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It does not really help to speak of a personal nightmare again, it just brings back hurt, sadness and anger too, so on to pastures new. In 30 years there have only really been three great drama series on the BBC. The first was I Claudius, dated in style and probably sets now, but extraordinary, and because not only were the cast the greats of British acting, especially Derek Jacobi, but because it was drawn from Robert Grave’s novels, and put such emphasis on the script. It is always about the writing first. It put those expensive historical costume dramas like The Tudors to complete shame.

The second was Edge of Darkness, because the absolutely realistic drama stepped to the edge of the metaphysical. Bob Peck, in the search for his daughter’s murderers, and battling nuclear secrets, but always refusing to be ‘on your side’ was magnificent and if you read the published script, even the ‘stage directions’ speak of the depth of the writer’s vision.

The last and most recent is the remarkable The Shadow Line, written, produced and directed by Hugo Blick. Perhaps it’s obvious that an actor who played The Joker in Batman Returns, should so perfectly walk the line between dark and light. Where the police become the villains, and the villains the heroes, well, one or two of them, and all are aware of and affected by life’s shadow line. Hugo Blick was kind enough to look at an idea from Phoenix, which in the end he rather scorned, but it was useful, and an object lesson in how different writing for TV or Film is to writing novels.

Apparently in an imaginative attempt to reflect the structure of the Double Helix, Hugo sat down to write The Shadow Line, and produced drama shining in its clarity. Moving from mystery and even confusion to chillingly simple revelations. Apparently loved by actors, perhaps because it was not afraid to put almost ‘metaphysical’ dialogue into the mouths of who we imagine are ‘real’ people, and it is profoundly about people, and compassionate too, its structure and dynamic became so compulsive and convincing that it could confront the great issues, and really touched Aristole’s prescription for great tragedy, pity and terror. It was genuinely frightening, truly human and ultimately profound about love, life and survival. It is rather interesting that in jokey moments Blick apparently most associates with the almost superhuman figure of the carefully murderous Gatehouse. ‘You are the threads,’ says the puppet master, and ex spy, in a cheap trilby and sinistre gloves, “I am the rope.” Not an easily comfortable view of what binds man into the dynamic of life, but perhaps Hugo Blick will now write a comedy, in the Shakespearian sense, or maybe, after working with Steve Coogan, he has already jumped straight into the period of ‘the problem plays’.

When, like David Clement-Davies and Abrams editor TB, Neil Gaiman had a failed relationship at a publisher, according to word on the street, anyhow, he luckily did not suffer an equivalent calamity, but turned it to the magical novel Stardust. There are very telling points in it about an author’s intrinsic understanding of the realms of the psyche and imagination, as real to writers as the ‘real’ world, sometimes. First the old man, the classic guide figure in myth, suddenly turning in fright to that hole-in-the-wall he is guarding, and there must be a wall between the ‘two worlds’, and saying he always thought he had been defending the magical kingdom from humans, but actually they really weren’t so nice ‘in there’ either. The extraordinary forces inside the psyche, the potential shape of everything there is, perhaps, are often not very nice at all. But actually its most beautiful element is when that shining Stardust of true beauty and courage blazes with light, to protect her Man and King. So driving out all the forces of hate, control, jealousy, bad magic, age and death, to restore the complete and beautifully human, and confirm life. Like the ending sequence in the film ‘Altered States’, about the human male regressing to the wild and animal. The hero in Stardust learns that the source of his rejection in the human world was not good enough, and wins the archetypal feminine instead. It brings to mind a line from the Jungian psychologist Frank F Johnson though, about how incredibly powerful it is when a woman, active and understanding, does not run in judgement or fear from male anguish or rage, but can stand inside the eye of that potential storm and simply love. But then of course the love has to be real and the man has to be on the right journey too, to ‘capture’ the strength of true goodness and restored balance, and shine again with a burning and magical idealism. We are not archetypes, we are complex people, though we project images onto each other all the time, but anyone who writes into myth believes that those archetypes are real forces too, that can have both shattering and enormously creative consequences.

