A perfect Sunday with... George Mann
Black pudding butties, Kate Bush and the one point in the week where we all just stop!
Every week, a top writer, artist or creator reveals how they’d fill their perfect Sunday, sharing their favourite comfort reads, movies, food… anything that would make their weekend great.
Today, it’s the turn of my pal and author of Star Wars: The High Republic - The Eye of Darkness, George Mann.
George’s perfect Sunday… brunch
I’ve been a vegetarian for nearly three years now, but I still love a black pudding butty on a Sunday morning. I opt for the Bury Black Pudding Company vegan black pudding, which is made to the same recipe as the real thing but uses black beans instead of blood. Honestly, I can’t tell the difference1.
I fry that up and serve it in a well-fired roll (read, burnt) with some HP sauce. Delicious!
George’s perfect Sunday… read
Sundays are for escaping from the busy reality of day-to-day work and chores, so for me, it’s got to be either an old-fashioned ghost story or else a big, chunky, well-written fantasy novel.
I’ve spent the last few years treating myself to the full experience of Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont’s Malazan world. There are over twenty books in the series now, and every one of them is a winner. Erikson in particular is a genius at crafting a setting that feels real, with deep history and characters you really care about. For me, there’s nothing better than sinking into the sofa and losing myself in one of these books.
George’s perfect Sunday… comic
It’ll either be a Batman or a Spider-Man comic. I adore both and can’t decide between them. What I tend to do is allow a few months’ worth of issues to build up, then have a binge, consuming a whole story arc in a sitting. Zeb Wells has been doing a brilliant job with Spidey recently, and Dan Slott is also just back and relaunching the Superior Spider-Man, which has to be my favourite Spidey story of the last ten years.
George’s perfect Sunday… movie
I love popping on old black and white movies on a Sunday, usually on a TV channel called Talking Pictures, which is focused on reviving old movies from the 1940s and 50s. But if I have to pick an ultimate comfort movie for a Sunday afternoon, it would be Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, the 1977 adventure movie featuring Ray Harryhausen’s amazing stop-motion animation alongside some fun live-action turns, including one of my favourite Doctor Whos, Patrick Troughton.
There’s just so much to enjoy in this fantasy epic, and while it might fall short of a lot of today’s movie standards, it’s a proper old nostalgia fest for me.
George’s perfect Sunday… TV binge
Sunday evenings are for cosy TV. At the moment, my absolute favourite bit of comfort viewing is the new series of All Creatures Great and Small. It actually airs on a Thursday, but we save it for Sunday because it feels more appropriate for that post-dinner, Sunday evening wind down. It’s based on the books by James Herriot about his escapes and experiences as a veterinarian in the 1930s and 40s, and it’s just perfect. Everything from the writing, the tone, the sets and the performances work to make you feel like you’ve been wrapped up in a warm blanket by the fire.
George’s perfect Sunday… podcast
This one’s got to be The Magnus Archives by Rusty Quill Productions. It’s a horror drama told over 200+ episodes, and the way they manage to build and sustain the story over so long a period is just incredible. The premise is centred around the eponymous archive, which is a repository of different people’s accounts of strange, bizarre, and often downright terrifying experiences. The archive is being brought up to the modern day as the Archivist and his colleagues each take turns reading the old statements onto tape recordings to better preserve them. But what begins to emerge is a much, much bigger story, interwoven amongst the fine details of the different cases. I highly recommend it.
George’s perfect Sunday… album
This one’s harder because it depends very much on my mood. But there a few perennials, and my go-to is usually Kate Bush’s The Dreaming. I think it’s the record where Bush really lets herself go, and we’re hearing her at her most instinctive and creative as an artist. ‘Suspended in Gaffa’ is perhaps my favourite song of all time. But everything about the album is a triumph, from braying donkey noises to songs about Houdini, aboriginal Australians, and the existential questions of religion.
George’s perfect Sunday… treat
Family time. Usually, a long walk with the dogs in the countryside, then chilling together, reading, watching TV, relaxing. It’s the one point in the week where we all just stop.
Star Wars: The High Republic - The Eye of Darkness by George Mann is out now from Random House Worlds!
One year after the tragic events of The Fallen Star, the Jedi fight to break the Nihil’s control over the galaxy.
The galaxy is divided. Following the shocking destruction of Starlight Beacon, the Nihil have established an impenetrable barrier called the Stormwall around part of the Outer Rim, where Marchion Ro rules and his followers wreak havoc at his every whim. Jedi trapped behind enemy lines, including Avar Kriss, must fight to help the worlds being pillaged by the Nihil while staying one step ahead of the marauders and their Nameless terrors.
Outside the Nihil’s so-called Occlusion Zone, Elzar Mann, Bell Zettifar, and the other Jedi work alongside the Republic to reach the worlds that have been cut off from the rest of the galaxy. But every attempt to breach the Stormwall has failed, and even communication across the barrier is impossible. The failures and losses weigh heavily upon both Elzar and Bell as they search desperately for a solution.
But even if the Republic and Jedi forces manage to breach the Stormwall, how can the Jedi fight back against the Nameless creatures that prey on the Jedi’s connection to the Force? And what other horrors does Marchion Ro have in store? As desperation for both the Jedi and the Republic grows, any hope of reuniting the galaxy could be all but extinguished…
George Mann is a Sunday Times bestselling novelist, comics writer, and screenwriter. He’s the creator of the Wychwood supernatural mystery series as well as the popular Newbury & Hobbes and Tales of the Ghost series. He’s written comics, novels, and audio dramas for properties such as Star Wars, Doctor Who, Sherlock Holmes, Judge Dredd, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Dark Souls, and was recently part of the writers’ room on several adult animated television shows. George lives near Grantham, England, with his wife, children, and two noisy dogs. He loves mythology and folklore, Kate Bush, and chocolate. He is constantly surrounded by tottering piles of comics and books.
As a meat-eater, neither can I! - Cav ↩