tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72951529765156316392024-02-22T17:09:04.120+01:00OUTTAKESMichael Gray writes and circulates stuffMichael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.comBlogger287125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-67068345673926028952021-05-06T09:42:00.000+02:002021-05-06T09:42:08.526+02:00<p style="text-align: center;"> PROMO VIDEO FOR THE BOOK</p><p style="text-align: center;">with thanks to the <i>Is It Rolling, Bob? podcast</i> interviews with me for most of the chat</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="381" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0XzrxFAk7L4" width="458" youtube-src-id="0XzrxFAk7L4"></iframe></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-88978333937441636182021-04-30T10:23:00.002+02:002021-04-30T10:23:30.350+02:00<p> LAST DAY TO GET A UNIQUE, NUMBERED 1st EDITION HARDBACK...</p><p>... of my first new Dylan book for 15 years: "Outtakes On Bob Dylan: Selected Writings 1967-2021"; available direct from the UK publisher:</p><p>http://www.route-online.com/all-books/outtakes-on-bob-dylan.html</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJbzLY0Loh8UT9gXGXg62NMz_IYWyLac68GA8hyNbuJXWnQDZ_aMDHnZdqP-WH00VHZU9eupWz7YKoMuMlZ8IwTjv6ookjm9TOPdLvA2zoSYLBcwMkcM72u69jCDBCBoTsf41RockN94Sd/s2048/LastDay.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1670" height="559" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJbzLY0Loh8UT9gXGXg62NMz_IYWyLac68GA8hyNbuJXWnQDZ_aMDHnZdqP-WH00VHZU9eupWz7YKoMuMlZ8IwTjv6ookjm9TOPdLvA2zoSYLBcwMkcM72u69jCDBCBoTsf41RockN94Sd/w456-h559/LastDay.jpeg" width="456" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;">_______________________<br /></p>Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-29799783500439311862021-04-04T13:30:00.000+02:002021-04-04T13:30:13.740+02:00<p> <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdrwoa9Oz4mE2voYFBryedpB8ukJbrhak5cjKWyh970N80SAz1GucnBMXvqx9bE_z89qgPVjBYKAx-D6W84TUeDDVG_M7Ps18CtFaAAkNIvhYZ4bh4s58zHhgQE3RyB-jRIpEY6hT6aTTj/s1966/OUTTAKES+COVER.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1966" data-original-width="1196" height="876" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdrwoa9Oz4mE2voYFBryedpB8ukJbrhak5cjKWyh970N80SAz1GucnBMXvqx9bE_z89qgPVjBYKAx-D6W84TUeDDVG_M7Ps18CtFaAAkNIvhYZ4bh4s58zHhgQE3RyB-jRIpEY6hT6aTTj/w534-h876/OUTTAKES+COVER.jpg" width="534" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I really don't keep this blog any longer, but just in case you visit it in 2021, let me make sure you know about this new book. It's over 350 pages and is a UK hardback compiling a series of essays and articles of mine, some published (everywhere from <i>Rolling Stone</i> to the <i>Weekend Telegraph</i>, from <i>Melody Maker</i> to<i> ISIS </i>and from <i>Sight & Sound</i> to the <i>Japan Times</i> and <i>Canadian Folklore canadien</i>) - plus some never previously published work, including a massive essay on <i>Rough And Rowdy Ways</i>. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If you order direct from the publisher at http://www.route-online.com/all-books/outtakes-on-bob-dylan.html BEFORE THE END OF APRIL 2021 you will receive an individually numbered copy. The book will not be available through bookshops or other online outlets until much later in the year. This is my first book about Bob Dylan since the updated Bob Dylan Encyclopedia 13 years ago!</span><br /></div><p></p>Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-63355046558646557962019-01-25T13:54:00.001+01:002019-01-25T13:54:52.467+01:00<div style="text-align: center;">
rather late but here's my list of...</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">BOOKS READ IN 2018</span></h2>
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<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>A
READING DIARY: A Year Of Favourite Books, Alberto Manguel, 2004</b>
many gemlike quotations & a nice restrained chattiness, but he's
often precious, and a bit of a name-dropper.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>THE
SECRET LIFE OF COWS, Rosamund Young, 2017 edn</b> Credible &
creditable close long-term observation of cows allowed to live
relatively free lives, yielding much about their quirks, feelings,
behaviour, differences, and levels of trust in the author and her
partners. No word about their responses to being taken for slaughter
by the same people though.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>STATION
ELEVEN, Emily St.John Mandel, 2014</b> A surprising delight: elegaic,
well-written and unusually kindly novel while telling, very
thoughtfully, a tale of dystopian cataclysm; I was sorry to come to
the end of it.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>KIM,
Rudyard Kipling, 1901</b> Strongly written - with British Empire
confidence yet huge respect for, and knowledge of, such variegated
Indian life - and though its long, slow beginning tries the patience
(and no modern child would persevere) it becomes beguiling and
includes too few of the depictions of landscape he does superbly.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>RECENT
HISTORY, Anthony Giardina, 2001</b> Well-written novel in which a
sensitive, observant suburban youth grows up to be a drip.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>MURDER,
MAYHEM & MUSIC HALL: The Dark Side of Victorian London, Barry
Anthony, 2015 </b>Thoroughly researched, entertaining account centred
on theatre-world scandals & crime.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>DOGS
FROM ALL ANGLES, Nina Scott-Langley & K.R.G.Browne, 1936</b>
Largely hilarious commentaries (sometimes wildly inaccurate, eg re
Bedlington Terriers) & quaint angular drawings.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>HALF
AN INCH OF WATER, Percival Everett, 2015</b> Short stories (a form
I've never liked) in each of which a decent, laconic man living in a
sparse western-state landscape that is described in spare prose
either solves or fails to solve a problem handed to him by someone he
hardly knows.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>EUROPE
BY RAIL: The Definitive Guide, Nicky Gardner & Susanne Kries,
2017</b> Strikingly well-written, thoughtful guidebook not only to
train routes but to countries, cities and landscapes.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>THE
ENGLISH PATIENT, Michael Ondaatje, 1992</b> A major WW2 novel I'd
never read. It's framed with great originality and in prose of
reverberating intensity.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>MAGPIE
MURDERS, Anthony Horowitz, 2016</b> A whodunnit about whodunnits
predictably more concerned to be clever than to be plausible
(postmodernitis). Plus a horribly smug narrator; is this a deliberate
attack on people in publishing, or does he think this woman's ok?:
hard to tell. Tosh.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>THE
HOUSE OF MIRTH, Edith Wharton, 1905</b> In the end a sad story but so
sharply witty in its observations of society I found myself thinking
it made Jane Austen seem myopic.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>THE
DEATH OF THE HEART, Elizabeth Bowen, 1938</b> Penetrating scrutiny
of: a self-suffocating upper middle class 1930s London couple and
their obliviousness to their soon-to-vanish servants; a naive
teenager; lower middle class seaside life; and the wretchedness of a
redundant ex-soldier's poverty & social isolation.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>MARCH
VIOLETS, Philip Kerr, 1989</b> Serviceable detective novel set in
Nazi Germany; hopeless about women characters (and this is not
defensible on period-attitude grounds because he uses a noticeably
more modern voice on other topics).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>ORLEY
FARM, Anthony Trollope, 1862 </b>For much of this long novel I felt
that it might well be a great 19th Century novel that somehow no-one
ever mentioned, but in the end it failed at a couple of hurdles,
especially in its surprising insipidity as the young romantic heroine
eventual gains the lover of her choice; but a fine novel all the
same, full of characters, a decent & dramatic plot and a
particularly moving scene of between a loving father and daughter.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>A
CRIME IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD, Suzanne Berne, 1997</b> Strong portrait of
an American suburb in the early 1970s; well plotted, shifting our
view of the child-narrator cleverly as it goes; I appreciated it more
after discussing it later than during the reading.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>THE
SINGER'S GUN, Emily St.John Mandel, 2010</b> Such a compelling story
of crime, conflicted loyalties and love - modern and brilliant (and
very different from 'Station Eleven') from a real writer. So many
strata above workaday crime fiction like the Philip Kerr. She's a
major find.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>THE
HEAT OF THE DAY, Elizabeth Bowen, 1948</b> Patchy but important novel
of WWII London, exploring issues of identity, loyalty and trust, with
passages of improbable dialogue and a habit of awkardly arranged
sentence structure, yet the most superb, hyperreal, inspired
description of the psychology of Londoners in the Blitz.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>THE
DISCOVERY OF SLOWNESS, Sten Nadolny, 1983</b> [English translation by
Ralph Freedman 1987] Beguiling, admirable novel not quite like
anything I've ever read; a fond and ingenious partly fictional
portrait of Sir John Franklin from boyhood to death; sorry I reached
the end.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>A
SHILLING FOR CANDLES, Josephine Tey, 1936</b> Whodunit; useful
display of the class snobberies of England between the wars.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>SO
LONG, SEE YOU TOMORROW, William Maxwell, 1979 </b>A beautiful novel
of sensitive intelligence, compassion and sense of place (rural
Illinois 1920s-70s); reminded me in these ways of The Other Side of
The Bridge by Mary Lawson.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>MR.
NORRIS CHANGES TRAINS, Christopher Isherwood, 1935</b> Another I'd
never read before. Disliked, early on, the exaggerated portrayal of
Norris and the sordid allusions to S&M, but grew to admire this
short, distinctive novel. Scrupulous portrait of German Weimar
Republic life.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>BLIND
CORNER, Dornford Yates, 1927 </b>A preposterous adventure yarn by a
favourite author of my father's, typifying what Alan Bennett calls
"that school of Snobbery with Violence that runs like a thread
of good-class tweed through [British] twentieth-century literature."</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>INTO
THE WATER, Paula Watkins, 2017</b> It's 90 years later and the crime
thriller is more real, but though it's a page-turner, no one
character is half as vivid or convincing as the narrator in her
terrific 'The Girl On The Train'.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>ALL
THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE, Anthony Doerr, 2014</b> Unlike the
characters trapped in WWII, I wanted it to never end: the best book
about the coming of war and war itself that I have ever read; a
beautiful and great novel.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>CHASING
THE MONSOON, Alexander Frater, 1990</b> I'm re-reading this after
many years (having now been to India, though only once). The copious
background research is too often introduced clunkily, but it's
otherwise entertaining and quite funny; there are also large chunks
of autobiography about his own childhood on a similarly rainy island
in Vanuatu.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>ABOUT
GRACE, Anthony Doerr, 2005 </b>Had to read this, his first novel; not
as outstanding as t'other, but a very unusual, compelling book,
suffused with a special sadness throughout.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>WHEN
A CROCODILE EATS THE SUN, Peter Godwin, 2006</b> Shaky start but
becomes a well-written, convincing insider's account of watching
Mugabe's Zimbabwe descend into violence, cruelty, stupidity and
waste: an account that blends very skilfully and articulately a
detailed picture of his own white family life with the shameful
detail of national disintegration.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>TWO
CARAVANS, Marina Lewycka, 2007</b> A lovely book: clever,
multi-faceted and funny, but at the same time a vivid education in
the gruesome exploitation of immigrant workers in today's UK.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>ALWAYS
OTHER VOICES: Writings on Bob Dylan in the 21st Century, Stephen
Scobie, 2018</b> An attractive mixed bag, featuring Stephen's
distinctively appealing voice on many topics.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>SMALL
ISLAND, Andrea Levy, 2004</b> Starts so badly I almost gave it up; so
glad I didn't. She has no style but the story she tells is so
multi-layered, so wide-ranging (Jamaica, India in WWII, London 1948)
and uses many character-narrators, all of whom work well except the
first. An important synthesis of many cultural strands told with
sympathy for all sides. Bit soulless, though.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>THE
CLEARING, Tim Gautreaux, 2003 </b>He's a great writer, and this is as
memorable a novel as 'The Next Step In The Dance' (1999). He makes a
world so vividly realised here, in such detail and yet with an
elegaic sweep; so atmospheric yet so specific. A novel of such
violence yet so much humanity, a time and place of tough realism
created with unerring poetic prose.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>THE
SHIPPING NEWS, Annie Proulx, 1993</b> A masterpiece. Straight in to
my (unwritten) list of Best 5 Novels Ever Read. Came to the end with
the greatest possible reluctance. Cast adrift, bereft, without it.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>AFRICA
EXPLORED: Europeans in the Dark Continent 1769-1889. Christopher
Hibbert, 1982 </b>Efficiently told, well summarised accounts, yet in
some detail, of the extraordinary people who made these dangerous
explorations and the equally extraordinary people they encountered.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>THE
TRANSLATION OF THE BONES, Francesca Kay, 2011</b> A beautifully
written and very English, very Roman Catholic novel mesmerised by the
language of liturgy, set mostly in a barely-present London but
terrific on parent-child love.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="__DdeLink__2342_1262526934"></a>
<b>JANE EYRE, Charlotte Bronte, 1847</b> A re-read after many
decades. Remarkable novel, rather better than the more currently
modish 'Wuthering Heights" by her sister and at least as racy in
its time; and in St.John Rivers she has created one of the most truly
loathsome characters in English fiction.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>MY
NAME IS LUCY BARTON, Elizabeth Strout, 2016</b> A short and very
American novel that took me by surprise: I spent the first 75% or so
finding it thin and insubstantial (and the wide high praise for it
inexplicable) and then suddenly I found it very moving indeed.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>THE
GREEN YEARS, A.J. Cronin, 1944</b> Having only read 'The Citadel'
(and that many years ago), and aware that Cronin has fallen heavily
from literary favour in recent decades, I loved and admired this
exceptionally well-written, compelling coming-of-age novel set in a
time-past Scottish town.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>THE
BREAKER, Minette Walters, 1998</b> Whodunit that begins ok but
plummets horribly: dodgy, flat characterisation and toe-curlingly bad
dialogue, especially when her characters are being friendly or
flirtatious. It makes Agatha Christie seem literary.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>THE
ACCIDENTAL, Ali Smith, 2006</b> Rapturous.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>RED
BIRDS, Mohammed Hanif, 2018</b> Starts badly with an uncertain
narrative tone, achieves a clever and inspired central 150-page
portrait of the mad relationship between foreign wars and the refugee
camps & rehabilitation programmes those wars create... and then a
final 70-odd pages so exasperatingly pointless and silly you wonder
why Hanif didn't just delete them.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>THE
VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX, Maggie O'Farrell, 2006</b> Moving novel
written with beautiful clarity and with a glorious main character
whose life is ruined but not quite crushed by her family and the
mores of the age in which she grew up.</div>
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________________</div>
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Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-10475924738347312702018-06-28T11:58:00.000+02:002018-06-28T11:58:17.937+02:00<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">UPDATES ON MY AUTUMN TOUR:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc-RM1Kp-VacEdiVaX_A0lKbyGMPbKM6Dk_24dbXVDgvz54J7dhjxq25t_oaLvpY3_QM_G3sZSXjzVvP2dpiuMOxzAtmr0bGxUjrlkpgl-MAehTwl5ZwUDKMy1SUGjfATpDF5DSlkTZqft/s1600/BobByAndreaOrlandi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="591" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc-RM1Kp-VacEdiVaX_A0lKbyGMPbKM6Dk_24dbXVDgvz54J7dhjxq25t_oaLvpY3_QM_G3sZSXjzVvP2dpiuMOxzAtmr0bGxUjrlkpgl-MAehTwl5ZwUDKMy1SUGjfATpDF5DSlkTZqft/s320/BobByAndreaOrlandi.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">photo © Andrea Orlandi</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><style type="text/css">p { margin-left: 1.25in; text-indent: -1.25in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); line-height: 150%; text-align: left; }p.western { font-family: "Tms Rmn", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; }p.cjk { font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; }p.ctl { font-family: "Tms Rmn", "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; }a:visited { color: rgb(128, 0, 128); }a.western:visited { }a.cjk:visited { }a.ctl:visited { }a:link { color: rgb(0, 0, 255); }</style></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">I've added four November UK dates to my tour: in Inverness and on the Isle of Man on "Bob Dylan, Literature & the Poetry of the Blues" and two on "Searching For Blind Willie McTell: A Biographer in the Deep South": one in Peel, Isle of Man and the other in London. </span></span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Here'</span></span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">s</span></span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> the current list:</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><style type="text/css">p { margin-left: 1.25in; text-indent: -1.25in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); line-height: 150%; text-align: left; }p.western { font-family: "Tms Rmn", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; }p.cjk { font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; }p.ctl { font-family: "Tms Rmn", "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt; }a:visited { color: rgb(128, 0, 128); }a.western:visited { }a.cjk:visited { }a.ctl:visited { }a:link { color: rgb(0, 0, 255); }</style></div><div class="paragraph"><br />
</div><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<span style="color: red;"><b>Tuesday October 30, 7.45pm</b></span> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">RIVERFRONT ARTS CENTRE, NEWPORT, SOUTH WALES<br />
<b><span style="color: #f73100;">BOB DYLAN, LITERATURE & THE POETRY OF THE BLUES</span></b><br />
Riverfront Arts Centre<br />
Bristol Packet Wharf<br />
Newport NP20 1HG South Wales<br />
box office: 01633 656757<br />
<span style="color: #000099;"><u><a href="https://tinyurl.com/bobdylanbooking" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/bobdylanbooking</a></u></span><br />
tickets £<span>13 (includes £1 booking fee)</span> on sale now</span> </span><br />
<br />
<div class="paragraph"><span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">Thursday Nov 1, 7.30pm</span></b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
QUEENS HALL, HEXHAM, NORTHUMBERLAND<br />
<b><span style="color: #f74700;">BOB DYLAN, LITERATURE & THE POETRY OF THE BLUES</span></b><br />
Queens Hall Theatre & Arts Centre<br />
Beaumont Street, Hexham NE46 3LS<br />
box office: 01434 652477, or online here:<br />
<span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.queenshall.co.uk/events/bob-dylan-literature-poetry-blues" target="_blank"><span>https://www.queenshall.co.uk/events/bob-dylan-literature-poetry-blues</span></a></span><br />
<span style="color: navy;"><span><u><a href="http://www.queenshall.co.uk/">www.queenshall.co.uk</a></u></span></span><br />
tickets £10 (£8 concessions) on sale now</span></div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><div class="paragraph"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<span style="color: red;"><b>Sunday Nov 4, 5pm</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #d5d5d5;"><span><span><span><span style="color: black;">ORAN MOR, GLASGOW</span><br />
<b><span style="color: #f62601;">BOB DYLAN, LITERATURE & THE POETRY OF THE BLUES</span></b><br />
<span style="color: black;">Byres Rd,<br />
Glasgow, G12 8QX<br />
box office: 0141 357 6200</span></span></span></span></span>, or online here:<br />
<span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://tinyurl.com/dylaneventticketsoran-mor" target="_blank"><span><span>https://tinyurl.com/dylaneventticketsoran-mor</span></span></a></span><br />
<a href="https://oran-mor.co.uk/" target="_blank">https://oran-mor.co.uk/</a><br />
tickets £10 (+ £1.50 fee) on sale now</span></div><div class="paragraph"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><div class="paragraph"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #f4ef01;"><span style="color: red;"><b>Monday Nov 5, 7.30pm</b></span><br />
<span style="color: black;">ONE TOUCH THEATRE, EDEN COURT, INVERNESS</span></span><br />
<span><span style="color: #f4321a;">BOB DYLAN, LITERATURE & THE POETRY OF THE BLUES</span><br />
Bishops Road, Inverness, IV3 5SA</span><br />
<a href="https://www.eden-court.co.uk/" target="_blank">https://www.eden-court.co.uk/</a><br />