How moving Alan Yentob’s part dramatised documentary was on Van Gogh last night. A man whose spirit got so mangled in the machine, driven back into poverty, touching madness, yet who, after his suicide, achieved recognition, sales and values in their tens of millions, to hang on the walls of corporations and banks. Like Keat’s journey too, after he had been hammered by critics for Endymion. Van Gogh foresaw the irony of it himself, as we all see how much money and not the spirit is the real driver in the contemporary world, most especially perhaps in the art world. Perhaps it was ever thus. The artist’s grail is to keep telling ‘the truth’, their truth and meaning, in the face of it all, in the hope not only that their art can become visionary, but that those who think they are alone hear that they are not so alone after all. Van Gogh’s most vital relationship was with his brother Theo, who died just six months later, from syphilis, and was buried next to him. Truly heartbreaking, and yet that struggle for light, for love, even for some immortal truth is what survives, to re-inspire again and again. It was WH Auden who wrote that “all that survives of us is love.” Perhaps we should listen to artist’s voices far more closely and respect them far more too. Shelley wrote perhaps the most triumphant tribute to any artist’s really burning spirit in Adonais, in his tribute to Keats, and it might serve for Van Gogh too:

“He has outsoared the shadow of out night,
Envy, and calumny, and hate and pain
And that unrest which men miscall delight
Can touch him not, and torture not again.
From the contagion of the worlds slow stain
He is secure, and never more can mourn
A heart grown cold, a head grown grey in vain.
And when the Spirit’s Self has ceased to burn
With sparkless ashes load an unlamented urn.”

“I’m sorry I am unable to answer my mobile phone right now but, if you leave me a message The News of the World will e-mail it to me later.”

Well, we are now reading the bestselling eBook author John Locke, at Phoenix Ark, and it is bringing up many things, and not in fact our breakfast! Written in that ‘can-do’ American style, unashamedly sales orientated and brash, it does make some vital points. firstly it is completely in favour of eBooks and ‘self-published’ authors, in the face of a huge Publishing hypocrisy out there, and frankly, how can you do the thing at all if you’re not? So while Phoenix Ark has shared some authorial pain and indignation, perhaps that needs to stay inside book covers now, because what we really want to share is the success and the quality of our eBooks.

Secondly, it always reminds the writer of the reader and what they and you want to see and read. It is why the founder David Clement-Davies is announcing that as a writer he is turning back to what he does best, his ‘brand’ if you like, and that is fantasy epic and vivid animal stories. It is why Phoenix Ark have just published Michelangelo’s Mouse, which really contains the spirit of the whole big adventure and why we will publish Scream of The White Bear this year.

But Phoenix Ark Press itself has a brand. That brand is always GREAT STORY, and why we call ourselves the Storyteller’s Publisher. It really is built by artists and writers, for artists and writers. As a result what we are selling is hugely readable, page turning fiction like The Blood Garden and Ice, both very adult novels, but with a highly imaginative, even literary edge. That word ‘literature’ can put so many people off and yet it is only the life blood and tradition of great storytelling, and if the story does not work then the book will not work. Do check them out, under our Thumbmarks label, because you can’t know until you try and we always want to hear what you think.

The final thing is we love your engagement and very much want to hear from you. So please press those Like buttons, but also just contact us directly at the blog with thoughts, comments and reviews. Our writers are nothing without their readers. More John Locke thoughts to follow, positive and negative.

Phoenix have worked out the current issue, where’s the fun in it all? The joy, triumph and laughter. Whether a book contains dark or light, sorrow or joy, or the texture of all those things, writing must be fun and that’s the essential pact with readers too, who share imaginative vision, writer to reader, but very much at one remove, because a book is a thing in itself. So Phoenix Ark are all going to have much more fun, come what may! The burst of fun started with Michelangelo’s Mouse and is currently on it’s way with The Pimple Club and a French Revolutionary spy story.

