Phillip Carter is a comedian who writes dark existentialist science fiction. He lives and works close to where I grew up in the North of England.

When he asked me to be a guest on his talk show, I thought we might have a few things in common.

We had an entertaining and thoughtful conversation which included:

• Which of us had worn Bowie ‘lightning bolt’ make-up
• Where the idea for Rockstar Ending came from
• The research I did while the story was taking shape
• Using humour sensitively around serious subjects
• How the TV adaptation of the books is progressing, and
• A wildcard question which totally floored me….

I should have guessed that an existentialist comedian would come up with an oblique angle.

You can hear our 25-minute interview for free on Substack.

And do sign up to Phillip’s Substack for more nuggets of off-the-wall scifi inspired material.