Book Review: Release The Bats

 When DBC Pierre arrived on the literary scene in 2003 with the Booker-winning Vernon God Little, it seemed that he had appeared fully-formed out of nowhere. Which he more or less had: “I started to write. It wasn’t a lifelong wish. I didn’t train for it, didn’t know any writers, editors or publishers. I just had a strong feeling with nowhere to go.”
Subtitled Writing Your Way Out Of It, his fifth offering, Release The Bats, is a hugely entertaining, semi-autobiographical, warts-and-all guide to the art, craft and mysteries of creating fiction.  
In chapters such as ‘Bad Tequila’, ‘Crap’, ‘Drugs’ and ‘Weakness’, he examines the pitfalls facing any brave soul staring frustratedly at a blank page all day. In others, such as ‘Characters’, ‘Surprise’, ‘Denouement’ and ‘Symbols’, he offers solid practical advice about storytelling.  
Funny, irreverent, thought-provoking and occasionally batty, this is a must-read for any aspiring author.