Box Office: <span><span>01463 234 234<br />
or online: details tba<br />
tickets £10 (+ £1 fee) on sale soon</span></span></span></div><div class="paragraph"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span> </span></span><br />
</span></div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><div class="paragraph"><span style="color: navy; font-size: small;"><span><span style="color: black;"><span><span style="color: #d5d5d5;"><span style="color: red;"><b>Thursday Nov 8, 9pm</b></span><br />
<span style="color: black;">A</span></span>RTHUR'S BLUES & JAZZ CLUB, DUBLIN</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<b><span style="color: #f13406;"><span><span><span><span>BOB DYLAN, LITERATURE & THE POETRY OF THE BLUES</span></span></span></span></span></b><br />
<span style="color: #ebe2e2;"><span><span><span style="color: black;">28 Thomas Street<br />
D08 VF83 Dublin<br />
(01) 402 0914</span><br />
<a href="http://www.arthurspub.ie/" target="_blank">www.arthurspub.ie </a></span></span></span><br />
for tickets in advance:<br />
<a href="https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/bob-dylan-literature-the-poetry-of-the-blues-tickets-46827691887" target="_blank">https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/bob-dylan-literature-the-poetry-of-the-blues-tickets-46827691887</a><br />
tickets €15</span></div><div class="paragraph"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="paragraph"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: red;"><b>Saturday Nov 10, 6pm</b></span></span></div><div class="paragraph"><span style="font-size: small;">EDGE HILL ARTS CENTRE, nr LIVERPOOL<br />
<b><span style="color: #ec4a07;">BOB DYLAN, LITERATURE & THE POETRY OF THE BLUES</span></b><br />
<span><span>Edge Hill University, St Helens Rd<br />
Ormskirk Lancs. L39 4QP<br />
https://www.edgehill.ac.uk./artscentre/<br />
box office: </span></span><span>01695 584480</span> or <a href="https://tinyurl.com/edgehilldylan" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/edgehilldylan</a><br />
tickets £5 (free to EHU students) on sale now</span></div><div class="paragraph"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><div class="paragraph"><span style="color: #f2f800; font-size: small;"><span style="color: red;"><b>Sunday Nov 11, 7.30pm</b></span><br />
<span style="color: black;">THE INSTITUTE, LAXEY, ISLE OF MAN</span><br />
<b><span style="color: #f74a23;">BOB DYLAN, LITERATURE & THE POETRY OF THE BLUES</span></b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<span style="color: #d5d5d5;"><span><span style="color: black;"><span><span><span><span>New Road, Laxey, Isle of Man IM4 7BD</span></span></span></span><br />
<span><span><span><span>07624 414299</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<a href="http://theinstitute.im/" target="_blank"><u><span><span><span><span>http://theinstitute.im</span></span></span></span></u></a><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span>but for tickets phone</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span> </span></span><span><span style="color: black;"><span><span>07624 204320 or e-mail</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1848d7;"><a href="mailto:bluejohnmedia@hotmail.co.uk"><u><span>bluejohnmedia@hotmail.co.uk</span></u></a></span></span></span><br />
online booking details to come<br />
tickets £12</span></div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><div class="paragraph"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<span style="color: #f5ed01;"><span style="color: red;"><b>Monday Nov 12, 7.30pm</b></span><br />
<span style="color: black;">CENTENARY CENTRE, PEEL, ISLE OF MAN</span></span><br />
<b><span style="color: #e05c5c;">SEARCHING FOR BLIND WILLIE McTELL:</span></b><span style="color: #e05c5c;"><b>A Biographer in the Deep South</b> (incl. tracks & possibly footage)</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><em>plus guest artist John Gregory performing selected McTell songs (guitar & vocals)</em></span><br />
(The Atholl Room) 22 Atholl St, Peel IM5 1BD<br />
<a href="http://www.centenarycentre.com/" target="_blank">http://www.centenarycentre.com/</a><br />
but for tickets phone 07624 204320 or e-mail<br />
<a href="mailto:bluejohnmedia@hotmail.co.uk">bluejohnmedia@hotmail.co.uk</a><br />
online booking details to come<br />
tickets £10</span></div><div class="paragraph"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<b><span style="color: red;">Wednesday Nov 14, 5pm</span></b><br />
GOLDSMITHS COLLEGE, LONDON<br />
<span style="color: #e05c5c;"><b>SEARCHING FOR BLIND WILLIE McTELL:<br />
A Biographer in the Deep South </b>(possibly including audio gems)</span><br />
GoldsmithsCollege, University of London<br />
New Cross, London SE14 6NW<br />
<a href="https://www.gold.ac.uk/" target="_blank">https://www.gold.ac.uk/</a><br />
room details tba in September<br />
free admission</span></div><div class="paragraph"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="paragraph" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">________ </span></div><div id="footer"> </div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b> </b></span></span>Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-62717769860778791852018-06-15T12:20:00.000+02:002018-06-15T12:20:08.244+02:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvdC6lTy5IG9vhb551DJ6PIKtq2fTBz0mXGFYhQn46WSaDO_eK9wwVs7ua10PpO3SghuHWWOTnNB7M8RQkIEKcw1faHSYTrwMp2qEnrRkDlQUC-3c7QL5JGLnOdI4dOO8QGl4W4K0taVd0/s1600/BobByAndreaOrlandi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="591" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvdC6lTy5IG9vhb551DJ6PIKtq2fTBz0mXGFYhQn46WSaDO_eK9wwVs7ua10PpO3SghuHWWOTnNB7M8RQkIEKcw1faHSYTrwMp2qEnrRkDlQUC-3c7QL5JGLnOdI4dOO8QGl4W4K0taVd0/s320/BobByAndreaOrlandi.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">BOB DYLAN, LITERATURE & THE POETRY OF THE BLUES</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">a tour of talks by Michael Gray with surprising tracks and rare footage</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2018</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">one or two more dates may be added</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;">Tuesday October 30, 7.45pm</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;">RIVERFRONT ARTS CENTRE, NEWPORT, SOUTH WALES</span><br /><strong><span style="color: #f73100;">BOB DYLAN, LITERATURE & THE POETRY OF THE BLUES</span></strong></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Riverfront Arts Centre<br />Bristol Packet Wharf<br />Newport NP20 1HG South Wales<br />box office: 01633 656757</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #000099;"><u><a href="https://tinyurl.com/bobdylanbooking" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/bobdylanbooking</a></u></span><br />tickets £<span>13 (includes £1 booking fee)</span></span> <span style="font-size: large;">on sale now</span><br />
</div>
<h2 class="wsite-content-title">
</h2>
<div class="paragraph">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;">Thursday Nov 1, 7.30pm</span><br />QUEENS HALL, HEXHAM, NORTHUMBERLAND<br /><strong><span style="color: #f74700;">BOB DYLAN, LITERATURE & THE POETRY OF THE BLUES</span></strong><br />Queens Hall Theatre & Arts Centre<br />Beaumont Street, Hexham NE46 3LS</span></div>
<div class="paragraph">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: navy;"><span><u><a href="http://www.queenshall.co.uk/">www.queenshall.co.uk</a></u></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: navy;"><span><u> </u></span></span></span>box office: 01434 652477, or online here:</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.queenshall.co.uk/events/bob-dylan-literature-poetry-blues" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>https://www.queenshall.co.uk/events/bob-dylan-literature-poetry-blues</span></span></a></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">tickets £10 (£8 concessions) on sale now</span></div>
<div class="paragraph">
<br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;">Sunday Nov 4, 5pm</span><br /><span style="color: #d5d5d5;"><span><span><span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">ORAN-MOR, GLASGOW</span><br /><strong><span style="color: #f62601;">BOB DYLAN, LITERATURE & THE POETRY OF THE BLUES</span></strong><br /><span style="color: black;">Byres Rd,<br />Glasgow, G12 8QX<br />box office: 0141 357 6200</span></span></span></span></span></span>, or online here:</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://tinyurl.com/dylaneventticketsoran-mor" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span><span style="font-weight: normal;">https://tinyurl.com/dylaneventticketsoran-mor</span></span></span></span></a></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://oran-mor.co.uk/" target="_blank">https://oran-mor.co.uk/</a></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">tickets £10 (+ £1.50 fee) on sale now</span></div>
<div class="paragraph">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /></div>
<div class="paragraph">
<span style="color: navy; font-size: large;"><span><span style="color: black;"><span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #d5d5d5;"><span style="color: blue;">Thursday Nov 8, 9pm</span><br /><span style="color: black;">A</span></span>RTHUR'S BLUES & JAZZ CLUB, DUBLIN</span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #f13406; font-size: large;"><span><span><span><span><strong>BOB DYLAN, LITERATURE & THE POETRY OF THE BLUES</strong></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #ebe2e2;"><span><span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">28 Thomas Street<br />D08 VF83 Dublin<br />(01) 402 0914</span><br /><a href="http://www.arthurspub.ie/" target="_blank">www.arthurspub.ie </a></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">for tickets in advance:</span><br /><a href="https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/bob-dylan-literature-the-poetry-of-the-blues-tickets-46827691887" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/bob-dylan-literature-the-poetry-of-the-blues-tickets-46827691887</span></a><br /><span style="font-size: large;">tickets €15</span></div>
<div class="paragraph">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div class="paragraph">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;">Saturday Nov 10, 6pm</span><br />EDGE HILL ARTS CENTRE, nr LIVERPOOL<br /><strong><span style="color: #ec4a07;">BOB DYLAN, LITERATURE & THE POETRY OF THE BLUES</span></strong><br /><span style="color: #d5d5d5;"><span><span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Edge Hill University, St Helens Rd<br />Ormskirk Lancs. L39 4QP<br />https://www.edgehill.ac.uk./artscentre/<br />box office:</span> </span></span></span></span><span>01695 584480</span> or</span></div>
<div class="paragraph">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://tinyurl.com/edgehilldylan" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/edgehilldylan</a><br />tickets £5 (free to EHU students) on sale now</span></div>
<div class="paragraph">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div class="paragraph">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #f2f800; font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;">Sunday Nov 11, 7.30pm</span><br /><span style="color: black;">THE INSTITUTE, LAXEY, ISLE OF MAN</span><br /><span style="color: #f74a23;"><strong>BOB DYLAN, LITERATURE & THE POETRY OF THE BLUES</strong></span></span><br /><span style="color: #d5d5d5; font-size: large;"><span><span style="color: black;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-weight: normal;">New Road, Laxey, Isle of Man IM4 7BD</span></span></span></span></span><br /><span><span><span><span><span style="font-weight: normal;">07624 414299</span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><a href="http://theinstitute.im/" target="_blank"><u><span><span><span><span><span style="font-weight: normal;">http://theinstitute.im</span></span></span></span></span></u></a><span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #d5d5d5; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><span><span style="font-weight: normal;">for tickets phone</span></span><span><span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span></span><span><span style="color: black;"><span><span><span style="font-weight: normal;">07624 204320 or e-mail</span></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #1848d7;"><a href="mailto:bluejohnmedia@hotmail.co.uk"><u><span><span style="font-weight: normal;">bluejohnmedia@hotmail.co.uk</span></span></u></a></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">online booking details to come<br />tickets £12</span><br />
