If you've been feeling an aching, empty chasm in your soul for about the last four years, then that's my fault, sorry. Things have been a bit quiet here lately, and if it wasn't for Bond popping up and popping off two years ago, things would have been deafeningly silent.
Anyway I can't promise anything's going to change, but here's the reason for the waffle-vacuum: I've been "writing" a "book", which you - clearly a discerning fan of films, words, and words about films - can own very soon. Not yet, calm down, but soon. And here it is!
It's called HITCHOLOGY: A Film-by-Film Guide to the Style and Themes of Alfred Hitchcock, and it is, broadly speaking, a film-by-film guide to the style and themes of Alfred Hitchcock. It is also a kind of fatter, sexier version of this blog post.
At this point I will refer you to the back cover blurb, because that is one of my key marketing tools, and - make no mistake - you are being marketed at right now.
Murder! Mothers! Men on the run! Film fans know these are just a few key ingredients of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies. And when Hitchcock fused these elements with his innovative directorial approach, that blend of familiar themes and stylistic ingenuity became known as ‘Hitchcockian’. In a refreshingly original way, HITCHOLOGY considers how Hitchcock used these narrative tropes and formal flourishes to create some of cinema’s most unforgettable experiences.
Alongside unique takes on every film and TV episode Hitchcock directed, HITCHOLOGY also examines his collaborators, his cameos, other films in the Hitchcock cinematic universe, and more. Passionately written with wit and warmth, HITCHOLOGY is an accessible introduction for newcomers to Hitchcock, and an insightful companion for devoted fans.
“Incisive, fresh and thunderingly entertaining. A Hitchcock book unlike anything else out there. Neil Alcock is the master of the Master Of Suspense”- Nick de Semlyen, Empire magazine
“I feel like I've discovered Hitchcock all over again”- Ali Plumb, BBC Radio 1
Well I don't know about you but that's convinced me to buy a copy. If it's convinced you to at least contemplate the possibility of thinking about maybe asking someone else to buy a copy for you as long as they keep the receipt, and you'd like to be notified when the book's available, then click this big button and I'll get my entire team on the case.
I'll pop back when it's on sale and give it a slightly harder sell, but in the meantime save up your pocket money and prepare your eyeballs for what those in the know are already describing as a book, about Alfred Hitchcock, written by me.