We’ve just downloaded kindle for pc, instead of racing out to spend £150, which again underlines that ‘readers’ are nothing at all but little platforms, though the success of actual kindles is because people like to have a ‘thing’, just like a book. But access to the story could be from anywhere, laptop, pc, mac, home computer or physical, portable readers like a kindle, nook, Ipad, etc.

It is a complete nightmare for ‘professional’ writers and for publishers too, because it has thrown open the doors to so much product, how does anyone choose? But it underlines what professional publishing is, so much about design and marketing now, most vitally getting books known and talked about. But with readers leading the field in America, publishers are in turmoil, wondering what to do.

What they should always do, as Macmillan did in fighting Amazon’s attack on pricing, is hold their own and their ground, and keep on believing in great story and writers and artists too. Because in the end it is the powerful stories that readers will turn back to, however they get to them and feel most comfortable enjoying them.

The BBC’s documentary Fake or Fortune was another telling case of the worst side of Culture, not this time in publishing, but in the Art world. Philip Mould and Fiona Bruce took up the case of a reputed Monet, which for years the owner has been trying to prove is authentic. In the end the evidence was almost incontrovertible, backed by several international experts, yet when represented to the all important Wildenstein Institute it was rejected almost out of hand, because, it was claimed, Wildenstein’s father had seen the painting and dismissed it as a Monet, so there could be no argument. As the ironic poem has it ‘and what my father used to say, and what my father used to say, and what my father used to say, is good enough for me!‘ As if anyone was infallible, except naturally The Pope, the shock of it is that even in the face of such clear and public evidence, the ‘powers that be’ seem to hold the field, without any embarrassment, underlying it seems to us it is not about truth, nor the deeper spirit of art, but the Establishment, which in their day the greats were usually at war with, and most clearly dominance, power and money. We wonder how the fight can go on, because it certainly should do, and the BBC should back it. Philip Mould, always a deeply sensitive commentator, was quite right to confess his shame at that side of the business, and Phoenix Ark wonder where the real commentators are, although books and stories are far more personally judged, and where the scandal-exposers are too on what is continuing to happen in modern book publishing as well. Oh yes, at Phoenix Ark Press, we hope.

There were two important programmes broadcast last week, that showed some rather extraordinary and very worrying things. The first was the shocking John Snow documentary on the civil war in Sri Lanka, that ended in 2009, and cases filmed on mobile phones of clear murder and atrocity. Terrible enough in itself, and in support of the enquiry blocked at the UN, what was also extraordinary was that such an important programme was broadcast so late. Twenty years ago such a vital report would not have found such bizarre scheduling, but would have led mainstream broadcasting. Perhaps everything is being sacrificed to entertainment.

The second programme was Jammie Oliver’s Food Revolution in America. We know Phoenix has a gripe against American bullying, out of an individual publishing battle, in no small part because it is so out of step with those great ideals America claims to represent, like freedom and especially freedom of speech. However, Jamie Oliver’s battle with the LA school system was deeply worrying, and especially their complete lock down on his own freedom of speech, linked to the revoking of filming permits. The rest of the world knows about the health problems related to American over consumption, especially in fast food, and the programme may have been trying to play that paradoxical game of coverage and even celebrity, but it was committed and sincere.

How exciting, within just five days Michelangelo’s Mouse by David Clement-Davies has jumped to 22,000 in Amazon Kindle and number 7 in Music and Arts. It’s publication in this format has not been ideal for the author, fans or in fact business either, but perhaps something can happen, writer power to reader power, to shake up the utterly cynical system and remind the giants what it’s about, great stories. It’s certainly taken the kind of determination that Jotto, the little mouse with the leather waist-coat and sea-blue eyes, shows in Michelangelo’s Mouse! We’ll keep you posted, and maybe we can save a few careers…