<br />
Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-62775295021799442972018-02-22T10:04:00.000+01:002018-02-22T10:04:22.837+01:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcMkFHLOVfiahzTUCBJ49-a76zABgP-foq84prpqj3mVbOKxPsMBiWsoM0p3rl5ux4EeWLMFrHlfbmp_BLhBtN9iS48X74TsQGtNFk9xVZ6e2YiQf9YPn0TKatlB3OwpnjEoXHu6hEBAEU/s1600/Rail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcMkFHLOVfiahzTUCBJ49-a76zABgP-foq84prpqj3mVbOKxPsMBiWsoM0p3rl5ux4EeWLMFrHlfbmp_BLhBtN9iS48X74TsQGtNFk9xVZ6e2YiQf9YPn0TKatlB3OwpnjEoXHu6hEBAEU/s320/Rail.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
GREAT RAILWAY JOURNEYS - THANK GOD FOR EUROPE!<br /><br />
It's not often I review a
book, but I have to review this one: "EUROPE BY RAIL: The Definitive
Guide" by Nicky Gardner & Susanne Kries, 15th edition, Nov. 2017.<br />
<br />
This is a beautifully produced paperback, with inside cover flaps you can use as bookmarks, clearly not made on the cheap.<br />
<br />
<div class="text_exposed_show">
It offers 50 suggested routes you might not have considered yourself,
each taking you through striking parts of Europe, and each properly
rail-tested by the authors, from 'Exploring the French Riviera' to
'Through Balkan Byways to Greece', and from 'Through Poland to Ukraine'
to 'Across the Alps: Bavaria to Northern Italy'.<br />
<br />
In every case
there's up-to-date info on how to take the slow route; where to break
your journey overnight; how long each section will take... and which
side of the train to sit for the significant views. There are also quite
substantial asides (on pink backgrounds) on, for example, Kosovo,
languages of Vojvodina, the Alps by bus, orthodoxy in Finland, the Aland
Islands ("Although part of the European Union, this scatter of islands
lies outside the EU's fiscal regime - a little accounting
curiosity..."), "the wandering Arctic Circle", and Rhine versus Moselle.<br />
<br />
At the back there's a 60+ page gazeteer covering 48 European countries
and telling you about their currencies, time zones, languages, types of
electric socket and more; and at the front there are glossy photographs
showing, for example, that "enthusiasm for Soviet-style memorials has
not waned in Belarus" and that "steam-hauled trains are still seen every
day in the Harz Mountains in eastern Germany". There are also maps,
thoughtful advice about tickets and rail-passes, stations worth a visit
in their own rights, and an enormous amount more besides. And an index.<br />
<br />
One of the great virtues of this book, and a key to its being so
enjoyable to read (even when no real journey is planned), is that it's
well written - which makes it a rarity among practical guidebooks. It
reminds me, in this way, of the Cadogan Guides of the 1980s-90s written
by Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls. They too had a relish for alert,
vivid prose free of travel-hack cliche and addressed with generosity of
spirit to readers assumed to be open-minded and interested.<br />
<br />
In
the end, taking in "Europe By Rail" without taking myself around Europe
by rail, it's hard not to be mournfully wistful about all the places
I've never been, all the rails not travelled. (It takes a lot to laugh,
it takes a train to cry, perhaps.) But it's also a powerful reminder of
the cacophanous splendour of Europe itself - a continent so compact
yet so riddled with infinitely varied quirks, beauty, age and elan. This
book replenishes the feeling those of us who've spent time in Los
Angeles or Newfoundland always tend to harbour: thank god for Europe.</div>
Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-55552223235169049992018-01-05T10:37:00.002+01:002018-01-05T10:38:32.861+01:00<u><span style="font-size: large;">BOOKS READ 2017</span></u><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Here's the list of books I read last year, and what I felt about them:</span><br />
<br />
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<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">THE
WOMAN IN WHITE, Wilkie Collins, 1860 </span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">long
and wonderful, its suspense maintained very vividly across most of
the novel.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">THE
SEED COLLECTORS, Scarlett Thomas, 2015</span></span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
pretentious & self-regarding.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">THE
GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY, Mary Ann Shaffer &
Annie Barrows, 2008 </span></span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">despite
the awful title, dual authorship & horribly perky first 20 pages
or so, this becomes a wonderful, moving book that works as fiction
and as a documentary portrait of wartime occupied Guernsey;
exceptional</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">THE
OTHER SIDE OF THE BRIDGE, Mary Lawson, 2006 </span></span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">an
even more admirably clear-sighted and deeply affecting novel than her
"Crow Lake"; too short, though</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">THE
CROSSING, Andrew Miller, 2015 </span></span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">vital,
poetic prose &</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
a </span></span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">compelling
heroine</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="__DdeLink__5_1604872963"></a>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">CHARLES
DICKENS: A CRITICAL STUDY, George Gissing, 1898 </span></span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">to
my surprise (since I loved "Grub Street" and love a lot of
Dickens) I had to give this up after five chapters; far too stuck in
the agonies of late-Victorian moralising</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">GRAY
MOUNTAIN, John Grisham, 2014 </span></span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">many
GoodReadsers have moaned about it being an "issue book",
but it's deeply researched about strip mining, black lung disease &
the corporate trashing of the Appalachians; commendable & timely</span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">ROAD
ENDS, Mary Lawson, 2013 a l</span></span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">esser
work & even shorter, but recommended; I wish there were more of
her work - three novels aren't enough from this great writer (though
there's another one written in French, which I wouldn't be able to
tackle; there seems to be no English translation)</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">THE
TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL, Anne Bronte, 1848 </span></span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">both
narrators (speaking as letter & diary writers plagued by total
recall) seem foolish early on, and the ending is too pat, but the
portraint of the heroine's dissolute husband is absorbing</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">.</span></span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
The book never explores or questions reliance on and exploitation of
faithful servants, but it does examine the double standards in law &
marriage between men and women. </span></span></span>
</div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE,
Philip K. Dick, 1962 </span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">patchiest
book ever read; fresh sentences, long tedious passages, improbable
characters, one great character.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">GEORGE
GISSING: A LIFE, Paul Delaney, 2008 </span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">diligently
researched sympathetic study of an affecting, hopelessly wretched
life & of a fascinating literary novelist; few people can ever
have shot themselves in the feet as repeatedly as Gissing did</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">THE
ABORTIONIST'S DAUGHTER, Elisabeth Hyde, 2006 </span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">third-rate
crime novel with implausible plot detail; manages to be both glib and
clunky at the same time.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">TRAVELS
WITH A DONKEY In The Cevennes, R L Stevenson, 1879 </span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">a
rare delight.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">MRS.
DALLOWAY, Virginia Woolf, 1925</span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
an absolute masterpiece.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">THIS
SIDE OF BRIGHTNESS, Colum McCann, 1998 </span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">a
gruelling read: such sordid lives, such compelling & tragic
characters, such powerful prose.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">TESS OF
THE D'URBERVILLES, Thomas Hardy, 1891</span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
passionately written tale of tragic characters; a then-progressive
foregrounding of the rural working-class (though hardly Zola).</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">THE LAST
DETECTIVE, Peter Lovesey, 1991</span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
superior whodunit of original construction and decent prose, though
the culprit perhaps too easy to guess.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">THE
PACT, Jodi Picoult, 1998</span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
gives readers no sense of whether her cringeworthy adults are meant
to be seen as awful; riddled with creativewritingschoolitis; but when
it becomes a courtroom drama it gets moderately compelling sub-Grisham.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">DISSIDENT
GARDENS, Jonathan Lethem, 2013</span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> a </span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><u>great</u></span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
novel: of wide-ranging genius & lapidary intelligence; historical
accuracy fused with alert imagination.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">THE
DIVIDE, Nicholas Evans, 2005</span></span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> nature well described, people almost entirely one-dimensional &
self-regarding, as promised crime novel becomes long, tedious
family-agonies story; humourless & witless throughout.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">THE
GIRL ON THE TRAIN, Paula Hawkins, 2015</span></span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> mystifyingly compelling page-turner early on, when the two main
narrators seem creepy yet not sinister; develops into something
extraordinarily clever as the tension is racked up. Brilliantly
plotted. No wonder it was such a mega bestseller. Finest thriller
I've read since Gone Girl, but so beautifully English instead of
American.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">PLOT
29, Allan Jenkins, 2017 </span></span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">a
beautiful, sad book about the agonies of his unknown antecedents &
his & his brother's abandonment, and of trying to uncover it all
and adjust to it, interspersed with a journal of his cathartic life
planting & growing veg, fruit and flowers. The first non-fiction
book I've read for months</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">THE BRICKS THAT BUILT THE
HOUSES, Kate Tempest, 2016 </span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">probably
in the top ten greatest novels I've ever read; truly contemporary,
wide-ranging yet concentrated, wholly distinctive voice, moving &
funny & impassioned & so shrewdly observant, and pins down
situations we've all lived yet have never found in fiction before.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">MR.
NICHOLAS, Thomas Hinde, 1952</span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
at first I thought it just a very inferior Elizabeth Bowen, but it
grew on me. A bit.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">THE GIRL
WHO KICKED THE HORNETS' NEST, Stieg Larsson, 2007; English
translation 2009 </span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">my
first read from Larsson; mind-bogglingly well-planned & plotted;
an intelligent, substantial page-turner; and it reads well in
English.</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">One
oddity: it's set in Sweden yet there's never any weather...</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">LOVE AMONG THE RUINS: A Memoir
of Life & Love in Hamburg 1945, Harry Leslie Smith, 2012 &
2015 <span style="color: #000099;">s</span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">hould
be interesting re life for a British soldier staying on in Germany
when WWII has ended - but he's no writer so it isn't. I gave it up.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">WHEN WE
WERE YOUNG: A Compendium of Childhood, ed. John Burningham, 2004 </span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">a
fresh, tremendously well-chosen range of childhood memoir pieces with
an admirable literary bent & no dumbing down; full of quotable moments.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">ENGLEBY, Sebastian Faulks,
2007 </span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">compelling
story, dark humour, intellectually sharp; near total-recall of 1970s
minutiae; crucially, the tranparently unreliable narrator (an almost
common current device) comes within a highly inventive form of the
novel that is ingenious without postmodernism (ie without being
irritating).</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">ROBINSON CRUSOE, The Life and
Strange & Surprising Adventures of, Daniel Defoe, 1719 [1808
edition] I</span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">'d
read it as a child, but had no idea how ruthlessly this immensely long
book had been abridged for children; in this edition he doesn't see
the footprint till 27% of the way through, doesn't meet Friday till
almost 40% of the way through and has returned to Europe by 50%,
after several hundred pages. I gave up after that; the edition I read
(on Kindle) seems to have added in all Defoe's far less popular
follow-up novels. The original full-length novel, interesting &
skilfully done, was enough.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">AGAINST
MISERABILISM, David Widgery, 2017</span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
posthumous collection of his brilliantly prescient, wide-ranging essays
written 1968-92: admirably relevant on politics and soberingly good
(and affecting) on his experience as an NHS doctor in London.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A LESSON
BEFORE DYING, Ernest J. Gaines, 1993</span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
a short, likeable novel compelling through its detail as well as its
quiet humanity; a portrait of racial injustice in the Deep South of
the 1940s, set in a rural black community full of its own tensions; but told
calmly.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">WINTER
IN MADRID, C.J.Sansom, 2006 </span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">a
highly researched historical-adventure novel of politics &
intrigue set in 1930s-early '40s Spain; a page-turner through
accretion of detail long before it becomes one through tensions and
twists of plot.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">IN COLD
BLOOD, Truman Capote, 1966</span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
what a book! The perfect template for a historical crime non-fiction
case, inspirationally structured from its calm, detailed, intelligent and humane beginning to
its forgiveably sweetened end.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">THE RED
BADGE OF COURAGE, Stephen Crane, 1895</span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> uncanny maturity of tone & humour from a
21-year-old writer, and so innovative: the first Civil War novel
about ordinary soldiers instead of great generals. An easy read too.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">THE VINYL DETECTIVE, Andrew
Cartmel, 2016 </span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">goes
on too long, many implausibilities but great fun for anyone who's
ever been or befriended a hi-fi freak or obsessive record collector.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">A RIVER TOWN, Thomas Keneally,
1995 </span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">admirable,
vivid, unhurried novel from a major writer, and one of those
rare authors whose books truly differ from each other & are
unified only by his robust, engaged imagination. His adjectives dance
but are never showy.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">HERE I AM, Jonathan Safran
Foer, 2016 </span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">provoking
in both senses, this unfunny "hilarious" novel is so
wearingly clever, so delighted by its own cutesy introspection and by
its self-absorbed main characters (a drippy couple and their
precocious children). It's also far too long, but that's another
outcome of its shouty self-indulgence. (And boo to Penguin for a UK
paperback with such a small typeface that they don't even admit what
it is on the copyright page.)</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">THE
HOUSE IN PARIS, Elizabeth Bowen, 1935 </span></span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-size: medium;">a
re-balancing after the horrors of "Here I Am": forensic
quiet intelligence in place of clever shouting, and that rare but
special pleasure, a striking child character (Leopold).</span></span></div>
Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-39064861473055134202017-01-03T15:20:00.000+01:002017-01-03T15:20:27.963+01:00BOOKS READ IN 2016This is the list of books I read last year, with brief comments:<br />
<br />
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
SWANN’S
WAY, Marcel Proust, 1913 <span style="color: blue;">heavy going; acute;
far too wordy; unique</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
THE
CORRECTIONS, Jonathan Franzen, 2001 <span style="color: #0000cc;">intelligent,
funny, dark, cheering, depressing, fresh, humane</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
BOB
DYLAN DREAM: My Life With Bob, Roy Kelly, 2015<span style="color: blue;">
touching, beautiful, intelligent memoir of an ordinary life roughly
contemporary with mine & Dylan’s</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
EMOTIONALLY
WEIRD, Kate Atkinson, 2000 <span style="color: blue;">sometimes very
funny, sometimes too silly (improbability not counteracted by enough
comic success), but the main character is likeable & it’s the
only postmodern novel I’ve read that works, so that it ends up
clever rather than irritatingly clever-clever</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
VANITY
FAIR:A Novel Without a Hero, William Makepeace Thackeray, 1847-8</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: blue;">fascinating
in its mix of modernity - pioneering C19 realism & an
anti-heroine yet using C18 literary devices (which have a touch of
postmodernism, we’d feel now); a sweeping satire on money, the
class system and snobbery (a word he coined)... BUT! he’s not as
deep or heartfelt as Dickens and his characters are mostly less vivid</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
DOWNHILL
ALL THE WAY, Leonard Woolf, 1967 <span style="color: blue;">upper/upper-middle
class man of letters and politics, Virginia’s husband, writing this
in his 80s; clear and conscientious prose from a very fair-minded man
acutely aware of both others’ even greater privilege and the great
majority’s lack of it; a real socialist with servants</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
FUGITIVE
PIECES, Anne Michaels, 1997 <span style="color: blue;">irksomely opaque
start but opens into one of the most articulately heartfelt,
intelligent, beautiful & distinctive of books</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
THE
THUNDERBOLT KID, The Life & Times of, Bill Bryson, 2003<span style="color: blue;">
auto-Bryson with clunky research padding out a very superficial account of his upbringing</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
THE
LIE, Helen Dunmore, 2014 <span style="color: blue;">moving and</span>
<span style="color: blue;">vivid on rural Cornwall life in 1920 & on
the horrors of WWI trench warfare and its afterlife in the narrator’s
mind; an intelligent novel yet comfortingly English & traditional</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
THE
INVENTION OF WINGS, Sue Monk Kidd, 2014 <span style="color: blue;">potboiler
with a heart, but with none of the originality of "The Secret Life of Bees"</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
FLUSH,
Virginia Woolf, 1933 <span style="color: blue;">rather good: her language is very
alive and without showiness</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
SLANG
OF HANDS, Bernhard Widder, 2009 <span style="color: blue;">Austrian poems
about northern UK; ok</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
JOY
IN THE MORNING, Betty Smith, 1963 <span style="color: blue;">sister of the
more famous “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn”; had to give up on it. Too
cute, sprightly, implausible & 1950s-sordid: all virginity &
sweet-little-woman & manly cigarettes & plucky struggle</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
THE
JOKE, Milan Kundera, 1967 [1992 translation] <span style="color: blue;">gloom-inducing
portrait of mid-C20 Czechoslovakia & by extension general Eastern
European gloom; it may linger, but it was sententious, with terrible
attitudes to women, and mostly a pain in the arse to read</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
THE
MOONSTONE, Wilkie Collins, 1868 <span style="color: blue;">seldom resorts
to dodgy melodrama and overall a work of near-genius; pioneering
detective novel, and for the first half, very funny thanks to a
captivating narrator figure, old servant Betteredge</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">NOBODY
MOVE, Denis Johnson, 2009 </span><span style="color: #3333ff;">an indifferent
contemporary Chandler, or perhaps a pale imitation of Cormac McCarthy</span><span style="color: black;">
</span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">ANGEL,
Elizabeth Taylor, 1957 </span><span style="color: #3333ff;">quiet, superior
page-turner about the power of vanity & self-deception, spanning
a lifetime; it deepens into pathos as it goes</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">THE
MILL ON THE FLOSS, George Eliot, 1860 </span><span style="color: blue;">tremendous,
and so substantial. E</span><span style="color: blue;">arly
on, its pastorality (if that’s a word) strongly prefigures Hardy;
but Maggie Tulliver the child and Maggie the adult seem too much like
different people, which is its real flaw</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">TO
THE LIGHTHOUSE, Virginia Woolf, 1927 </span><span style="color: #0000cc;">lapidary,</span><span style="color: black;">
</span><span style="color: #0000cc;">powerful</span><span style="color: black;">
</span><span style="color: #0000cc;">modernism yet with strongly drawn
characters and their vivid interaction (with the Chapter17 dinner party </span><span style="color: #0000cc;">as fine as any I know in literature); lively, intensive prose, great
clarity and wit. A triumph</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">KNOTS
AND CROSSES, Ian Rankin, 1987 </span><span style="color: #0000cc;">first
Rebus novel; surprisingly badly written; every character a clich</span><span style="color: #0000cc;">é
with a quirk; less than thrilling story; pallid suspense</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">EARTH,
Emile Zola, 1887 </span><span style="color: #0000cc;">good C19 solidity,
vivid characters & uncompromising portrait of wretched French
peasant life, in which degradation cheats just desserts</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="" name="__DdeLink__98_1230398945"></a>
<span style="color: black;">NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, Cormac McCarthy, 2005
</span><span style="color: #000099;">addictive, violent, very modern;
sometimes so stripped-down you can't work out what's happening; but
always saved by its brilliant dialogue</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">A
SEASON IN SINJI, J.L. Carr, 1967</span><span style="color: #000099;"> a very
English & appealing personality well rendered, but lacking either
some essential depth or else some rapier thrust of asperity</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">CIRCLES
IN A FOREST, Dalene Matthee, 1984</span><span style="color: #000099;"> it took
me 100 pages to like this, the first of her four "forest novels"
(too much on poor-noble-Afrikaans-woodcutters) but it became an
intensely detailed imaginative achievement and thoroughly absorbing
story</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">MURDER
ON A SUMMER'S DAY, Frances Brody, 2013 </span><span style="color: #000099;">a
1924 setting allows for massive snobbery & conveniently primitive
evidence standards, but it's also a setting that recalls the English
atmosphere still prevalent in my 1950s childhood, and it's a satisfyingly lengthy read & a satisfyingly Christiesque trad
detective story</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">BERTOLT
BRECHT: A Literary Life, Stephen Parker, 2014 </span><span style="color: #000099;">encyclopaedic
uber-detail, and using newly available post-Cold War archives, sewn
into a readable, attentive narrative... but I had to give it up on
realising, after long immersion in his adolescent tics, maladies &
hypochondria, that I still have absolutely no interest in Brecht or
his work</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">DYING
IN THE WOOL, Frances Brody, 2009 </span><span style="color: #000099;">the first in
the series (I was given a set as a present); very readable but an arch, over-confident
heroine-narrator sorting out shorthand characters</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">CHARLES
DARWIN: VOYAGING, Janet Browne, 1995 </span><span style="color: #000099;">The
first of her 2-volume biography. I've never read a better non-fiction
book in my life (except, possibly, 'The Road To Xanadu: A Study in the
Ways of the Imagination' by John Livingston Lowes, 1927, about Coleridge & his notebooks)</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">GONE
GIRL, Gillian Flynn, 2012</span><span style="color: #000099;"> Exceptionally
sharp-minded (in a very American way), electrifying page-turner,
dazzlingly well plotted; a let-down ending, though not everyone will think so</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">MOBY-DICK,
Herman Melville, 1851 </span><span style="color: #000099;">lively start, then
tediously garrulous for several hundred pages; a hard, grim voyage
for this reader, which surprised and disappointed him</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">CHARLES
DARWIN: THE POWER OF PLACE, Janet Browne, 2002</span><span style="color: #000099;">
The second volume: a book I'm so grateful to have read and sorry
to have finished</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">FLIGHT
BEHAVIOUR, Barbara Kingsolver, 2012</span><span style="color: #000099;">
Terrific; strong, convincingly detailed and sympathetic portrait of
today's deprived, Appalachian rural life</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">SIGNS
FOR LOST CHILDREN, Sarah Moss, 2015 </span><span style="color: #000099;">half
the book</span><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: #000099;">extremely</span><span style="color: black;">
g</span><span style="color: #000099;">ruelling, the other half boring; a
powerful writer but with such talent, why do this? And the story's
resolution isn't one, because the man in it never exists</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">MIKE
AND PSMITH, P G Wodehouse, 1953 </span><span style="color: #000099;">light
jollity there's no point objecting to on political/class-snobbery
grounds; a much needed balm after "Signs for Lost Children"
</span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
THE
LADYBIRD BOOK OF THE HIPSTER, 2015 <span style="color: #000099;">very funny</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">THE
DOG: A LADYBIRD BOOK, 2016</span><span style="color: #000099;"> even funnier:
perfect Christmas trivia</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #000099;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #000099;">________</span></div>
<br />
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-76071253356806679002016-05-24T14:10:00.000+02:002016-05-24T14:10:18.439+02:0075<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQJI-TTVvbHkwbW-0nmNlNxjF5igP8uORjZ9P5nvsiBp4xmfFjwlX30R-XPl8PXCoG3JRxo6ewYf2KcpvuWO2lLRzfq5Qp7CK-gEVMV-DMPOVngA6FLwF4Hc7Jccj8mwmszjiprSEXYY_n/s1600/BackstageParis24May1966.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQJI-TTVvbHkwbW-0nmNlNxjF5igP8uORjZ9P5nvsiBp4xmfFjwlX30R-XPl8PXCoG3JRxo6ewYf2KcpvuWO2lLRzfq5Qp7CK-gEVMV-DMPOVngA6FLwF4Hc7Jccj8mwmszjiprSEXYY_n/s640/BackstageParis24May1966.jpg" width="576" /></a></div><br />
Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-54601494293650580202016-03-18T17:46:00.000+01:002016-03-18T17:46:50.942+01:00FROM THE LARKIN SOCIETY JOURNAL: TERRY KELLY TRIBUTEAs already noted, Bob Dylan wasn't Terry Kelly's only interest. Thanks to Val Kelly via Roy Kelly, I've been sent this, written by James Booth and just published by the journal of the Philip Larkin Society:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFOPzS2UYkF3GxaezzUdONPVqyhNYjNVOikWRBOWmTobkNGFs4wkT8AOH7RwikkF_CvOL1VgIoQ47yLwiYLoRquAZ_IuU-kIOcu-4ok3LZUpgx5pBn-qd-PxC5WoZ6CFBXGk1gr4d9_28v/s1600/88047e2f1a9a2924-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="768" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFOPzS2UYkF3GxaezzUdONPVqyhNYjNVOikWRBOWmTobkNGFs4wkT8AOH7RwikkF_CvOL1VgIoQ47yLwiYLoRquAZ_IuU-kIOcu-4ok3LZUpgx5pBn-qd-PxC5WoZ6CFBXGk1gr4d9_28v/s640/88047e2f1a9a2924-1.jpg" width="538" /></a></div><br />
<br />
Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-41344949362174611422016-01-15T15:55:00.000+01:002016-01-15T15:55:24.094+01:00TERRY KELLY<i>I'm extremely sorry to be saying that longterm Bobcat Terry Kelly has died, aged 57. I've written more about this <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michael-Gray/886444541429784" target="_blank"><b>here on my Facebook page</b></a>, but here on this blog post I hand over to guest writer Roy Kelly (no relation), who knew Terry better than I did and who, especially, kept abreast of Terry's wide knowledge of, and writing about, poetry:</i><br />
<br />
<div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span">Terry knew and read a tremendous amount of
poetry, and had much wider interests than me, even though I write poems. He was
particularly interested in Ian Hamilton, and poetry associated with his circle,
and was really pleased when a posthumous big collected volume of him came out
and he got a chance to review it in London Magazine, where o</span>ver the last
at least four years, and possibly more, he had had become a regular.<span class="Apple-style-span"> He liked too Craig Raine, Derek Mahon, Seamus Heaney
and Hugo Williams, and was able to review his then latest volume (I
Knew The Bride), weaving into it a skilful, knowledgeable round up of Hugo's
whole career and technique and development. Recently he had reviewed Clive James
The Kid From Kogarah, and poetry by David Harsent and Robin Robertson, and the
big T S Eliot collected volume so eagerly awaited by aficionados. In his early
reporter life he worked with and later championed a poet called Barry McSweeney,
also a huge Bob fan, who had a difficult life but produced a lot of poetry.
