‘Poignant, unnervingly funny and poetic.’——Philip Gross

‘bleak, weird, grim, cool... it will probably become a cult classic.’ ——Rhian Elizabeth

The people of the lost English-Welsh border town Goregree are losers and weirdos,
sometimes pathetic, sometimes terrible. They all long for something more, but are
trapped by poverty, disease, and addiction to a unique local drug.

Inspired by the author’s hometown, Bad Ideas Chemicals follows a group of twenty somethings on a night out in a depressed, strange little town. Markham uses humour and cleverly constructed characters to address the often uncomfortable issues of sexuality, mental health and euthanasia, and shows the value of friendship in a time of social, economic and political uncertainty.

Lloyd Markham:

28-year-old Lloyd Markham was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, moving to and settling in Bridgend, south Wales when he was thirteen. He spent the rest of his teenage years in Bridgend being miserable and strange and having bad nights out before undertaking a BA in Writing at Glamorgan followed by an MPhil. Lloyd started writing Goregree in his freshman year when Bridgend was in the tabloids for suicides and everyone was telling rotten jokes. He doesn't have many bad nights out these days and his awkwardness is less painful. He enjoys listening to 'noise' music, watching history documentaries and old Japanese animation. His favourite book is The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka.