Ellis Sharp is an experimental British writer, based in London. He is the author of ten books of absurdist metafiction, distinguished by their dense, allusive prose and their interest in re-imagining themes from history, literature and cinema, sometimes from a radical socialist perspective. His work has received critical praise from publications such as Socialist Review and The Guardian.
The Aleppo Button (Malice Aforethought Press, 1991)
Sharp’s debut volume consists of thirteen comic, surreal stories, grounded in the re-imagining of historical figures. In ‘Hitler and the Aerostat’, Diana, Princess of Wales embarks on a royal tour of Nazi Germany and finds Adolf Hitler strange but likeable. ‘The Bloating of Nellcock’ is a vicious satire of Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock, forecasting (accurately) that he would end up as a member of the House of Lords. ‘Tinctures, Stains, Relics’ exchanges the identities of Karl Marx and paranormal investigator Charles Fort.
Lenin's Trousers (Malice Aforethought Press, 1992)
Continuing the techniques of his first collection, these thirteen stories rewrite the biography of Emily Brontë (imagining her as a Latin American guerrilla), unfold the story of a quest to Moscow in pursuit of trousers once worn by Vladimir Lenin, and tell a love story about a man and a Martian. ‘Rubbish’ presents a comically absurd account of what happened to the central characters in Brief Encounter after the movie story is over.
Engels on Video (Zoilus Press, 1995)
Sharp had by now attracted the attention of keen admirer Mac Daly, an academic, critic and writer, and in this joint collection the two collaborated to write matching stories about Engels, Nietzsche, Trotsky and Freud. Daly subsequently went on to publish a lengthy appreciation of his fellow author, ‘Malice Aforethought: The Fictions of Ellis Sharp” in the volume of essays Crackpot Texts: Absurd Explorations in Modern and Postmodern Literature (1997).
To Wanstonia (Zoilus Press, 1996)
Dedicated to ‘everyone who went over the fence’ this volume of fifteen stories is rooted in Sharp’s experiences as an environmental activist who participated in the M11 link road protest. It also continues the comic rewriting of history, telling the story of the revolutionary socialist Edith Cavell, the leading Bolshevik, Anton Chekhov, and the experiences of poet Gerard Manley Hopkins during the Paris Commune.
The Dump (Zoilus Press, 1998)
Sharp’s first novel is a single block of prose consisting almost entirely of quotations from other books, both fictional and non-fictional. It narrates the last two hours in the life of a deranged individual who is trapped in a vast rubbish dump on the fringes of London, and who survives on the scraps thrown out by normal members of society.
Driving My Baby Back Home (Zoilus Press, 1999)
In a change of direction, Sharp shifted to much shorter fiction. This collection of 35 stories reveals Matthew Arnold and Henry James’s interest in women’s underwear, discovers that Karl Marx is alive and well and living on the Isle of Wight, identifies Norman Mailer as the man who shot JFK, provides an alternative biography of actress Sharon Stone, and helpfully reduces Joyce’s Ulysses to five pages.
Unbelievable Things (Zoilus Press, 2000)
Sharp’s second novel is a massive 539-page historical novel in which a doctor in a mental institution finds the papers of a dead inmate, leading to the uncovering of a complex story involving the Great War and the Bolshevik revolution, events which may simply be time-passing games played by the crew of a stranded space ship.
Aria Fritta (Zoilus Press, 2004)
Sharp’s sixth collection of short fictions consists of 44 stories, some no longer than a page. Two corpses go on vacation together. A school teacher turns to Marxism-Leninism in the aftermath of her abduction by aliens. An alien from Pluto living in Leytonstone attempts to hide the truth of his identity from his suspicious wife. Another story is a fictional biography of Ernest Hemingway’s penis.
Walthamstow Central (Zoilus Press, 2007)
Set in the streets of Walthamstow, Sharp’s third novel continues his interest in science fiction themes. It tells the story of Strobey, a cop from the future who is in pursuit of a time dissident, Mirando Mirando. The plot centres on a group of characters living in a derelict hotel opposite Walthamstow Central station, and what happens when a particle accelerator is turned on for the first time. The book ends with a dramatic climax in the Museum of Lost Possibilities.
Dead Iraqis: Selected Short Stories of Ellis Sharp (New Ventures, 2009)
A collection of 17 stories, drawn from Sharp’s first five collections, with a substantial introduction and critical assessment by Mac Daly. The book jacket carries recommendations from Iain Banks ("Ferociously brilliant") and China Miéville ("Ellis Sharp is an outstanding rebuke to all those who think political fiction means drab and po-faced fiction. Who says it can't be surreal, enraged and utterly invigorating?").
Reviewing it for The Guardian, Nicholas Lezard wrote:
"One would not have thought an author could link Che Guevara and the Loch Ness monster, but Sharp does. Sharp is sui generis. At times he comes across as if he were a compound hallucination dreamed up by Iain Sinclair, William Burroughs (formulaically only; few drugs and no pederasty here) and . . . well, himself. This might sound like an unappealing mix but I am delighted to have read him. You can trust him because beneath the zaniness, at the level of the sentence, he is very good indeed. This is not magic realism. These are the bad dreams of the 20th century."
Sharp as a blogger
Between January 2005 and December 2007, Sharp maintained a popular daily blog "The Sharp Side" where he discussed a wide variety of issues such as politics, literature and popular culture. He continues to blog at "Barbaric Document", although this is largely devoted to photographs.
Trivia
Iain Banks dedicated his novel Complicity to Sharp.