The Marching Band Emporium | Pushing the Wave

The Marching Band Emporium

A personal selection

Summary
Step into a magical shop on the forgotten streets of London’s East End, where musical instruments tell their own stories. In The Marching Band Emporium, L.A. Davenport weaves together an eclectic mix of short stories, poems, and mini-sagas, each filled with vivid imagination and literary charm. From the nostalgic echoes of lost novels to whimsical reflections on life and love, this collection captures moments of beauty, humor, and tragedy. Whether it's the poignant tale of an artist facing death or the fleeting dreams of everyday lives, Davenport's work is a mesmerizing blend of wit and melancholy. Perfect for readers who enjoy the surreal and the profound, this book will take you on a journey through forgotten corners of the mind, where each note and story resonates long after the final page is turned.

Explore the haunting, the whimsical, and the heart-wrenching in this personal anthology that invites you to listen to the stories behind the instruments.

Background

In 2008, I started a blog called The Marching Band Emporium.

The idea was to publish a piece of writing, drawing or other such creation every day for a year. After more or less keeping up, I stopped at the end of the year, eventually deciding I wanted to do something with all those posts, or at least those that stood out. I therefore put together and then published this collection, originally in 2009 in a rather basic form, updated and polished it for republishing in 2012, and then finally gave it a makeover it in 2018, with a decent cover and a proper layout.

As it says on the blurb: Alongside a rich crop of drawings, mini sagas, poetry, short stories and a healthy dose of twisted logic, the curious reader will find the brand-new genre of Excerpts from Lost Novels, taking you into half-lit scenarios and mesmerising characters from imagined books.

You will be taken on a journey into a world populated by faded actors, late-night revellers, ancient goddesses, young lovers, pop stars on the comeback road, and many, many more.

In it, you can follow my tentative first steps as a writer, with early versions of what would go on to form part of the collections Dear Lucifer and Other Stories and No Way Home.
© L.A. Davenport 2017-2024.
The Marching Band Emporium | Pushing the Wave