Terry was involved in a memorial type volume for him, including essays. He
really did know an awful lot and liked an awful lot. </span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span">Of late he was really proud of the London
Magazine work because at first I think it was for nothing but developed into him
being a rated and paid reviewer. He knew the whole modern British and American
poetry scene very well. He liked what was the Hamilton template, the short,
slightly obtuse lyric, but was also way open to modern American forms. He was
endlessly getting books and telling you of his haul, either as review freebies
or what he'd bought. Poetry totally engaged him. In some ways the literary life
seemed more real to him than actual life, which was probably a help in the trial
of his last fourteen months. He had also recently starting reviewing for a newish
thing called The Next Review and was very pleased about that.</span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span">A major poetic interest, too, was the work of Philip Larkin. He wrote articles for About Larkin, the journal concerned with Larkin's work and life, reviewing there and elsewhere new Collected editions, and writing knowledgeably about the choices different editors of the volumes made. One of his most recent reviews was of the new book of photographs taken by Philip Larkin, and the connection that could be made with his poems. </span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I should say too he was always very kind. I think that was a big aspect of
his character. He was a networker and a giver, and, that old-fashioned word, a
gentleman. Unasked for and unexpected at different times he gave me various
books that he knew I would like. He did love Bob Dylan and his work and thought
he was a genius, and probably didn't think plagiarism was relevant to whether he
was or not, unlike me, but he knew and was interested in everything poetic
really. I mean everything. He was much more than someone who was crucial to a
Bob Dylan magazine [The Bridge]. Though of course he was always that.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
_____ </div>
</div>
Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-91995863000401430182015-12-31T15:30:00.001+01:002015-12-31T16:26:12.195+01:00BOOKS READ IN 2015I seem to have read more books this year than last - and far more than in any recent year before that. I haven't included here the Dylan-related books I've also read or skimmed through during 2015:<br />
<br />
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</style> <![endif]--><span lang="EN-GB">THE 8.55 TO BAGHDAD, Andrew Eames, 2004 <span style="color: blue;">so badly written it’s absurd that it won an award from the British Guild of Travel Writers, but good subject-matter</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">LET THE DEVIL SPEAK: Articles, Essays, & Incitements, Steven Hart, 2014 <span style="color: blue;">some substantial, brilliantly sleuthed essays </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">CHATTERTON, Peter Ackroyd, 1987 <span style="color: blue;">vivid, absorbing, but the insistent wackiness of <i>every</i> character is over the top, & really he says nothing about plagiarism, which is his theme</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">CROW LAKE, Mary Lawson, 2002 <span style="color: blue;">completely wonderful novel, fresh and true</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">THE DOCTOR & MR. DYLAN, Rick Novak, 2014 <span style="color: blue;">good on Hibbing, hopeless on humans; it's not about Bob Dylan, and it's a novel</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">THE ASSASSINATION OF MARGARET THATCHER, Hilary Mantel, 2014 <span style="color: blue;">short stories, with a whiff of using up old rejects; 2nd-rate by her standards</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">HISTORY OF MADNESS, Michel Foulcault, 1961<span style="color: blue;"> I gave it up: it's far too clever for me</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">GREAT APES, Will Self, 1997 <span style="color: blue;">I gave this up too: couldn’t stand his interminable showing off or his brutish arsehole-obsessing modernism</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">REVALUATION, F.R. Leavis, 1936 <span style="color: blue;">his least readable book</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">THE NIGGER OF THE NARCISSUS, Joseph Conrad, 1897 <span style="color: blue;">a slim volume but very demanding: intensive and poetical, with echoes of Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">JOURNEYS: An Anthology, ed Robyn Davidson, 2001 <span style="color: blue;">snotty intro, sloppy edits, and a wayward selection of pieces, in that many aren’t really travel pieces at all</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">THE HUNGER GAMES [Bk 1], Suzanne Collins, 2008 <span style="color: blue;">clever, strongly plotted, decently-written dystopian-world page-turner; understandably a cult best-seller</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">TO FOLLOW THE LEAD, Annie S. Swan, c1911 <span style="color: blue;">appealing simplicity till the regrettable crescendo of god-bothering</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">THE SAFFRON KITCHEN, Yasmin Crowther, 2006 <span style="color: blue;">boring till p60, then a great central patch of affecting drama, and then a long ending of tiresome didactic hokum</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">THE OUTCAST, Sadie Jones, 2007 <span style="color: blue;">strikingly clear prose describing a slew of terrible events; compelling, sensitive, touching, and with strong characters</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">PRECIOUS BANE, Mary Webb, 1924 <span style="color: blue;">I was bereft at finishing this wonderful, beautiful, forcefully-written, unique book: so vivid, poetic, touching, sustained, humbling, sweet-natured - all without any cuteness or arch self-consciousness</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">THE GOLDFINCH, Donna Tartt, 2013 <span style="color: blue;">couldn’t be more different from ‘Precious Bane’ but its equal or better: phenomenally good - vast canvas (centred on a small one...)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">FRANKIE & STANKIE, Barbara Trapido, 2003 <span style="color: blue;">terrible title and a bit shallow, but funny, fresh and quirky </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">WRITERS IN HOLLYWOOD 1915-1951, Ian Hamilton, 1990 <span style="color: blue;">very solid but afraid to be anything but studious, so too few Hollywood Babylonian anecdotes</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">THE EDWARDIANS, Vita Sackville-West, 1930 <span style="color: blue;">patchy writing; some implausible plot twists & characters; poor dialogue; fascinating material; glad I read it</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">DO NOT SELL AT ANY PRICE, Amanda Petrusich, 2014 <span style="color: blue;">loved it: a necessary look into the avid world of the 78rpm rare record collector; intelligent & humane</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">THE PAYING GUESTS, Sarah Waters, 2014 <span style="color: blue;">riveting, richly imaginative, a tense major work: nearly as good as ‘Fingersmith’ (high praise); <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">so </i>admirable</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">THE VERSIONS OF US, Laura Barnett, 2015 <span style="color: blue;">alluring premise, crap book: all so calculated instead of imagined; in shaming contrast to the Sarah Waters</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, Harper Lee, 1960 <span style="color: blue;">a book almost everyone read at school but I never did; lovely, though read now - in retrospect - a bit apologist about the very southern racism the book deplores</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">SKIOS, Michael Frayn, 2012 <span style="color: blue;">this is Wodehouse Lite (with similarly ingenious plotting)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS, John Boyne, 2006 <span style="color: blue;">a clever, touching, unusual, good novel by no means only for Young Readers</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">WHEN WE WERE THIN, C.P. Lee, 2007 <span style="color: blue;">a really interesting social history of the UK music biz 1968-1980s - and a great title</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">THE MAN IN THE QUEUE, Josephine Tey, 1929 <span style="color: blue;">engaging and well-written, except for the purple prose paragraphs designed to prove she’s a Real Writer; the usual whodunit cheat: introducing a surprise relationship we couldn’t have guessed at</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">SMALL CEREMONIES, Carol Shields, 1976 <span style="color: blue;">at times piercing observation in taut, captivating prose; at times I felt oh-for-fuck’s-sake-you-precious-twee-middle-class-wimp</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">THE TERRIBLE PRIVACY OF MAXWELL SIM, Jonathan Coe, 2010 <span style="color: blue;">the terrible title, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">awful</i> postmodern ending - both indicative of garrulousness - and in between, a deflating, depressing book; Time Out found it “hugely enjoyable”...