Episode Fifteen - It w/Andy Stanton (Writer of the Mr Gum series, co-host of The Tumbler's Willy Podcast)

The Constant Reader Podcast - The Canon of Stephen King

Hi, welcome back to the Constant Reader Podcast, with me your host, Richard Sheppard.

Last month’s guest, the mighty Paul Tremblay has recently re-released two of his earlier novels, The Little Sleep and No Sleep Til Wonderland through Titan publishing. They’re wonderful stuff, very offbeat, and will that great Titan design that I love.

The Firestarter film will officially commencing filming in Ontario next month, with Zac Efron in the lead. Stephen King has sent them a message of love, so we’ll see how it turns out. There is certainly a great film somewhere in the novel.

Other than that, not much news. Later has come out from Hard Case Crime, and we’re looking forward to discussing that on the show soon. Lisey’s Story is still coming out at the beginning of June on apple TV, and I’m definitely going to be talking about that adaptation of one of my least favourite king novels over the Summer.

But now, to today’s guest. Andy Stanton is an author who lives in North London. He studied English at Oxford but they kicked him out. This stroke of good luck put him on the road to fame and fortune as the creator of Mr Gum, an anarchic curmudgeon in a series of best-selling children's books. Apt that we should talk about King’s best book about children, growing up and facing monsters, I suppose.

As you can probably tell from the running time, Andy is passionate, verbose, funny and incisive, so I took the opportunity to speak to him a little longer than usual. This is a real deep dive, so take out hands as we explore the darker side of Derry Maine.

A massive thank you to Stephen L Parkes, who was responsible for editing this behemoth. He’s the best in the business.

This episode was hosted by Richard Sheppard, with research and support from Dr Linda Sheppard, and technical and sound production by Professor Stephen L. Parkes. Please like, subscribe, rate, review and recommend this podcast, and feel free to get in contact with us at [email protected] or find us on instagram at /the_constant_reader_podcast/