Adam Nevill - Apartment 16

‘It’ll take a roller.’

‘I don’t fuckin’ care what it takes, just get rid of it. I want this place let by Friday. Kenny’s cousin has left his missus and is looking for a place. He can have it.’

Archie nodded, still staring at the walls. Quin left the room.

‘Christ,’ Archie said to himself, and shook his head one final time before removing his glasses. He’d paint the room without his specs on. At least then he wouldn’t have to see too closely the things that climbed these walls and crawled across the ceiling. But even when they’d been covered over, he wondered if he’d ever forget them.

Adam L. G. Nevill was born in Birmingham, England, in 1969 and grew up in England and New Zealand. He is also the author of Banquet for the Damned , an original novel of supernatural horror inspired by M. R. James and the great tradition of the British weird tale.

In his working life he has endured a variety of occupations, including from 2000 to 2004 both nightwatchman and day porter in the exclusive apartment buildings of west London.

He still lives in the capital and can be contacted through www.adamlgnevill.com

The following books provided much inspiration for the interior design of Apartment 16 and the life of Felix Hessen: Wyndham Lewis, by Richard Humphries; The Bone Beneath the Pulp: Drawings by Wyndham Lewis, edited by Jacky Klein; Francis Bacon and the Loss of Self, by Ernst van Alphen; Francis Bacon: Taking Reality by Surprise, by Christophe Domino; Interviews with Francis Bacon, by David Sylvester; Grosz, by Ivo Kranzfelder; Diana Mosley, by Anne de Courcy; The Occult Roots of Nazism, by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke.

Special thanks to Julie Crisp for the faith, careful readings and notes, and to my agent John Jarrold for getting me a shot at the next level. Much gratitude and affection also goes out to Ramsey Campbell, and to Peter Crowther at PS Publishing, who first brought me into print.

For my readers, Anne Parry, James Marriott and Clive Nevill, I have again incurred a debt by exploiting your precious time and critical skills. I thank you.

Finally, a very special thanks to the grand old apartment buildings of Knightsbridge, Mayfair and Marylebone that funded my ‘old school’ writing residency from 2000 to 2004. I thought I’d never ever escape.