Two innovative writers come together to explore how death, shock, trauma, brutality and the most macabre figures in British crime history have informed their writing, in an event presented in partnership with Pariah Press and Granta.

Weaving audio and visual material – and Harland Miller’s paintings – Austin Collings and Mark Blacklock will discuss their own haunting, grisly and unforgettable work in the challenging context of the Yorkshire Ripper Hoaxer and other shocking crimes that have dominated the British headlines.

Austin Collings is the author of Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith and The Myth of Brilliant Summers. Painting vivid, personal pictures that live the reader, The Myth of Brilliant Summers is a series of interlinked stories/modern day parables about outsiders and dreamers following in the cult tradition of Junky and Post Office.

In his provocative novel I’m Jack, Mark Blacklock portrays the true and complex history of John Humble aka Wearside Jack, the Yorkshire Ripper Hoaxer – a timewaster and criminal, sympathetic and revolting – in a virtuoso assemblage of textual elements described by Iain Sinclair as ‘Spare. Swift. Smart. And dangerous.’