The Underground Man
Synopsis
The 5th Duke of Portland is a Victorian misfit, a man who spends his time and wealth creating a network of tunnels beneath his Nottinghamshire estate. As he withdraws further from society he falls prey to his lonely self-absorption and to the mercy of his household staff. His rare appearances are misinterpreted and local gossip has inflated his eccentricities into sinister deformities. No one, not even he, understands his most persistent ache, a pain of absence that no amount of tunnelling or searching can bring to life. The Duke’s slow piecing together of the truth about his past builds to an intensely moving and powerful conclusion.
Author Biography
Mick Jackson was born in Great Harwood, Lancashire in 1960 and has a degree in Theatre Studies from Dartington College of Arts. He is a graduate of the Creative Writing course at the University of East Anglia under the tutelage of Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain. On leaving college he formed a band and for the next seven years worked as the singer/songwriter with various incarnations of The Screaming Abdabs and The Dinner Ladies. This resulted in the release of four records and appearances at festivals such as Glastonbury and Reading, as well as national radio sessions for DJs. In 1990 Jackson gave up his life of music and performance to concentrate on writing fiction. He has researched and directed a short documentary for Westcountry TV about people who live under pylons called The Pylon People and wrote and directed a short drama called Pieces of the Moon for Anglia TV/Eastern Arts. He is the author of The Underground Man (1997) which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for fiction. He is also the author of Five Boys (2001) and Ten Sorry Tales (2005), a collection of short stories.
