Paul Cornell's Friday Newsletter

Ace Jacket is out next week!

I’ve contributed a short story to this anthology in aid of autism charities, edited by Sophie Aldred and Shawn J. Levy. It’s out next Tuesday, June 17th. You can read all about it and pre-order a copy here.

I’m a Guest at Caption!

On the afternoon of Sunday, August 17th, I’m going to be a guest at the Caption Small Press and Comics Festival in Botley, Oxford. I’m on the Networking in Comics panel. Do come along if you can!

‘The Longest War’

That’s the title of the issue of Commando I’ve written, which is tentatively due to be released in August. The artist is the great Steve Yeowell, and it’s amazing work. I’m delighted to have contributed to this very exacting classic format. More news nearer the time!

Gnomes of Lychford and The Lychford Collection

On 9th September, Tor.com Publishing is releasing the sixth book in my Lychford series of rural fantasy novellas, Gnomes of Lychford. It’s a re-editing of the serial I ran on this newsletter, and I’ve taken the opportunity to sort out a couple of little plot problems. I think it’s my best Lychford book, and, weirdly, it’s a great jumping-on point, because everything about the series is explained at the start. You can read all about it here.

And you can now pre-order!

“An unlikely group of supernatural creatures terrorizes the sleepy village of Lychford. Okay, they're gnomes. That's not a spoiler: you worked it out it from the title. When an ancient prophecy clashes with an unfortunate modern design aesthetic, the people of Lychford must band together to put out fires (both literal and metaphorical) to save their town before the king of the Gnomes (King Greg, and it's dangerous to laugh at a gnome) calls in the terms of an old promise. Trouble is: no one knows what the promise is, nor how to fulfil it. It's going to be a long night.”

And also up for pre-order, and out on the same day is The Lychford Collection, which contains my first three Lychford novellas. (Cover design for both by FORT.)

Who Killed Nessie Bookstore Edition and London Signing! (Lots of publicity next week!)

On 18th September, Avery Hill will be releasing a bookstore edition of Who Killed Nessie?, the graphic novel by myself and the great Rachael Smith.

Our first feature review is out! Take a look at this great write-up at Monkeys Fighting Robots!

Next week there will be a publicity push, so I’ll have new stuff to share with you!

You can pre-order it already from Amazon UK and Amazon US. And you can order it from all good bookstores and comic shops.

“A cosy comedy murder mystery… with a monstrous twist! Lyndsay Grockle has just started her new job at an isolated hotel. She’s trying to get over heartbreak. She’s amazed to be left in sole charge just before a big convention. When the terrifying guests start to arrive, she realises why: this is a gathering of the fantastic beasts of myth and legend! The attendees ask her to stay in her room and let them be. But when the Loch Ness Monster is found dead, there’s nobody else they trust to solve the murder. She may not entirely believe in them… but they believe in her! Lyndsay is going to have to dig deep into her own fears and vulnerabilities to discover… WHO KILLED NESSIE?”

Those of you who backed the graphic novel on Zoop, don’t worry, you’ll be getting a unique edition with a different cover. (And you’ll be getting it first.)

And on Saturday, 20th September, from 1pm-2pm, Rachael and I will be signing the book (copies of which will be on sale) at Waterstones London-Piccadilly!

You can read all about that free-to-attend event here. I hope to see you there!

The Mighty Avengers vs. the 1970s

On November 13th, I’ve got a book coming out from Bloomsbury that’s part of a new range of popular studies of Marvel Comics! The Mighty Avengers vs. the 1970s is fully illustrated with panels from the comics, and is my journey through how Marvel’s main super team navigated that difficult decade. You can read the announcement here at AP News. This is very much a labour of love for me, a book I’ve wanted to find a way to write for the longest time.

And you can now pre-order it from the publisher (and from all good booksellers)!

Thought Bubble (now with exhibitor list!)

Our application has been accepted, so I’m pleased to say that Lizbeth Myles and I will once more be tabling at the wonderful Thought Bubble comic convention in Harrogate on November 15th and 16th. (You can find the full list of exhibitors here.)

Of Intrigue and Espionage

I have a story in this just-announced forthcoming volume from Stars and Sabers publishing, which is due out in October 2026. I’m in good company, as you can see from the full announcement here.