</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">PURPLE HIBISCUS, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2004 <span style="color: blue;">completely absorbing novel from a justifiably confident writer creating a refreshing, convincing Africa </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">THE TRAVELLING HORNPLAYER, Barbara Trapido, 1998 <span style="color: blue;">substantial, fiercely intelligent, dexterously plotted but with a horrible and improbable end section</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">BUDDY HOLLY, Dave Laing, 1971<span style="color: blue;"> captivating, modest, refreshing to read again now, full of acute small observations & quite right in its analysis of his influence [I wrote an earlier blogpost about this book]</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">THE MILLSTONE, Margaret Drabble, 1965 <span style="color: blue;">a slim volume in the best sense as well as literally;</span> <span style="color: blue;">light touch, swift intelligence, subtlety & gaiety & delicacy of feeling and, now, a fascinating glimpse into pre-Carnaby St 1960s London life</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">STRAIGHT LIFE, Art & Laurie Pepper, 1994 edn <span style="color: blue;">mammoth oral autobiography + others’ testimony, of & to a very contradictory life: rich yet impoverished, creative yet sunk in addiction & its gruesome degradation; and vivid, espically about violent prison life; a hugely more candid autobiography than most</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">THE END OF THE AFFAIR, Graham Greene, 1951 <span style="color: blue;">occasional moments of sharp interest sticking out of the blancmange of dated Catholic hooey</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">THE L-SHAPED ROOM, Lynne Reid Banks, 1960<span style="color: blue;"> </span></span><span style="color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">marvellous to find so belatedly: brilliantly plotted, vivid characters but subtly drawn, a glorious opinionatedness and such robust intelligence about human feeling and behaviour</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">THE BACKWARD SHADOW, Lynne Reid Banks, 1970 <span style="color: blue;">so very disappointing: contrived, ricketty plotting, shallowed characters who become hard to care about; a plunge into what would now be called Chick Lit</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">UNDER MILK WOOD, Dylan Thomas, 1954 [posthumous]<span style="color: blue;"> pioneering but now a smaller thing than its reputation</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">BHOWANI JUNCTION, John Masters, 1954 <span style="color: blue;">powerful, compelling, brave, compassionate book it would be all too easy to dismiss today for its political incorrectness, yet in some ways ahead of its time, and from a really individual writer</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">THE LAST SEPTEMBER, Elizabeth Bowen, 1929 <span style="color: blue;">full of her exceptional brilliance, yet an oddly muted depiction of a crucial period in Irish history and the uncomfortable Anglo-Irish life clung to within it</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">SKATING TO ANTARCTICA, Jenny Diski, 1997 <span style="color: blue;">abiff with intelligence and self-indulgent pawing at the wounds of her appalling childhood; and brilliant, if brief, about penguins </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A SPOOL OF BLUE THREAD, Anne Tyler, 2015 <span style="color: blue;">much lauded; I was left wondering why </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">THE DEATH OF THE HEART, Elizabeth Bowen, 1938 <span style="color: blue;">another piercing scrutiny</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">CANADA, Richard Ford, 2012<span style="color: blue;"> not a <i>pleasurable</i> read but a highly compelling and original novel</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">TIPPING THE VELVET, Sarah Waters, 1998 <span style="color: blue;">not a patch on ‘Fingersmith’: far too and-then-this-happened-and-then-this-happened, and too heavily playing the lesbian card - where ‘Fingersmith’ was a masterpiece of plot, character and prose</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT, Charles Dickens, 1843-4 <span style="color: blue;">a great start but then filler and comparative failure: the least solid Dickens novel I've read</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">LONG BEFORE THE STARS WERE TORN DOWN, J.A. Wainwright, 2015<span style="color: blue;"> very readable cowboyish novel with a deft structure, though weak on women characters and with an unsatisfying semi-postmodern ending (aren’t they always?)</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: blue;">_ </span></span></div>
Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-86906706097363123892015-12-24T11:15:00.001+01:002015-12-24T11:15:06.416+01:00BOB DYLAN DREAMI've written before of my admiration for Roy Kelly's writing about Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan fandom and the past and its impingement on the present, so it's no surprise that I should be glad to see, published at long last, Roy's book!:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5n-12n46XxqBFp-V5Suy2aYb_38_E_IrMdW1ic5eJ5KU5C-t64n6ipb027idozVzA53wlss8BV5L2kCi8q28AwSpKEAg3WtIGkcnjC6H2od6WRRAvMgNWSMfZarcRlS_45GAIPZ_qdgHR/s1600/Bob+Dylan+Dream+final+front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5n-12n46XxqBFp-V5Suy2aYb_38_E_IrMdW1ic5eJ5KU5C-t64n6ipb027idozVzA53wlss8BV5L2kCi8q28AwSpKEAg3WtIGkcnjC6H2od6WRRAvMgNWSMfZarcRlS_45GAIPZ_qdgHR/s640/Bob+Dylan+Dream+final+front.jpg" width="454" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3YV3GHmo0tlLSws7uHslydvPMYr3s63bbezXVvlWCRoL4oBBN22n4F9lf6yZ7ghVHE-SsmQY1v4YIlqUsPOeqNTc06YfuNu8GKwMbj7JF_8kl8Yqrso7EPDys3X043EBTveAjPzIc1zZH/s1600/Bob+Dylan+Dream+final+back.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3YV3GHmo0tlLSws7uHslydvPMYr3s63bbezXVvlWCRoL4oBBN22n4F9lf6yZ7ghVHE-SsmQY1v4YIlqUsPOeqNTc06YfuNu8GKwMbj7JF_8kl8Yqrso7EPDys3X043EBTveAjPzIc1zZH/s640/Bob+Dylan+Dream+final+back.jpg" width="512" /></a></div>
<br />
As you may barely be able to see, I've written one of the endorsements for it - the one in the white ghetto by the barcode at the bottom of the back. But that aside, I like the whole cover - the very Woody Guthriesque Bob figure on the front, the pale blue, Roy's own very skilful blurb on the back, and the splendid quote from Nigel Hinton quite rightly there on the front.<br />
<br />
It's available as a paperback and as an e-book, and the link to the paperback is <a href="https://www.createspace.com/5895529" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>. Get it and read it. A Christmas present to yourself.Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-82175230268537793312015-12-09T21:55:00.000+01:002015-12-13T10:58:44.262+01:00DYLAN'S GREAT 1980 TORONTO CONCERT: MASSIVELY UPGRADED FOOTAGEBefore Bob comes on and starts the main and lengthy part of this exceptional concert with 'Gotta Serve Somebody', things begin with a still unpalatable, hopelessly corny godbothering "story" from Regina McCrary. Then comes some beautifully sung, very ordinary gospel fare - though with gorgeous keyboards, and the pleasure of seeing the wondrous Clydie King and the others so clearly. But Bob arrives to offer a really forceful performance of many gems. He gives out so much energy and yet takes so much vocal care - and of a kind only Dylan can. Now this whole concert has been made available with hugely improved footage and audio quality. My thanks go to Andrea Orlandi for posting it on Facebook today.<br />
<br />
I thought it might be useful to add the approximate start times of each Bob song performance. They are:<br />
<br />
18:00 - Gotta Serve Somebody<br />
24:36 - I Believe In You<br />
29:30 - When He Returns [Bob on piano]<br />
35:20 - talks about Ronnie Hawkins<br />
36:15 - Ain't Gonna Go To Hell For Anybody<br />
40:43 - Cover Down, Break Through [brief remarks at end]<br />
45:20 - Man Gave Names To All The Animals<br />
50:59 - Precious Angel<br />
56:06 - instrumental twiddling, feeding into...<br />
57:03 - Slow Train<br />
1.03:30 - introduces 2 solo song performances by women singers<br />
1.13:42 - Do Right To Me Baby (Do Unto Others)<br />
1.18:23 - rambling, opaque, preachy speech eventually leading into...<br />
1.25:00 - Solid Rock<br />
1.29:10 - Saving Grace<br />
1.34:17 - Saved [no pause at end]; straight into...<br />
1.39:06 - What Can I Do For You?<br />
1.45:52 - speech<br />
1.46:48 - In The Garden<br />
1.53:00 - introduces band & singers & goes preachy again<br />
1.56:20 - Are You Ready?<br />
2.01:10 - Pressing On.<br />
<br />
If these timings don't exactly correspond to what you find when you try them, it'll be because (a) my computer is elderly and (b) everything digital is inherently unstable and unreliable. But anyway, an extraordinary concert.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="377" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C0J3Y5s_kfo" width="504"></iframe><br />
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<br />
Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-50020735207645050372015-12-02T16:01:00.001+01:002015-12-03T11:26:32.999+01:00CELEBRATE BOB'S 75th A MONTH AHEADYou may be busy at a Dylan Days type event next May - specially around May 24th, a Tuesday, when Dylan turns 75 - but if you'd like to be involved a bit earlier, why not take part in our first Bob Dylan Discussion Weekend since 2014?<br />
<br />
It's happening on the first weekend in April - Friday the 1st to Sunday the 3rd - and there are places for just six people.<br />
<br />
Come to our home in beautiful rural southwest France - specifically in département 32<i>, </i>the Gers - the département with the cleanest air and the emptiest roads in France.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-31UDNN7grFIUS1zWsLPyQeDOg4sVRC-Ei1ZomU_ZegwX7HtiK-WqifazR9XrMNtrzzLf6TzYWZN825lfYcRJtGPa-slOzA-VjbZI0Y113Mz3HoAJabeAIWGrVVi6jj56kxbHV7yy-0cU/s1600/house.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-31UDNN7grFIUS1zWsLPyQeDOg4sVRC-Ei1ZomU_ZegwX7HtiK-WqifazR9XrMNtrzzLf6TzYWZN825lfYcRJtGPa-slOzA-VjbZI0Y113Mz3HoAJabeAIWGrVVi6jj56kxbHV7yy-0cU/s400/house.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the house</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxqGajfB_M2JEG3A_j5dGJN9F-surwKF5zJOn1GHwWataKz2ldCgNt02f9B0oLyZBD5wn5BBUmrF-V467Q5Zc4AbYF6auw-gSVAkGcPbMkPVY3kAjgKR7OpuJfUJg5nfYrQkEzW5SiexNS/s1600/garden%2526pool.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxqGajfB_M2JEG3A_j5dGJN9F-surwKF5zJOn1GHwWataKz2ldCgNt02f9B0oLyZBD5wn5BBUmrF-V467Q5Zc4AbYF6auw-gSVAkGcPbMkPVY3kAjgKR7OpuJfUJg5nfYrQkEzW5SiexNS/s400/garden%2526pool.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">garden, pool & other side of the road</td></tr>
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<br />
All the details are <a href="http://tinyurl.com/7udtmal" target="_blank"><b>here on my website</b></a> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span>and this is what some of our previous guests have written to say afterwards:<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: blue; font-family: serif;">"We really enjoyed it, thanks to both of you. The setting was wonderful (as was the weather), the food sublime, and the discussions were great."</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: red;"><br />
</span><b><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: red; font-family: serif;">Martin and Michele</span></i></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: red;"><br />
<br />
</span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: blue; font-family: serif;">"A special thank you for a gem of a weekend. Wonderful food, warm hospitality and an amazing giving of knowledge."</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: red;"><br />
</span><b><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: red; font-family: serif;">Jill and Louise</span></i></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: red;"><br />
<br />
</span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: blue; font-family: serif;">"We thoroughly enjoyed our visit in every respect and we offer our thanks to your good self and to Sarah for making our stay so</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: blue; font-family: serif;"> <b>memorable."</b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: red; font-family: serif;"><br />
