day folklore to the extent that oral storytelling in daily life mirrors this old tradition and the stories range from the very grounded to those that play around with more ethereal elements. It’s about nothing and everything and capturing a certain place at a certain time and letting it be how it is forever.
Q4: You have written a story called Gnomes, well done you for raising awareness of God’s mightiest creatures. Where did the inspiration come from?
Gnomes was actually a story inspired by a story. My mum told me years ago about this woman who she remembered from her childhood. I vaguely remembered this story but had a vivid picture of the woman in my head regardless, her looks mirroring how I thought she would act and I basically let this character and the narrator direct their own interactions and his meeting with Karen, the gnome lady, turned out to really affect him more than I thought it would.
Funnily enough, when my mum read the story eventually, she said to me, ‘The real story was loads weirder than that.’ So it seems I toned it down a bit whilst thinking I was doing the opposite but this is all part of the folklore, it changes from person to person.
Q5: I read that you are the co-founder of Hi Vis Press and Hand Job Zine, how did you get into that and which of them would win in a fight?
Hand Job would slip a knife into Hi Vis without it even realising there was a confrontation.
But in reality, they were the same beast. We started Hand Job Zine as a really anti lit zine that went against all of the stilted, arts council funded, boringly formal and non-risk taking publications that were out there. There was none of the anarchy, transgression or boundary pushing that historically had produced the most exciting work and that’s what we were after so we didn’t sit around waiting for it. We just did it ourselves. It started off being a cut and paste old school zine but, issue by issue, it started to look more designed whist holding the same ethos at its heart. Eventually, we thought we could do a coffee table mag with the same style of writing but presented in a way that people would respect the writing inside as much as it deserves to be. So there was Hi Vis Press and Low Light Magazine. We produced two issues of a stunning lit and photography mag that I still think was better than anything else on the market and 2 books. The collection Extreme Violets by extremely talented poet Miggy Angel and Billy and the Devil by Dean Lilleyman. Both are recommended as truly great progressive works if you can find them anywhere. Now though, time doesn’t allow us to pursue this but we’ve always said, it’s not dead, just sleeping. I’m sure that we’ll come back to it at some point in the years to come if we manage to wiggle a bit more free-time.
I have read Billy and the Devil and it is one hell of a book, my review for those needing convincing is HERE:
Q6: Are you much of a reader? What is the best book you’ve read recently, and which is the book you first fell in love with?
I love reading as much as I have time to and lately have been trying to read as much contemporary stuff as I can as it’s all too easy to get lost in the past classics which I have mainly done for my reading life. I’m finding a wealth of amazing writing out there. My favourite book that I’ve read recently has to be The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Marianna Enriquez. I love reading works from other countries and cultures and seeing how the voice and style differs. This, for me, was great in the way that it approached darker subject matters in an almost hypnotic and uncanny way whilst also being very anchored in its world. But there are also writers much closer to home, like Rob True, that have a writing style that is very unique to their own perceptions of the world. I like things that are different to the norm.
The first book that I fell in love with was Trainspotting. I had started vaguely getting into reading and a teacher at school recommended it to me (who had once found me with marijuana in a lesson) I’ll let you decide if that was appropriate or not. But it was a revolution of how you could approach characters, what stories you could tell and how you could do it. Up until this point I had only really read what we studied at school and whilst I knew there was something that I enjoyed in it, it wasn’t until I read trainspotting that I was excited about what was to come. After this there was many more book loves to come and funnily enough, one of my all-time favourites, Last Exit to Brooklyn, has an introduction by Irvine Welsh talking about how much of an influence it was on him. The circle is complete.
Q7: Time for some random questions. If you could have a meal with anybody, dead/alive/undead, who would you pick and what would the meal consist of?
I dunno, I’m a fan of my own company to be honest. I think I’d just stick with my wife and the dog and a mish-mash of everything that’s bad for you. Either that or go for a burger with The Dude from Big Lebowski, not Jeff Bridges though, just The Dude. Maybe a bit of bowling. I think I’d enjoy that. Something steady.
Q8: If you could put your name to an award, what would it be an award for and how big a bribe do you need for me to win it?
These are like those questions you get at job interviews that make you want to kill yourself. Why do you do this to me? (Assassination attempt 1 has been foiled)
An award for lives lived with a complete absence of modern technology. I’m hoping I’ll get to win that award in the future but for now I’ve gotta hustle. I always admire those people who live out in the wild and grow veg and have animals and everything; that’s what we’re working towards. It wouldn’t take a bribe for you to win it, some doctored images would do. We wouldn’t come out and visit you unless it was within tandomcycling distance.
Q9: I’m planning on making a movie for Adam Sandler, could you quickly write a plot for the movie as I need to do a trailer by the end of the week, no limit to budget cos I is well rich.
Well the classic Sandler character is a loveable but slightly dim American guy in a heartwarming comedy so instead I’d chuck him into a Shane Meadows film or something. Have him play like a British crack head, have him signing on and going to the clubby for a few pints. I don’t think I’d go for a plot, what I’d do is I’d have him live the life for three months prior and then just chuck him into situations for him to improvise. Like having someone start a fight with him in Wetherspoons or send him to KFC when they’ve ran out of chicken or have him wonder around derelict post-industrial landscapes. I think that would be a good experiment.
Haha that would be epic.
Q10: What’s your opinion on music? Is it real and what is your favourite song?
Music without lyrics is more real than our lives and speaks to a place inside of us that we can’t reach on a conscious level. With lyrics its good fun. I’m one of these with really eclectic taste so I’ll go from hardcore punk to minimal piano pieces in one playlist. As for favourite song, it’s a toss-up between The The – This is The Day for its total and utter euphoria and Lucinda Williams – Fruits of my Labour because it’s an absolutely beautiful song and was used at mine and Sophie’s wedding.
Q11: What’s next for you? Any new books on their way?
Well, I’ve just had a story released with Nightjar Press as they publish single stories in chapbooks. It was a great honour to be included in this series.
Apart from this, I’m always working on stuff and have a novel, The Warren, drafted out and being read by the publisher. There’s nothing set in stone but hopefully that will be the next book and acts as a progression from The Bygones. The narrative voice is similar in the way that the characters talk directly to you and how each chapter was written as a short story in itself rather than an altogether plot which hopefully shows a fragmented reality much the same as real life. Characters have their own stories and then there are larger sections where their stories overlap. It is quite transgressive and experimental at times and may test some readers but I feel like people who enjoyed The Bygones would really enjoy The Warren.
Also, I’m working on a couple of projects with photographers, one loosely based around the life of D H Lawrence who is a literary legend in this area and another to produce a piece of prose to accompany a photobook and exhibition based around council flats in Sheffield where I briefly lived. I love working across mediums with other artists as I feel that the people who approach me with ideas really get that these aren’t just stories, they’re written paintings, musical melodies in words, they’re atmosphere and tone rather than plot. And for this reason they work well with other forms of art.
Practical task: I have a gnome gallery on my blog, every victim I interview gets to create a piece of artwork based on Gnomes, can be any medium and you are welcome to name the piece.
O pale Ophellia! Beautiful as snow!

Many thanks to Jim for taking part in this interview and sharing some fantastic books, also check out his book The Bygones, especially for the Gnome story. Not sure him drowning a Gnome should be classed as art but like his teacher as school I’ll let him get away with it this time. If, like me, you want to stalk Jim then check out this tree link thingy.