Fortune Teller Press

02/08/2024

Screening on Aug 9. Venue= Century Club, Shaftesbury Avenue. 7pm.
'This is Not an Art Film': street poets who don't know it + dead goths + Throbbing Gristle, and so much more.

02/08/2024

1 week to go!!

The Quietus once did a lovely piece about my documentary on Cleaners From Venus + other films. But at moment, excited about my latest thing ('This is Not an Art Film', 45 mins), a bit of a departure but still heavy on the music.

Every seven years, Graham Bendel turns up with a film about key outsiders from the UK music scene. In 2005 he brought the world Billy Childish Is Dead. 2012 saw the release of Derailed Sense: A Film About Vic Godard & Subway Sect. Now he’s back in 2019 with a film about maybe the most […]

17/07/2024

Premiere screening on August 9th!
A 45 min film about pigeons, Goths, Spacemen 3, GG Allin, double glazing, Bauhaus & rollerskating.
From the director of Billy Childish is Dead, Derailed Sense (Vic Godard) + Upstairs Planet (Cleaners from Venus).

Distributing & screening underground music & arts documentaries in Cinemas, TV & VOD globally!

17/07/2024

Premiere screening on August 9th!
A 45 min film about pigeons, Goths, Spacemen3, GG Allin, double glazing, Bauhaus & rollerskating.
From the director of Billy Childish is Dead, Derailed Sense (Vic Godard) + Upstairs Planet (Cleaners from Venus).

A director in search of a subject for his music documentary suffers various problems, with his project becoming more and more irrational. Is it an art film? A film within a film? Or just one big filmic nervous breakdown? We’re talking dead goths, bad rappers and some very antisocial sisters on rol...

17/04/2023

What I have noticed or learned ( mostly on a low to middlebrow level) over the last couple of years, having had more time to think than I usually do. It’s taken me a while — all my life, approximately — to realise I’m uncomfortable with my surname. It just doesn’t sound right. Kind of clun...

19/01/2023

Graham Bendel got to know the late, great director Mike Hodges - shortly before he died - and they worked tirelessly on a screenplay together.

by Graham Bendel It was a punch in the stomach. My friend and mentor Mike Hodges had died and I ...

10/05/2022

Graham Bendel (writer/docs on Billy Childish, Subway Sect etc) has a new book out. The Comforter - admired by director Mike 'Get Carter' Hodges, who helped adapt it for film - is a definite page-turner & available from Waterstones.

Discover our full range of books, gifts, toys, stationery and audiobooks at Waterstones.com. Click & Collect within 2 hours or buy online with Free UK Delivery on Orders Over £25.

07/04/2022

Only 3 days left to see Graham Bendels' funny and moving portrait of lofi pioneer, Martin Newell.

For fans of Television Personalities, Young Marble Giants, Billy Childish, John Cooper Clarke...

Distributing & screening underground music documentaries in cinemas, music festivals and VoD across the globe!

04/04/2022

Graham Bendel's quirky & moving film Upstairs Planet is streaming with Doc'n Roll Film Festival.
His current novel, The Comforter (admired by director Mike 'Get Carter' Hodges) is also out and available from Waterstones etc.

21/02/2022

Graham Bendel (writer/docus on Billy Childish, Subway Sect etc) has new book out.
'The Comforter' gets great review in MU Magazine. "A Punk Poe", "one part Patrick Hamilton, one part Derek Raymond" & more high praise.
Film adaptation of novel has already begun, with help of Mike Hodges (Get Carter) & well-known director pencilled in.
Available to buy at Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-comforter/graham-bendel/9780954773762

15/02/2022

Graham Bendel (writer/docs on Billy Childish, Subway Sect etc) has new book out.
'The Comforter & Other Rose-tinted Struggles' gets great review in MU Magazine. "A Punk Poe", "one part Patrick Hamilton, one part Derek Raymond" & more high praise.

Buy The Comforter by Graham Bendel from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

13/02/2022

Graham Bendel's new book reviewed in latest issue of MU Magazine (the one with Don Letts on the cover).

"The Comforter, a novella that is one part Patrick Hamilton, one part Derek Raymond, and one part Milton Keynes Kafka, as our unnamed protagonist makes a maze out of London, whilst desperately launching a series of ploys and schemes to raise payback for the mysterious urban whale/loan shark Brincombe, intent on inducing terror at each breath and footstep.
Sweetly packaged and published by Fortune Teller books, The Comforter & other rose tinted struggles, is a noir like picaresque comedy trawl through the back alleys of luck and imagination, where Bendel’s punkish sensibilities merge elegantly with the demands of creating a new form of fiction..."

Available from Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-comforter/graham-bendel/9780954773762

Buy The Comforter by Graham Bendel from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

18/11/2021

Writer/filmmaker Graham Bendel asks why billionaires, despite their fortunes, have such bad record collections.

Billionaires are rarely out of the news. If they’re not indulging in big kid fantasies of conquering space or not paying tax then they’re insulting popular, irascible old politicians like Bernie…

18/11/2021

https://medium.com//if-billionaires-have-so-much-money-why-are-their-record-collections-so-bad-32fed74bf1b5

Billionaires are rarely out of the news. If they’re not indulging in big kid fantasies of conquering space or not paying tax then they’re insulting popular, irascible old politicians like Bernie…

10/11/2021

Graham Bendel has a new book out now, but this was his cult debut novel, A Nasty Piece of Work, which was an anarchic, dark, hilarious thriller loved by Andrew Weatherall (quoted on back of book) and very entertaining.
(A Nasty Piece of Work is still available from Amazon and Waterstones etc https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nasty-Piece-Work-Graham-Bendel/dp/095477373X).

