The Truth Mongers
What the hell are truth mongers you’ll be asking. It’s the name coined by a small group of young people who have taken it upon themselves to understand the little-explored dynamic between truth and untruth in daily life. Not from a moralistic point of view, deciding what’s right and what’s wrong, but rather to understand the way untruth enters people’s life and subsequently influences it. They do so by getting people to tell stories of moments that were important to them. Doing so leads the truth mongers to unexpected, if not a good many risky adventures.
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Prologue – “Good lord! How the hell do they get away with that?” Ash exclaimed, staring transfixed at a photo on the screen. It was the current prime minister, Sir John Trickledown, the fourth that year and it was only May. He was depicted kissing a young boy, going at it with such ardour, Ash’s stomach turned over. The headline read, Rumours confirmed. PM caught in the act. Elections likely. (…)
Chapter One – Tegan snapped the book shut and tossed it on her bed where it landed amid her discarded school uniform. She liked a good fantasy novel and the characters were appealing. If she’d been a boy, she’d willingly have adopted the name Ash, although she was pretty sure she’d have been more intrepid. In that she was more like Ziggie, if considerably less reckless. (…)
Chapter Two – She could have sworn the woman muttered, “Rude.” So much for turning the other cheek. Wasn’t that part of their creed? That said, she couldn’t blame the woman, her behaviour had indeed been rude if not a little unhinge. The police come to arrest her! What next? She chuckled. As she turned onto the high street, she imagined Gaëlle rebuking her, “You have far too much imagination, Mademoiselle.” (…)
Read more about the Truth Mongers
Did I really write that? – On the unpredictable journey of writing a novel and the amazing voices that emerge almost despite the author.
What’s in a cover? – Intrigued to know what readers think of the image on the cover of The Truth Mongers.
The Truth Mongers: a dedication – The author reads the Dedication from The Truth Mongers, a short text fulfilling a promise to a courageous girl who may well have saved lives.
A wider palette of stories – Expanding the palette of stories that help us understand the world and the role of fiction in enriching them.
Stories that twist truth – About the role of stories in making sense of the world and how twisted stories coalesce to undermine truth and reality.
Emergence: the birth of stories – Writing stories seen as emergence in which the author is more like a medium than a builder. Including an extract from The Truth Mongers.
The old lady and the library – Another of Tegan’s interviews in her quest to understand the role of untruth im private life. An extract from the forthcoming novel The Truth Mongers.
Transgender: Looking the part – In her quest to understand the role of untruth at the boundary between private and public life, young Tegan interviews a good number of people from all sorts of backgrounds, including Jewel, a transgender woman, specialist in transformations.…
The Unfinished Book – a preface – About the role of untruth in our daily lives… the preface to an ‘unfinished’ book of tales and photos about untruth… published in the annexes to The Truth Mongers.