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The Great When

Long London, Book 1

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The Great When

By: Alan Moore
Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
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About this listen

 Bloomsbury presents The Great When by Alan Moore, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.

Nominated for Best Performance: Narrator at The Speakies (The British Audio Awards).

This audiobook features an exclusive essay, The True History of What Didn’t Happen, written and read by Alan Moore.

‘I was in the wrong London. It was horrible. I’d fallen in by accident, and it was all alive and trying to eat me.’

The year 1949, the city London.

Hapless second-hand bookseller Dennis stumbles through a city still shaking off the war. While out procuring inventory, Dennis’s life changes forever when he chances upon a novel that shouldn’t exist; an entirely fictional book from inside another novel.

The book hails from The Great When, a magical shadow-London, where reality blurs with fiction and concepts like Crime, Poetry and Riot are incarnated as mystical beings that stalk the streets. This discovery brings terrible danger, as the book’s presence leaves the doorway open between the two Londons, and The Great When must remain a secret.

Soon Dennis finds himself in the city’s occult underbelly, negotiating sorcerers, gangsters, and murderers – some imaginary, some all too real, and all with plans of their own. If Dennis cannot return the book and close the gate, he risks dire repercussions...

Neither London will ever be the same again.

History collides with magic in The Great When. Dark, ridiculous, propulsive, Sunday Times bestseller Alan Moore opens the gates to capital metafictional chaos in the genre-busting first instalment of the Long London series.

'It does what fantasy does best which is show us something beyond our experience… this shows us something absolutely new' Susanna Clarke

'A breathless time-travelling classic. Savage, humane, comic, terrifying' Iain Sinclair

'Brilliant and so powerfully imaginative’ Adam Curtis

'A weird book and a complete joy' Mariana Enríquez

‘A masterful step from one of our very best, uncompromising storytellers; Moore peels back the layers of London and reveals not only the history we know, but the histories that could have been, and, underneath it all, both the dark and beautiful truths about who we are as a nation.’ Heather Parry©2024 Alan Moore (P)2024 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Crime Dark Fantasy Fantasy Genre Fiction Historical Magical Realism Murder England Magic Mind-bending Fiction

Continue the series
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Good tight plotting which from Moore's novels isn't always a given. The characters feel alive.

Beautiful language as usual from Moore.

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I loved the insanely densely packed descriptions, more vivid than a 15 year old’s hair (I am still scarred by that revelation). Thought Kobna, whose work I much admired on Rivers and Morden, was the perfect foil. Only disappointments were the slightly abrupt and downbeat ending, and the fact that I will now have to wait what will feel like ages for the next instalment.

Tour de force

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A really rich use of language that takes us into the hidden true face of London. We are also taken on this journey by a wonderful voice artist as narrator.

Beautifully written, curiously created

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if you appreciate Alan Moore, you'll love this book. Brilliantly read by KHS too!

one of the great authors

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Couldn’t stop listening, what a great story! Already can’t wait for the next one, hope Grace makes an appearance and we get to know more about her. The performance was at times a bit much (the coughing for example), but good overall.

Absolutely captivating book

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