My new novel about university life, Student, which I give the background to below, is published on Monday, September 24th, the start of Fresher’s Week at most unis. As an opening week offer, you can get the book on Kindle for 99p, or from the publisher at £4.99, post-free, for a signed copy. That’s less than anywhere else for a signed copy. Obviously, we’re doing this more for attention than sales, and reviews left anywhere will be much appreciated. I started writing seriously 28 years ago, after training to be a teacher. Almost the first thing I wrote was to become my debut, The Foggiest, in 1990. I saw it as a trial run at the time, and concentrated on adult fiction of the kind…
I’ve just returned from one of those holidays you need a holiday to recover from (long story, but it involved a huge amount of driving, breakdowns, a blow-out and never knowing where you would be the next day), so my holiday reading was less wide ranging than usual. I usually get through a balanced set of books, from crime to literary fiction and poetry, but this time the closest I got to literary fiction was a handful of stories in the New Yorker, of which I had many issues saved up. The best ones were by Jennifer Egan in the pictured issue and Tessa Hadley. I was impressed by Alison Moore’s long story The Pre-War House on my Kindle (I’d taken her Booker long-listed The Lighthouse…
Yesterday, I finished reading Gorm Henrik Rasmussen’s excellent book about Nick Drake ‘Pink Moon: A Story About Nick Drake‘ and went to see a wonderful new documentary, ‘Searching For Sugar Man‘. Impossible not to draw links between the two. Unfortunately, I’d read a piece about the documentary that gave away a major surprise. The less you know about the singer Rodriguez before seeing the movie, the better. No big spoilers here. The film tells the story of a singer-songwriter from Detroit who made two great but ignored albums in 1970 and 1971, then vanished. He was rumoured to have killed himself onstage as a protest against audiences who talked through his music. Drake made three albums in his lifetime and walked off stage during his final…
I missed this year’s Bruce Springsteen tour, partly because I’m not very keen on massive stadium gigs, though I did get down the front for Bruce at Glastonbury. Wasn’t too bothered, as I’ve seen him ten times before, but I wish I’d been to the show his band played at Helsinki on the last day of last month. The legend always had it that Bruce played four hour sets, but they usually came in nearer three. At Helsinki, however, he played for four hours and five minutes. AND he played an unannounced 25 minute acoustic set for early arrivals. Recordings, needless to say, circulate. This seems the most appropriate track to feature, from the encores that night, a cover of Southside Johnny & The Asbury…
A slightly extended version of my review for the Nottingham Post. Nottingham has waited 35 years for Scritti Politti. None of the band’s previous incarnations, from do-it-yourself post-punk to neo-soul success, have toured heavily. Singer/songwriter Green Gartside suffers from crippling stage-fright. An approximation of the current line-up produced the excellent White Bread, Black Beer album in 2006. Green’s already played Nottingham once this year, in the Sandy Denny tribute, where he seemed confident and sang wonderfully. Perhaps, at a youthful 57, he’s ready for us. Or perhaps not. ‘Are you alright? Because I’m terrified. Thank you for coming,’ he begins. ‘Good night.’ The band kick off with classic ‘Sweetest Girl’. Five years ago, when I saw the new incarnation at Sheffield’s Leadmill,…