Buoyed by the Prometheus Award recognition for his novel Cancelled: The Shape of Things to Come, British author Danny King is receiving international attention.
As the voting period enters its last three weeks to determine the winners of the next Prometheus awards, it’s worth highlighting how King’s novel and other of this year’s Best Novel finalists have been gaining recognition and sparking discussions in the broader culture. That includes Lionel Shriver’s Mania (the focus of the previous Prometheus blog post in this series.)
King recently was interviewed in Australia on the Liberty Itch Podcast.
During the wide-ranging interview, King discussed the anti-authoritarian and libertarian themes of Cancelled, what inspired him to make the central character of his “utopian/dystopian” tale a “woke” lesbian woman, and the unexpected difficulty he had getting his latest novel published.
The podcast hails Cancelled as “the latest book of multi-award winning writer Danny King” and “a satirical novel set in a future world in which saying or thinking the wrong thing gets you cancelled from mainstream society.”
According to the description of that podcast (Episode 13), Liberty Itch writer Tom Volcanos ask Danny about “Cancelled, being cancelled, and writing in our brave new world where being cancelled is all too real,” according to the podcast description.
Volcanos asked King to describe his latest book, “a satirical novel about a woke utopia called New Brittania, that’s identifying and cancelling people with problematic views.”
“It’s very funny, but Cancelled also could be an instruction manual for a New Brittania in the future,” King said. “If you took the left’s push for wokeness as far as it could go, where would we end up?”
IN THE SPIRIT OF GEORGE ORWELL
King counts himself an admirer of George Orwell (the literary pseudonym for the British writer Eric Blair), whose Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm became bestselling classics and later were inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.
“I wouldn’t put myself in the same breath as George Orwell, but in Nineteen Eighty-Four he was looking 40 years ahead, and in Cancelled, I look 60 years ahead,” King said.
“I take each strand of UK trends and policies and try to be as logical with it as I could, whether it’s policy surrounding gender, or sex, or immigration or meats (banned in the novel’s dystopian future) and peanuts. …It’s insane the rules surrounding nuts,” he said.
“In some ways, Cancelled is a utopian book, and it’s a woke utopia if you’re invested in it. So it’s really a utopian/dystopian novel.”
“You’ve get to get this stuff out in the open, and discuss it calmly, rationally and without prejudice. That’s how to address issues,” he said.
Ironically in retrospect, King was convinced while writing the novel that it would be “snapped up” by one of his British publishers.
His expectations, to put it mildly, were not met.
“Cancelled was, well, cancelled,” King said in the podcast.
“I’d had over 20 books published, some won awards and one was adapted into a BBC TV series. Yet, no publisher was interested in publishing it.
WHY KING WRITES MANY TYPES OF FICTION
An award-winning British novelist and screenwriter, King has written more than 20 novels as well as for the big and small screen.
According to his Amazon bio:
“His first book, The Burglar Diaries, won the 2002 Amazon Writers’ Bursary Award and was the basis of the BBC sitcom, Thieves Like Us. His debut feature, Wild Bill, won the 2012 Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award and a BAFTA nomination. His second film, Eat Locals, was released in 2017 and is available on Prime and DVD/Blu-ray.
His Monster Man series of novels were first published in Germany and were nominated for the Vincent Price Horror Awards.
His middle-grade novel, Amy X and The Great Race, won the children’s story prize at Wells Festival of Literature. And more recently, Cancelled was nominated for the Prometheus Award by the Libertarian Futurist Society.”
Noting that King has written all types of fiction – crime and detective novels, horror and children’s books, among other genres – Volcanos asked him how he approaches writing so many different types of fiction.
King responded that he doesn’t want to pigeonhole himself.
“I’m interested in a lot of things… I’m less interested in kings and queens (than in) ordinary people, small lives, probably because I’m a small man myself,” he said.
Some years ago, King wrote a novel called The Ugly Sisters (Icarus Publishing, 2013), in part reflecting his strong interest in writing strong female characters.
“It’s basically a Cinderella story but from the ugly sisters point of view. Cinderella is a conniving bitch trying to take over the kingdom and con everyone, but the only two people who see that are her sisters, so they are the heroines,” he said.
“I always like to flip (perspectives and assumptions)… Take a traditional villain and see what life is like from their point of view.”
CENTERING FEMALE CHARACTERS
The success of The Ugly Sisters led King to write Cancelled, which looks at life and Britain’s possible future from the perspective of two other central female characters in a lesbian relationship.
“All the (UK) publishers had on their (suggested literary focus) list that they liked stories about women and LGBT characters. All had the same profile… So many were interested in representing underrepresented voices that it was hard to understand how they could remain under-represented,” he said.
“So I decided to write a book about diversity, with all these woke issues and green philosophies in it. Cancelled had a strong message, two strong female characters, and it had substance over style. Yet, I literally couldn’t get anywhere with it,” King said.
“I thought it would get snapped up, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t at all. Most agents and publishers never got back to me. Those that did rejected me instantly, as if I’d sent them a box of spiders. I saw which way the wind was blowing, so I decided to publish it myself.”
RECEIVING PROMETHEUS RECOGNITION
The Prometheus Awards, and King’s recognition as a Prometheus nominee and then as a Best Novel finalist for Cancelled, were mentioned several times during the podcast.
“It popped up out of nowhere,” King said.
“When the Prometheus Awards nominated my novel, and made it a finalist, and it got glowing reviews and stuff, that reassures me that it’s not that bad,” he said.
“Especially when I’m put in the same crowd with Lionel Shriver” (another Best Novel finalist this year for Mania, also a satirical and dystopian cautionary tale set in a future United Kingdom).
“With the other finalist names I’m up against, that’s a win straight away. It’s a big honor to be named alongside them, whether I win or I don’t,” King said.
“Some (Best Novel finalists Wil McCarthy and C.J. Cherryh and Jane Fancher) have won the Prometheus award before, so I feel like a Johnny come lately. Being a finalist may be my high water mark, but I’m very happy to be included.”
WHY THE LIBERTY ITCH PODCAST INVITED KING
It makes sense that King would be invited for a discussion on The Liberty Itch Podcast, which defines its focus as an exploration of “fearless, battle-tested, libertarian ideas.”
The podcast, founded by Kenelm Tonkin and available on Spotify, features discussions on various topics from a libertarian viewpoint.
According to the podcast description, ongoing topics to explore include the dangers of government overreach and corruption, the importance of individual liberty and free markets, and the challenges and possibilities of implementing libertarian principles in the current political landscape.
The podcast also features interviews with individuals who have a libertarian perspective, such as politicians, writers, and thinkers.
For the full recording of the podcast interview and to explore other podcasts, visit the Liberty Itch on Spotify.
For further reading: heck out the previous Prometheus blog post, part one of this series, about Lionel Shriver’s interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali about Mania and from a Substack column finding all-too-timely parallels between Mania and disturbing trends in today’s world.
Coming up: Highlights of interviews and podcasts with Wil McCarthy, a Best Novel finalist this year for Beggar’s Sky, and the other authors of this year’s other Best Novel finalists.
Editor’s note: The Prometheus Blog strives to report widely on all Prometheus-recognized fiction and authors, especially if and when their work is referenced in the popular culture in newspapers, magazines, columns and debates.
If you know about such references, please bring them to our attention right away, so we can highlight them in a timely fashion.
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