Model Actress Whatever
Published on 12. May 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
560 pages
978-1-80336-667-8 (ISBN)
Description
From the acclaimed critic and award-winning author of Anno Dracula comes a bitingly satirical story of superheroism, soap opera and alternative reality -- for readers of Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible and George R.R. Martin's Wild Cards.
Back in the 1970s the Beatles didn't split up and instead recorded a hallucinodelic album - Never Mind (strictly, Never Mind the Beatles) - which literally changed the world by imbuing many of those who heard it with super powers. Fast forward 50 years and Chrissie Chambers (model actress whatever) discovers her soap opera character is about to be killed off, so she finally stops dieting and discovers hitherto untapped supernatural abilities. Meanwhile, Chrissie's aunt Jasmine - former national heroine Lady Shade - goes missing. Afraid for her aunt's safety and itching to costume-up, Chrissie and her ghost-possessed best friend Loulee break into Devil's Dyke, the asylum where Jasmine works as a therapist with the most dangerous cutthroats (supervillains) in Britain... only to find the inmates have taken over... Chrissie debuts successfully as a cloak (superheroine), but who will become the arch-nemesis of Lady Shade II?
Set in an alternative 2020s London, this hugely entertaining, darkly humorous superhero tale is packed with Newman's trademark wit, and comes with wickedly sharp edges.
Back in the 1970s the Beatles didn't split up and instead recorded a hallucinodelic album - Never Mind (strictly, Never Mind the Beatles) - which literally changed the world by imbuing many of those who heard it with super powers. Fast forward 50 years and Chrissie Chambers (model actress whatever) discovers her soap opera character is about to be killed off, so she finally stops dieting and discovers hitherto untapped supernatural abilities. Meanwhile, Chrissie's aunt Jasmine - former national heroine Lady Shade - goes missing. Afraid for her aunt's safety and itching to costume-up, Chrissie and her ghost-possessed best friend Loulee break into Devil's Dyke, the asylum where Jasmine works as a therapist with the most dangerous cutthroats (supervillains) in Britain... only to find the inmates have taken over... Chrissie debuts successfully as a cloak (superheroine), but who will become the arch-nemesis of Lady Shade II?
Set in an alternative 2020s London, this hugely entertaining, darkly humorous superhero tale is packed with Newman's trademark wit, and comes with wickedly sharp edges.
Reviews / Votes
Praise for Model Actress Whatever:Anarchic, exuberant and endlessly inventive. This may be the best superhero movie I've ever read.
-M.R. Carey, internationally bestselling author of Infinity Gate
Kim Newman's florid fantasies can't be pitched as a cross between this and that, they're an explosion of genre TNT in pop-art baubles of verbal delight that fizz on the page.
-Stephen Volk, writer of Ghostwatch and The Good Unknown
Newman's trademarks are razor-sharp prose, a biting wit and big finishes you never see coming but always feel inevitably perfect - all of which are fully on display in Model Actress Whatever. This is a spectacular, alt-reality superhero story, almost operatic in its scale, and splendidly Newmanesque. Highly recommended.
-Angela A.G.
-Slatter, award-winning author of The Cold House
What if Austin Powers (only filmed by Brits) had a baby with EastEnders (also filmed by Brits), and it grew up to be a (British) version of the Adam West era Batman, driving a Jensen Interceptor? Charles Stross, author of The Laundry Files series
Set in an alternate history Enlightened by a magically mysterious Beatles' chord, Model Actress Whatever brings Newman's Diogenes Club series bang up to date and dives deep into the superhero mythos. Fast and furiously funny, exuberantly imaginative and achingly hip, this is Newman at the top of his game.
-Paul McAuley, author of Loss Protocol
Somehow manages to be futuristic and nostalgic at the same time M.A. Bennett, author of No Escape
When it comes to the dazzling creation of a fantasy world which is both like and unlike our own, Kim Newman has no peers. This sardonically funny vision of empty celebrity, and quirky superheroes set in an alternative London has all the untrammelled wordplay and inventiveness of his masterpiece Anno Dracula.
-Barry Forshaw, Financial Times
With Model Actress Whatever, the always transgressive Kim Newman subverts the superhero genre with all the aplomb that he brought to vampires in Anno Dracula.
-Stephen Jones, award-winning editor and writer
The powerline connection between Michael Moorcock and the spangly multiverse lunacy of the present moment, this is an exciting, literary, urgent venture into what happens to super heroes as they cross the Atlantic, and why. Newman transcends pastiche and ends up telling the truth very loudly. Unmissable.
-Paul Cornell, author of the Witches of Lychford series
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 33 mm
Weight
330 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80336-667-8 (9781803366678)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Kim Newman is an award-winning writer, critic, journalist and broadcaster who lives in London. He is a contributing editor to the UK film magazine Empire, and writes its popular monthly segment, 'The Cult of Kim Newman'. He also writes for assorted publications including Sight & Sound, The Dark Side and The Guardian. He makes frequent appearances on radio and TV, and is the chief writer of the BBC TV series Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema. You can keep up to date with Kim's events and writing via his website johnnyalucard.com. Find him on Twitter @annodracula.