Foul Papers
London & Suffolk, 2023 — media, politics, cryptocurrency, appropriation.
In Foul Papers, politics, poetry and publicity collide in the deceptively quiet world of Westwich.
Charles Davenport is an acclaimed poet confronting bereavement, creative paralysis and the uneasy legacy of a life spent turning experience into art. Sarah Greenstreet, a celebrated newsreader with ambitions beyond the autocue, is determined to reinvent herself. Around them gather publishers, agents, hackers, journalists, lovers and opportunists—each with a version of the truth, and each with something to protect.
At the centre of the story lies a cache of private papers: letters, drafts and fragments that blur the boundaries between inspiration and appropriation, intimacy and ownership, memory and reputation. As old relationships resurface and the machinery of the attention economy begins to turn, personal secrets acquire public value.
Wry, observant and richly atmospheric, Foul Papers is a character-driven novel about literary creation, media manipulation, ageing, desire and the stories people tell to justify their choices. Its understated humour sits alongside a keen awareness of vulnerability—especially the vulnerability of leaving anything behind in writing.
When the private page becomes public property, who gets to decide what the truth means—and who will be left to pay for it?.