Somnambulist Cookbook

Andrew McDonnell writes poetry and short fiction. His work has appeared across a number of anthologies and journals, such as Poetry London, Butcher’s Dog and more. He has an MA in Creative Writing from UEA, and is an editor at Gatehouse Press and Lighthouse Literary Journal. He is a course leader in English Literature at University Centre Peterborough, though he lives in Norwich, so he has a long commute in which to write.

Andrew McDonnell’s debut, The Somnambulist Cookbook, is a mixture of the strange and the ordinary in a clash that generates humour and unease [. . .] McDonnell’s unsettling sense of humour engages with characters that are recognisable but never stereotypical, as well as cultural jetsam, such as “an orange Cortina”, abandoned in an escapist “edgeland” (Everyone Loves a Mystery). As we struggle to come to terms with how we got here – hollowing out of vital national services; sleep walking into globalisation; blithely thinking we could have it all forever, McDonnell shows we are complicit actors in our own demise.