Search results

I’m guessing Lawrence is partial to the odd lie with regard to how old he was and what he can remember- it fits the narrative he’s created about the past and the 70s in particular. He did famously write a very rude letter to Peel asking for his single back as he hadn’t played it. And Peel did...

I always enjoy reading people take a pop at Bobby Gillespie. I once saw him skulking at the back of an LRB book launch of Penman’s Curving Track. He’d taken a fair few pops at BG on Twitter and wondered if he was going to launch into IP. Instead he wanted to get his copy of the book signed...

Yep Lewis talks about it a lot - a film that seems to have been too close to the truth. A good overview here: https://wearecult.rocks/reality-betrays-us-all-hoffman-1970

New Cure album. So dull.

I hope you like it. I must admit I found post Felt Lawrence less interesting. That perverse love of all that cheap 70s tat that those of us who lived through it didn’t want to repeat.

It’s good because he manages to mix the comedy and tragedy well. It could’ve been a freak show on this weird guy who never made it and lives in a deluded world where he thinks fame is just rounded the corner. He comes across as self absorbed but also charming - Hodgkinson doesn’t shy away from...

The Sellars book is remarkable- he’s not really interested in a straightforward birth to death biog - it ranges over time and space but also he soon realised there’s much to dislike as well as admire. It becomes vicious but justifiably so. I’d read the Burton/Taylor joint biog earlier this year...

This is what I’ve read this half term. Includes @woops latest (very good) novel. Happy to talk about any of them if anyone interested

Blasting out a sumptuous version of Midnight Hour from a compilation called Fallout from Phil Zone. Not convinced they’ve got year right on iTunes but who cares?

Just seen Phil checked out today. 84 is a fine age for all he’d seen.

Yes it is. I’ve got it back off the shelf. I will attempt some tomorrow.

I like Robb. I think the Paris book is a follow up to one on France. Obviously his literary biogs on French heavyweight figures are very readable. He’s gone a bit odd with a long book on ancient roads/ways/ley line kind of things in Europe which even I had to put down.

I started reading a bit based on some stuff Andrew Gallix had written about him in Unwords. Problem was I got the Blanchot reader and it’s just enormous and rather dispiriting - I put it down and haven’t picked it up since. I should give it another go.

Currently reading a whole bunch of great stuff. New David Peace on Munich 56 New Olga Tokarczuk New Virginie Despentes’ superbly titled Dear Dickhead Old door stopper biog of Peter Sellers by Roger Lewis And a re-read of Barnaby Rudge which feels very contemporary as it’s about the Gordon...

You lost me with faeries - I’m quite allergic to fantasy. But I’d be prepared to have my prejudice challenged.

Love Spark. There’s always something nasty in her work.

I haven’t read it for a while but I used to love Christopher Logue’s loose and free translations of a number of the books from the Iliad https://www.poemhunter.com/christopher-logue/ebooks/?ebook=0&filename=christopher_logue_2012_3.pdf

Shapiro’s 1599 does a good job on JC. I know not everyone here is a fan of him.

It really helps if you can see it. There was a great RSC version with an all black cast about twelve years ago which really lifted that second half. As I’ve said on here before, reading a play is like reading a musical score - it’s good but it’s only part of the experience- a play needs performance.

I remember loving it in the same way I loved Infinite Jest and Rick Moody and a lot of those other clever, pomo American men. I wonder if it has stood the test of time about 25 years on.