We've given BOX a press date of 30th January. Mark Powell was selected to bepart of Waterstones Books Quarterly's 'New Talent' feature and the January issue included a picture of him on the cover which is great news. Mark has been interviewed for the My Name Is... column in TIME OUT (15 January) and has also done the full page 'My Stop' interview in METRO (20th January). He has written a feature for the EVENING STANDARD on his research as a male escort which will run on 14th February, and MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS are doing a featureinterview with him. Mark has also written the Confession of a Tourist piece for THE SUNDAY TIMES which will ran on 16 March. Mark will also be interviewed by MENSA magazine and was interviewed for ANGEL magazine, for a piece that ran in the March issue, for World Book Day. On radio he is being interviewed on the Brian Morton Show (BBC RADIO SCOTLAND) on 30th January, THE FI GLOVER PROGRAMME (BBC RADIO 5 LIVE) on 28th January as well as BBC RADIO NEWCASTLE, BBC RADIO LEEDS, BBC RADIO ESSEX, BFBS RADIO and NEWS TALK 106 (DUBLIN). The BIG ISSUE are mentioning Mark in a piece they are doing in the Summer about 'getting published'. On the events front Mark did a great, and packed out, Vox'n' Roll event at The Mini Bar, Higbury Corner, on 23rd January . We've had a great quote from Scarlet Thomas - 'Authentic and intimate. Powell's passionfor London - and the people who live there - is stamped on every page.' And the first reviews have been fantastic: '...BOX is more than just a thriller. Powell's razor-sharp prose and ear for idiom is a treat, and he succeeds in showing us the worlds within worlds that make up the metropolis, and the dreadful results when they collide.'Melissa Katsoulis, TIMES 'BOX, like Powell's first novel, SNAP, is a sparse, tender, savvy, bitter-sweet gem of a contemporary novel...Excellent.'Michael Thompson-Noel, FINANCIAL TIMES 'Powell's strength lies in his grasp of contermporary regional English speech, spattered with homeboy Americanisms. His prose is short, sharp and sparky, his refreshing,unique voice is both brutal and tender and his need to shock is lightened bythe near musical poetics of the narrative... BOX is urban and compact, a stark and gripping read. A short, black and sideways look at London under-living.'WATERSTONES BOOK QUARTERLY Powell's second novel, BOX, is dark stuff. Yet the central personalities steadily acquire form, colour and depth like imageson a Polaroid. The compassion with which Powell treats them redeems from despair a desolate tale about depressed and depressing people; gives us the emotional wherewithal to engage with their mess and even, occasionally, laugh.Nick Seddon, TIME OUT 'Like Irvine Welsh rewritten in English. Grotty lives portrayed keenly, sympathetically and unpatronisingly.'FHM 'Mark Powell works a beguiling tale...communicationg a real passion for London. His staccato writing style also lends a type of gritty poetry to the urban scenes he describes and he leavens the bleakness of his characters' lives with just the right amount of humour.'METRO 'BOX has the familiar mix of larger-than-life characters, sharp dialogue and spiky prose, which together pack more punch than cruise missile...moving, funny, thought-provoking and never, ever dull.'YORKSHIRE EVENING POST 'Tersley told in spare but effectuve prose and containing some brutal moments, BOX still manages to maintain a good-humoured humanity: Powell demonstrates an admirable and non-judgmental empathy for his characters, and agenuine love of London in all its aspects.'CITY LIFE There has also been a me
