Michael Darren David Johnston, known as D.D. Johnston, (born 1979) is a Scottish political novelist. He currently lives in Cheltenham, England.[1] The left-wing British newspaper the Morning Star called him "one of this country’s most principled socialist novelists" and "also one of the most versatile and talented around."[2] He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and attended university there.

Novels

Johnston's first novel, Peace, Love & Petrol Bombs, from the anarchist publisher AK Press in Oakland, California, was selected as a Herald Book of the Year by Helen Fitzgerald.[3] It has been translated into Spanish as Paz, amor y cócteles molotov (Hoja de Lata, 2013).[1] Johnston's second, The Deconstruction of Professor Thrub, from Barbican Press, was written for a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Gloucestershire.[4]

A third novel, The Secret Baby Room, was published in July 2015.[1] It is a psychological thriller set in Manchester. The author commented: "It’s taken me slightly longer to finish it than it took the Achaeans to fight the Trojan War. I hope it’s worth the wait."[5]

His novel "Disnaeland" was published in hardback by Barbican Press in 2022. The Financial Times summed it up pretty fully in a short space: 'DD Johnston's Disnaeland, a comedic dystopia set in a small Scottish town, is all profanity and colloquial dialect. When civilisation collapses, a community struggles to unite and rebuild. Bringing light to a dark world is no mean feat, but the characters in the novel do just that, and so does the author. From the cunning pun of its title onward, Disnaeland is a scabrous treat.'[6] The book gives us a Scottish utopia, in the spirit of what D.D.Johnston professes about his work on his publisher's website: 'the consistent theme is his love for ordinary people, and his faith in the extraordinary things we can achieve together.'[7]

Lecturing

Johnston is a senior lecturer in creative writing at the University of Gloucestershire.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 D.D. Johnston, About, n.d. Accessed 17 June 2015
  2. ↑ Morning Star Paul Simon, Morning Star, 7 April 2015 Archived 28 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 25 May 2015.
  3. ↑ 'Books of the Year' The Herald, 27 November 2011 Accessed 25 May 2015
  4. ↑ Find your Voice on a Creative Writing Course, Ann Morgan, The Guardian, 10 November 2014 Accessed 25 May 2015
  5. ↑ London: Barbican Press, 2015. ISBN 1909954187; Northern Soul: Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  6. ↑ Lovegrove, James. "The Best New Science Fiction Books". Financial Times. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  7. ↑ "D.D.Johnston". Barbican Press. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  8. ↑ D.D. Johnston 'Room 101' Harrogate International Festivals Archived 2015-05-28 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 25 May 2015
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