After a few weeks, I climbed out of my lightning-filled rabbit hole, dusted myself down, and returned to that innocent boy from Morrison’s book. What if the boy had also come across this book, I thought? It was certainly possible. What about if he had a mentor who helped him read? What about if this innocent boy learns about electricity, it empowers him, and he becomes a vigilante. This was beginning to sound like a gothic version of Top Boy.
Now all I needed was a villain.
Way back in 2019, I remembered a walk to Hoxton Street took me to a strange shop that seemed at odds with the cafes dotted along it. The Victorian style windows of The Hoxton Monster Supplies contained all sorts of gentle horror props and tropes that I loved as a kid. Jars of ‘The Thickest Human Snot’ sat next to cans of ‘A Vague Sense of Unease’. I’m sure there were some eyeballs involved as well. But what was this place? I subsequently found out that it was a community space run by The Ministry of Stories for encouraging creative writing in children. All the stranger as it had links with the university (Goldsmiths, University of London) where I ended up studying my MA a year later, under the tutelage of the Historian turned blockbuster novelist, Francis Spufford. Coincidence or fate? I don’t really believe in coincidence.
That shop visit inspired me to write the first words to The Book of Thunder and Lightning. I wanted to get a sense of a boy entering a dangerous world where anything could happen:
Dark blue door. Filthy windows. Doormats stacked up next to brass lamps and coal buckets. Everyone knew Hush’s Haberdashers in The Old Nichol.
Tom entered the shop and Theodore Hush appeared from a tiny opening in the wall of goods piled high and wide on the counter. He had a thin, mean face.
The shop always smelt of damp wood mixed with paraffin. Hundreds of mouse traps hung from the low ceiling and shiny white moth balls spilled out of glass jars like dead eyes.
So, I had a protagonist (the boy), a villain (Hush) and a setting (the Old Nichol). But what about the potato? I hear you say. Well, you’ll just have to buy the book to find out.
The Book of Thunder and Lightning by Seb Duncan is available for pre-order from Roundfire Books. https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/roundfire-books/our-books/book-thunder-lightning-novel