Telefantasy Time Jump

The new podcast from me and Lizbeth Myles covers the history of SFF on TV, from 1953 onward, with our regular episodes (on the 14th of every month) covering a show released that year in the UK, and the Patron Bonus episodes (on the 28th) covering a show from the rest of the world. The shows for June (covering 1958) are The Invisible Man (plus the play I Can Destroy the Sun) and Tales of Frankenstein. The main episode is available free wherever you get your podcasts. To get the bonus episode, you need to follow us on Patreon at £3/$3 or above. (And you get access to seven years of Hammer House of Podcast bonus episodes!) You can find all the info here.

My Ko-fi and eBay Stores

Here’s my Ko-fi store, where you can buy my books and comics, signed and personalised, for shipping worldwide. And here’s my ebay store, full of Bronze Age Marvel comics at bargain prices.

My Linktree

You can now find all my social media links, my website/blog and links to where you can buy my books, in one place here, thanks to Linktree!

The Work of Friends

Lots this week!

My friend Emma Vieceli has written a musical, and it’s being performed for the first time in Cambridge in September! It’s called Unfolding, and the lead song from it, the intensely moving ‘It Starts Small’, has already won an award.

“Rose is turning 40. Stuck in a dead-end job and living in the shadow of her father’s suicide, she escapes into her letters with Mark, a man on the other side of the world who she’s never met. For nearly thirty years Rose has been braver on paper than in person, but when Mark’s letters suddenly stop, everything changes. Rose is about to discover that life is not always what it seems, and that the greatest adventures really do start with just one step. Written by Cambridge-based comic book creator and illustrator Emma Vieceli, and featuring the award-winning song ‘It Starts Small’, Unfolding is a new original music about friendship, fear, and finding your way back to yourself.”

The production is suitable for ages 12 and over, but parental discretion is recommended with regard to the themes explored in the musical (there’s a spoiler content warning you can access on the site.)

You can buy tickets here. Depending on when you go, you’ll see me there!

My friend Antony Johnston’s new book, Can You Solve the Murder?, a choose-your-own-story crime novel, is out now in the UK (July 1st in the U.S. and Canada). Incredibly, there’s also a working audiobook version!

“An interactive crime novel in which YOU are the detective. At the end of every chapter, you choose where to go next! There’s been a murder at Elysium, a wellness retreat set in an English country manor. You arrive to find the body of a local businessman on the lawn – with a rose placed in his mouth. It appears he fell to his death from the balcony above. But that balcony can only be accessed through a locked door, the key is missing, and everyone in Elysium is now a suspect . . . Gather the evidence and examine the clues. Choose who to interview next, and who to accuse as your prime suspect. But remember that every decision you make has consequences, and some of them will prove fatal . . . Do you have what it takes? Can YOU solve the murder?”

And Antony is now on tour to support the launch!

My friend Adam Christopher has a new book up for pre-order! Crawlspace is an SF horror novel, out on March 17th, 2026.

“Enter an edge-of-your-seat nightmare to the darkest frontiers in Crawlspace, a sci-fi horror novel from New York Times bestselling author Adam Christopher, perfect for fans of S.A. Barnes and Event Horizon. Mission Lead Olivia O’Connor and her team from the Artemis Corporation, along with their military liaison, are in the final preparations for an undertaking that will alter the course of human history: a test flight that promises to open up new frontiers in the expanse of the universe. But their journey between dimensions is one they never trained for. Strange voices in the corridors. Long lost faces not forgotten. Strange symbols carved into the hull. And gathering outside the ship, ancient forces beyond reckoning. The crew will need all their skills to survive and uncover the twisted truth behind their mission. Commencing countdown...”

My friend Lee Harris is releasing episodes offering the advice of ‘best-selling novelist’ Monty Wisdom. You can hear his, err, words of wisdom, at his very plush website here. (It’s a work in progress, so not every part of it works yet, all of which could be a description of Monty himself.)

My friend Alec Nevala-Lee has a new non-fiction book, Collisions, A Physicist's Journey from Hiroshima to the Death of the Dinosaurs, out now!

