I went into town today to visit Selectadisc for the last time, but the store had already closed down, as Sue found when she took the photos on the left on her way to work this morning. I’ve been shopping at the store for 33 years. When I arrived in Nottingham it was on Goldsmith St, where the Royal Concert Hall is now. I used to flog them my spare review copies from the university paper. I spent a lot of time in the singles and second hand store on Bridlesmith Gate and latterly in the three stores on Market St, which shrank to two, then one when Jim bought the shop from its founder, Brian, a little while back. Selectadisc was a legendary, eclectic,…

Just back from London, where we saw the Monty Python musical (great fun, though Peter Davison doesn’t have much of a singing voice) and David Hare’s latest play, ‘The Vertical Hour’ at the Royal Court. This is worth catching, with strong performances from the three leads, although it was hard to credit the sexual tension needed between Anton Lesser and Indira Varma who’s more than a decade younger than Julianne Moore, who played the part on Broadway, and this weakens the play, as do the didactic bookends. Like Hare, I was against the invasion of Iraq, but a play’s far more dramatically effective if the arguments are balanced, leaving us to make up our own minds. Instead, he seemed to be writing it for a…

Every year, we put together a best of year CD for a few of our friends (and if you’re one of them, you may wish to look away until your copy arrives) and, last year, I posted a set of sleeve notes online, an indulgence which I’m going to permit myself again (I’ll update daily until complete). Non muscially minded readers, scroll down to find out more about Young Adult Fiction. Or you can visit my myspace where the song currently streaming is my favourite B side of the year (why not open another browser window, then you can listen to it as you read this…) The photo on the left is the cover photo, Brighid at Tate Modern earlier this year, with Rachel Whiteread…

Our first full day back, and we’ve just been over to Stanley and Margaret’s to collect the carful of pots that Margaret has been watering for us and which, despite the heatwave, are in better condition than when we left them. Stanley, who was 87 on Tuesday, gave us a copy of his new book Mother’s Boy, published today. So that’s the next novel I’ll read. Here, as promised, are the books I’ve just devoured during long days in France (along with, as usual, a vast pile of New Yorkers and TLSs) in roughly the order in which I read them. E.L.Doctorow – The March I’ve not previously been very interested in the American Civil War, but Doctorow’s one of the handful of novelists who…

Last year I finished an entry below with a brief recollection of the singer John Martyn who was about to return to performing after an operation. In it I mention an interview I did with John when I was a student. Within a week, the hosts of both of the John Martyn web-sites, John and Hans, had written to me asking if I had a copy of the interview. I dug it out from the alcove at the back of the spare room and posted it off. Today, Hans put the whole thing (and a review of the album that John was touring, One World) on line. You can read it here. It’s pretty weird, reading stuff you wrote aged nineteen, with no thought of…