| Frank Key | |
|---|---|
The Hooting Yard 'implausible' emblem |
|
| Born | London, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Writer, Broadcaster |
| Nationality | British |
| Genres | short story, satire, humour |
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www.hootingyard.org |
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Frank Key is a British writer and broadcaster best known for his self-published short-story collections and his long-running radio series Hooting Yard on the Air, which has been broadcast weekly on Resonance FM since April 2004.[1] Key co-founded the Malice Aforethought Press with Max Décharné and published the fiction of Ellis Sharp.
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The Guardian's literature columnist Sam Jordison has described Frank Key as one of the most prolific living writers of literary nonsense.[2] The Guardian's David Stubbs wrote that Frank's prose "reminds of Max Ernst engravings gone Bonzo Doo-Dah".[3] The SF critic David Langford wrote "Frank Key's lumbering machinery is like nothing since Ralph 124C 41+ and other pillars of SF's wooden age, only more decrepit. He may even conceivably be writing steampunk.".[4] Edmund Baxter, the director of programming for Resonance FM wrote "Frank Key is one of the most important writers in English today".[1]
Prior to 2006 Key's published work consisted almost entirely of short-run, self published pamphlets. All of these original printed releases are out of print. Some of these books have become collector's items which have traded at many times their original value.[5][6] In 2009 Key began re-publishing stories from his small-press releases. The most recent publication, We Were Puny, They Were Vapid, includes the short stories The Phlogiston Variations and The Book of Gnats which were originally published in the Massacre anthology series.[7][8]
In 1986, inspired by the postpunk DIY ethic, Key founded the Malice Aforethought Press with Max Décharné. Over the next few years they published a large number of short-run pamphlets.
| Title | Year | Cover Art |
|---|---|---|
| Twitching and Shattered[9] | 1989 | |
| Stab Your Employer! (with Maxim Decharne) | 1986 | |
| Smooching With Istvan (with Maxim Decharne) | 1987 | |
| Forty Visits To The Worm Farm[10] | 1987 | |
| Tales Of Hoon | 1987 | |
| Hoots Of Destiny | 1987 | |
| A Zest For Crumpled Things | 1987 | |
| The Churn In The Muck | 1988 | |
| Crop Circles : The Crunlop Experiment[11] | 1991 | |
| House Of Turps[12] | 1989 | |
| The Brink Of Cramp | 1989 | |
| Volleyball, Tar & Shuddering | 1989 | |
| The Immense Duckpond Pamphlet[13] | 1989 | |
| Penitence And Farm Implements | 1990 | |
| He Keeps His Gutta-Percha In A Gunny Sack | 1990 | |
| Sidney The Bat Is Awarded The Order Of Lenin[14] | 1990 | |
| Bring Me the Head of Derek the Dust-Particle![15] | 1990 | |
| Danny Blanchfowler : A Life In Football[16] | 1991 | |
| Testimony Of A Tundist | 1993 | |
| Obsequies For Lars Talc, Struck By Lightning[17] | 1994 |
In 2003 Key launched "Hooting Yard", originally intended as an internet archive of his writing. In addition he has released three volumes of stories which originally appeared on his web-site.
| Title | Year | Cover Image |
|---|---|---|
| Befuddled By Cormorants[18] | 1996 | |
| Unspeakable Desolation Pouring Down From The Stars (and other tragedies)[19] | 2007 | |
| Gravitas, Punctilio, Rectitude & Pippy Bags[20] | 2008 | |
| We Were Puny, They Were Vapid[7] | 2009 |
Key has broadcast weekly on Resonance FM, since 14 April 2004 when his show Hooting Yard on the Air was first commissioned. The programme is broadcast live from Resonance FM's studios and consists almost entirely of Key narrating his own short stories and observations. Hooting Yard is the longest continuously running series on Resonance FM, with only the ClearSpot Show (which is technically not a series) having existed on the schedules for longer.
Resonance has broadcast a number of Hooting Yard special episodes. In December 2007 Key and the performance artist Germander Speedwell performed the whole of Jubilate Agno.,[21] an epic devotional poem by Christopher Smart This was the first and only time that this poem has been performed in its entirety on live radio.[22] The entire performance was in excess of three hours.
Key appears in Episode 3 of Resonance FM's Tunnel Vision,[23] a series recorded entirely in the sewers under London.
Key has narrated for all of the Escape Artists podcasts: Escape-Pod, Pseudopod and Podcastle. In addition his short stories Bubbles Surge from Froth,[24] Boiled Black Broth and Cornets,[25] and Far Far Away[26] have been performed by Norm Sherman on the short-fiction series Drabblecast.