“From the acclaimed biographer of Buckminster Fuller, a riveting biography of the Nobel Prize–winning physicist who became the greatest scientific detective of the twentieth century. To his admirers, Luis W. Alvarez was the most accomplished, inventive, and versatile experimental physicist of his generation. During World War II, he achieved major breakthroughs in radar, played a key role in the Manhattan Project, and served as the lead scientific observer at the bombing of Hiroshima. In the decades that followed, he revolutionized particle physics with the hydrogen bubble chamber, developed an innovative X-ray method to search for hidden chambers in the Pyramid of Chephren, and shot melons at a rifle range to test his controversial theory about the Kennedy assassination. At the very end of his life, he collaborated with his son to demonstrate that an asteroid impact was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs, igniting a furious debate that raged for years after his death. Alvarez was also a combative and relentlessly ambitious figure—widely feared by his students and associates—who testified as a government witness at the security hearing that destroyed the public career of his friend and colleague J. Robert Oppenheimer. In the first comprehensive biography of Alvarez, Alec Nevala-Lee vividly recounts one of the most compelling untold stories in modern science, a narrative overflowing with ideas, lessons, and anecdotes that will fascinate anyone with an interest in how genius and creativity collide with the problems of an increasingly challenging world.”

And my friend David Quantick has a new short story collection, And Other Stories, coming out on 7th August!

“A funny, sinister, unsettling, baffling collection of 33 imaginings from the mind of David Quantick. And what a mind! The collection dives into otherworldliness from the outset. From small-town (village) horror to the eye-watering episode when an autonomous toothbrush journeys through an unfortunate’s internal organs and finally emerging, well, we’ll let you discover for yourselves where. David is a genius in stripped down comic absurdity as well as colourful descriptive prose and this translates to the page in its myriad forms.”

My Week

Working at Fairford Festival always leaves me exhausted, but in a good way. Last weekend, I interviewed Jill Mansell onstage, hosted a Mr. and Mrs game show and set and hosted the Festival Quiz (with Caroline presenting half the rounds). Inbetween, I was carrying things, setting things up and, on the Monday morning, emptying rubbish bins and clearing the Cricket Club field of debris. It really is extraordinary that a small team of volunteers makes this huge, incredibly varied, show happen every year. (We go from a bat walk on the Tuesday to an open-air movie and a cheese and wine tasting on the Thursday, through bands, real ale, a dog show, a tug of war, a parade, two road races, a silent disco, a children’s tent and a fete, closing with the aforementioned Quiz on the Sunday evening.) I’m proud to be a part of it. I took Friday off from the work rota this year to enjoy an evening with bands Cover Me Badd and The Faux Fighters. Both of those were actually wedding function bands, in that our team-mate Laura got married and decided that the first night of the Festival this year could also serve as her reception! Hence the love theme, hence me finding a romance author to interview. Landing my three events was something I derived huge satisfaction from. Doing something creative that’s appreciated by one’s local community is, at least for me, the best tonic for how the awful news from around the world makes one feel. (Mind you, my back gave out a couple of days later, meaning I didn’t get to play cricket on Wednesday.)

Here are a few photos from the weekend.

It’s a far cry from San Diego Comic Con, but I see lots in common. I think some of my peers would say me sharing my participation in local events like that lessens my brand, but honestly it’s what I live for. I also think a lot of you in the audience enjoy hearing about my life in the Cotswolds, especially if you read the Lychford books.

Speaking of SDCC, I’m now spending a lot of time ramping up prep for that, especially for a lovely announcement that’ll be coming out just before, and supported by several events on that weekend. Yesterday, I started to write the novel I’ve had commissioned, which is an Official Sequel (and about which I can say no more).

Thomas, of course, regarded the Festival as an annoying noise in the distance which disrupted his schedule and sometimes provided chips. He’s still doing great. His new thing is that he’s started to say ‘good to see you’ to Caroline when she enters the room. But not to me. Hmm.

Oh, and so, there was this huge job, an actual job job, employment with a company that would mean I could do nothing else, at £85k a year, and I was on the final stage of applying for it, about to do this big test of my abililities… and I decided I didn’t want it. I didn’t want a two hour commute each way every day. I didn’t want to stop owning my work. I didn’t want, in the end, to stop being a freelancer. They were quite surprised to get my withdrawl email. As soon as I made that decision, a weight lifted from my shoulders.

People may or may not see Fairford Festival when they look at me and my work, at my brand. They may or may not want to. But I can be that and I can be San Diego Comic Con at the same time. They don’t ask me to choose between them. If I’d taken the job, I couldn’t have kept either. And then I would have stopped being me.

To Be Continued

Lots of Nessie stuff next week!

And I hope to see all of you again then too!