The satire’s target is, I guess, the pretentions of the art world blown aloft by the hardcore megalomania of the current high-fashion high-concept artist now hopefully fizzling out in the cre…

14/10/2021

Le Document let writer/filmmaker Graham Bendel reveal his innermost thoughts, and we really wish they hadn't. Star Wars will never seem the same again.

What I have noticed or learned ( mostly on a low to middlebrow level) over the last couple of years, having had more time to think than I usually do. It’s taken me a while — all my life, approximately — to realise I’m uncomfortable with my surname. It just doesn’t sound right. Kind of clun...

13/10/2021

The compelling must-read book that has taken the literary world by storm.

"Probably the best book I've never read any of" (David Christian, Comet Gain)
"I will try and read it" (lead singer of Fat White Family)
"Funny and I was enjoying it until you started slagging my friends off" (Suzanne Moore, journalist)
"Apologies but I don't know you are" (David Appleby, Bloomsbury Publishing)
https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-comforter/graham-bendel/9780954773762

Buy The Comforter by Graham Bendel from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

08/10/2021

"Up there with Terry Southern and Nathaniel West. Bendel creates a world of his own" - (Mike Hodges, director of Get Carter).

"Beautifully written, amusing, suspenseful and gets better and better and the ending is sublime. Violence is Burgess good!" - (Producer, Possessor).

On front cover is a powerful, wondrous painting by musician James Johnston of Lydia Lunch, N Cave notoriety.

Previous praise for the writer
========================
"He's a far better writer than Salman Rushdie but that's damning Bendel with faint praise" - Stewart Home, 2008.
"If I was wearing one, I'd doff my cap" - Andrew Weatherall, 2009.
"Bendel's reluctance to do things the right way works a charm" - UNCUT Magazine.

Limited Edition available from Waterstones, Amazon etc: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-comforter/graham-bendel/9780954773762

Buy The Comforter by Graham Bendel from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

21/09/2021

Writer/filmmaker Graham Bendel's latest project is a book and it's called 'The Comforter & other rose-tinted struggles'. Available from Waterstones now.
https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-comforter-2021/graham-bendel/9780954773762

20/09/2021

Bendel's latest book is 'The Comforter & other rose-tinted struggles', available as a pre-order from Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-comforter-2021/graham-bendel/9780954773762

20/09/2021

This inspiring piece on DIY Culture was written a while back; Graham Bendel's current book is 'THE COMFORTER & other rose-tinted struggles' which is available on pre-order from Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-comforter-2021/graham-bendel/9780954773762

Guest Column – The DIY Impulse: Why sometimes you just have to do it yourself May 7, 2015 / no comments Veteran DJ – “Paul Weller once danced to a Northern Soul set when I was DJing at the Astoria in the mid 90s” – journalist and filmmaker (including documentaries about Billy Childish and ...

19/09/2021

Known for his films on Billy Childish, Subway Sect & Martin Newell, Graham Bendel's latest book is fastpaced, original and absurdly tense.
Already, there's serious talk of it becoming a film.

Buy The Comforter 2021 by Graham Bendel from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

17/09/2021

Known for his films on Billy Childish, Subway Sect & Martin Newell, Graham Bendel's latest book is fastpaced, original and absurdly tense.
Available from Waterstones as a Pre-order.

Buy The Comforter 2021 by Graham Bendel from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

15/09/2021

Coming on like a cross between Mike Leigh's Naked & Cassavetes' Chinese Bookie, Bendel's The Comforter is dark, thrilling, moving and hilarious.

Graham Bendel's THE COMFORTER (& other rose-tinted struggles) is out on 22 Sept 2021. It's the third book from independent filmmaker Graham Bendel, who's directed films on Billy Childish, Subway Sect's Vic Godard and Martin Newell (Cleaners From Venus).

14/09/2021

Graham Bendel's latest book: like Mike Leigh's Naked meets Killing of a Chinese Bookie! (limited edition)

Buy The Comforter 2021 by Graham Bendel from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

14/09/2021

Buy The Comforter 2021 by Graham Bendel from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

14/09/2021

Pre-Order the new book from writer/filmmaker Graham Bendel (films on Billy Childish, Cleaners From Venus etc).
THE COMFORTER is fast-paced, riotous tale of a rogue who owes a debt he can't pay. Like Mike Leigh's Naked meets Killing of a Chinese Bookie!

Buy The Comforter 2021 by Graham Bendel from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

20/01/2021

DIY filmmaker Graham Bendel (Billy Childish, Vic Godard etc) says his fast-paced, quirky new novel was "born out of a distaste for right-wingers, hypocritical liberals and having to do a job you hate"...

Writer & filmmaker Graham Bendel's 3rd Book

18/01/2021

Filmmaker Graham Bendel says his new novel was "born out of a distaste for right-wingers, hypocritical liberals, workplace intimidation and Phillip Schofield"...

Writer & filmmaker Graham Bendel's 3rd Book

16/01/2021

Filmmaker Graham Bendel (films on Billy Childish, Subway Sect, etc) is to release his 3rd book, THE COMFORTER (& Other Rose-tinted Struggles). It's a fast-paced, V original psych-thriller & funny.
Cover artwork by James Johnston (nick cave/pj harvey).

Writer & filmmaker Graham Bendel's 3rd Book