Disappearance of pin-up star Bettie Page inspires author's debut novel - with book launch at Bedford's The Eagle Bookshop

An author and rockabilly musician will be holding a special event to launch his debut novel at Bedford’s The Eagle Bookshop.

Monomania Mon Amour is a double-whammy of hardboiled fiction and neo-noir, inspired by the real-life 1957 disappearance of ‘Queen of the Pin-ups’ Bettie Page who became a massive underground cult figure in the 80s.

Adrian Stranik had written a fictional screenplay which had the star going on a kill-crazy rampage in her old age, hunting down fans who were responsible for her rising cult in an attempt to remain ‘un-famous’.

He sent it out to a few production companies; one of which felt that the idea of a crazy old woman going around stabbing people was farfetched. Then shortly afterwards Richard Foster’s explosive expose, ‘The Real Bettie Page’ revealed that she had been put in a mental asylum for pretty much just that! It would not be the first weird coincidence relating to Page and Stranik's encounters with her legend.

J G Ballard, Cormac McCarthy, James Elroy, Don DeLillo and Jim Thompson are among Stranik's favourite writers, and you won't have to look very hard to see shades of them in Monomania, Mon Amour.

The event starts at 7pm at The Eagle Book Shop in Bedford on Thursday, February 2, and will run for around an hour.Monomania, Mon amour is heavily influenced by pop culture and rock and roll mythology, so the author – frontman of rockabilly trio The Broadway Twisters – will be performing some live solo acoustic music of songs related to those themes. There will then be a reading, followed by a Q&A and a signing session.

Entry is free and the book will be available for an ‘only from Eagle’ price of just £8 (£11.99 from amazon).

The Eagle Book Shop is at 16 - 20 St Peters St, Bedford MK40 2NN.