<b><i>Dave and Irene</i></b><br />
<br />
</span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: blue; font-family: serif;">"Thank you again for this excellent weekend. Sarah's cooking was brilliant and both Dylan Evenings are engraved in my mind. It was an unforgettable weekend. It's sometimes so easily said or written, but it really, really was. We're wallowing in pleasure. May you stay forever young."</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: red; font-family: serif;"><br />
<b><i>Lukas and Saskia</i></b><br />
<br />
</span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: blue; font-family: serif;">"Thank you so very much. Everything was just perfect, Sarah's fantastic food and the great new insights into Bob Dylan's life gained through Michael's incredible knowledge which he so enthusiastically shared with his guests. I really loved the chosen tracks too, how different they are from the ones on commercial CDs..."</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: red; font-family: serif;"><br />
<b><i>Marion</i></b><br />
<br />
</span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: blue; font-family: serif;">"Many thanks from the three of us for a great weekend. Lovely food and wine (our thanks to Sarah of course) and terrific conversation. All highly recommended!"</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: red; font-family: serif;"><br />
<b><i>James</i></b><br />
<br />
</span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: blue; font-family: serif;">"I look back at a wonderful weekend. Thank you very much for your hospitality and inspiring sessions. Thanks too to Sarah for the delicious meals."</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: red; font-family: serif;"><br />
<b><i>Robert</i></b></span></b><br />
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<br /></div>
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: blue; font-family: serif;"> "Michael, we had a wonderful time and it was a privilege to spend some time with the two of you."<span style="color: blue;"></span></span></b><br />
<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-family: serif;">Irwin & Erica</span></b></i><br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: serif;">"The house is in a beautiful part of France, and the food cooked and served by Michael's wife Sarah is absolutely outstanding, as is the wine ! It's by no means all about Bob, and we met some very interesting guests, but it was wonderful to have the opportunity to chat with other people who are equally enthralled by Bob's work, and to hear at first hand Michael's extensive knowledge of Dylan's work. A truly marvellous weekend!!"</span><span style="color: blue;"></span></b><br />
<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-family: serif;">Martin</span></b></i><br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: serif;">"Thank you to both you and Sarah for a lovely weekend: we both enjoyed it immensely."</span><span style="color: blue;"></span></b><br />
<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-family: serif;">Catherine</span></b></i><br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: serif;">"Can I just thank you once again for the weekend? We both had a fantastic time. Please pass on our thanks to Sarah as well, not least for her truly outstanding cooking."</span><span style="color: blue;"></span></b><br />
<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-family: serif;">Daniel & Ruth</span></b></i><br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: serif;">"You made me and everyone feel very welcome and I couldn't really think of anything to improve the weekend. The food was divine and it was great to be able to indulge our Bob Dylan interest (I'm avoiding using the word obsession!) in an unfettered way!"</span><span style="color: blue;"></span></b><br />
<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-family: serif;">Ian</span></b></i><br />
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Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-633496893893705222015-11-10T15:48:00.001+01:002015-11-10T16:28:11.462+01:00TRAVELLING IN THE NORTH COUNTRIES, AND A SOUTHBOUND TRAINThis is a look back over my October-November tour of talks, now that I'm home again in the southwest of France.<br />
<br />
I gave talks on BOB DYLAN & THE HISTORY OF ROCK'N'ROLL at Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia, Canada; at the University of Texas at Austin; at Arkansas State University at Jonesboro AR; and at the University of Oslo. And I gave talks on BOB DYLAN & THE POETRY OF THE BLUES at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada; at the University of Chicago; at Southwestern University, Georgetown TX; at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln NE; at the University of Nebraska at Kearney; and at Goldsmiths College, London.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWCcmSLzzjRVZa1yy0cjva1LcwceyVQhxu-It3TwTXr0dqoBeE7lyHUdZZFehs_p5yWT_AmgXYTxELqP-j2lvYvW0szkYzG6Nvu3lBT0MiRY21Hy0U7i8iP4p96qs3OraxOS8I_N4ioDZs/s1600/17RoyalHotel5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWCcmSLzzjRVZa1yy0cjva1LcwceyVQhxu-It3TwTXr0dqoBeE7lyHUdZZFehs_p5yWT_AmgXYTxELqP-j2lvYvW0szkYzG6Nvu3lBT0MiRY21Hy0U7i8iP4p96qs3OraxOS8I_N4ioDZs/s320/17RoyalHotel5.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The quirky, surprisingly classy-roomed Royal Hotel, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Aside from the talks themselves, and the people who made up my audiences and hosts, and others met along the way, the most memorable episodes for me were encountering US Customs & Immigration on the way<i> in </i>to Chicago from Canada, and the 29-hour train ride I took <i>out</i> of Chicago all the way down south to Austin Texas.<br />
<br />
I'd expected to meet US Customs & Immigration when I <i>reached</i> Chicago, but no, they occupy a whole portion of the main airport in Montreal - and a vast acreage of corridors and checkpoints it is too. And instead of granting me the Visa Waiver
Business stamp for my passport straight away, as always in the past, they made me wait, and then pulled me aside - "Is there a problem?" "No, no problem: just go and take a seat over there, sir, please"... and so I had to sit and fret in a
special waiting area while a gathering of these officers discussed me. None seemed able to dare be responsible for simply letting me in. Time passed. Then one of them, who looked more like a lapsed Amish in fancy dress than an immigration officer, called me over to his small cubicle ("Michael, just step in here a moment...") and grilled me for the longest time, making me
show him all the university letters of invitation I had with me, peering through my 7-page printed itinerary like a man who could hardly read,
and then sending me back to the forlorn and deserted waiting area while he went off once more to consult . . . while I sweated away and the time ticked by right up to my the gate-closing time for my flight - and beyond. Then he called me back int one more time (and it was "Mr Gray" now, which sounded worse) - and finally gave me the passport stamp thtree
minutes before my flight was leaving from a long way away down the airport. "There are plenty of flights to Chicago," he smirked. Mine, of course, was of the cheap, non-transferable type, valid for that flight only. Luckily, Air Canada were kind and gave me a boarding pass for the flight a couple of hours later. Not my favourite part of the trip.<br />
<br />
<div dir="ltr">
But ah, Chicago. The parts of the university I saw - the music
department lecture theatre and the quadrangle you reach it from - are elegant Victoriana,
with ivy climbing stone walls and mullioned gothic windows: all this in
sharp contrast to the soaring drama of the city's skyscrapers, which cluster
together gleam with far more panache than New York's. I didn't have enough
time here, really, to enjoy the zing of the city, before I set off in a cab to Union Station.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
The train was just great. 29 hours with no wifi available (and in my case no American
mobile phone): 29 hours throughout which no-one could demand anything from me.
So rare a thing today. Just the innate glamour of the epic ride, the dining-car
sociability - they put you together with strangers at shared tables - the changing landscape, the sleeping compartment, and the sheer
olde worlde physicality of it: all iron and steel and rattling tracks and big
old bridges taking you high up over muddy rivers and through woods with little
wooden houses and mules and rusting 1940s pick-up trucks. We'd pulled out of Chicago at 1.45pm, and rolled on through the afternoon and evening, and all through the night. When I woke in the early morning we were crossing into Texas, and it took all that second day to clatter down through that enormous state; and after I disembarked at Austin, at 6.35pm, it was going to go head on further south, still in Texas, for a number of hours more.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtBAJ4VffkLbFl1ai7GFH-GMeu4AmSaYvt8SsiD6WZF2zTdMguBkCpeOrlQhRMFhaKi38LT8ojzeTb9s4qnKD_EBeNsqgcbqP8UtAy3gl_RPQkpOfDj8TZ0GP9pTK4sqEAbs5NLrFpOgay/s1600/27MyRoomette.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtBAJ4VffkLbFl1ai7GFH-GMeu4AmSaYvt8SsiD6WZF2zTdMguBkCpeOrlQhRMFhaKi38LT8ojzeTb9s4qnKD_EBeNsqgcbqP8UtAy3gl_RPQkpOfDj8TZ0GP9pTK4sqEAbs5NLrFpOgay/s320/27MyRoomette.jpg" width="181" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-v_QnGGT0Nuff2FFs6kCNZ_wuV7KF-oI-2WPosLaALV2IeTZa4bFDKAjiv93oImtrHd-f3P6w31zwX-GuCuqKUp-o0r1-_IWZnj0p6gPp7IP5v3RYytqzfBvhcfWw5QwYeE3_HGZICAbd/s1600/29TrainInTexas2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-v_QnGGT0Nuff2FFs6kCNZ_wuV7KF-oI-2WPosLaALV2IeTZa4bFDKAjiv93oImtrHd-f3P6w31zwX-GuCuqKUp-o0r1-_IWZnj0p6gPp7IP5v3RYytqzfBvhcfWw5QwYeE3_HGZICAbd/s320/29TrainInTexas2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1rX9H9kb29udJoppyNNAMxDi8jb6vQ213wtppQMV3aLX10MXsZuW3-BFuqbKdc8bhNzTd-Ed13EuMkaNNRbwzdb2HjSnETS55JDOSrs86MZsQ-ewLAUCP02HQJqAoemHEmnuubSvK0giX/s1600/33TrainInTexas6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1rX9H9kb29udJoppyNNAMxDi8jb6vQ213wtppQMV3aLX10MXsZuW3-BFuqbKdc8bhNzTd-Ed13EuMkaNNRbwzdb2HjSnETS55JDOSrs86MZsQ-ewLAUCP02HQJqAoemHEmnuubSvK0giX/s320/33TrainInTexas6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
And then at the end of my trip, the flight back to France from Montreal, and a quick side trip to London for an especially enjoyable talk at Goldsmiths College in New Cross (where I used to live, not especially happily, once upon a time) and on to Oslo on Norwegian Air, which had wi-fi on the flight (!).</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC0SuWCF8jW0JPv1n-OWomviToplZ51POTBq0UlPApXLeeYV_Pr_eTLyQLVMtCNzGWGGODeCuDNwVVSK9FqdIvzy6PEo08ALuWSNnGW6IntntPKx2VTouigN49KYnfemn3VQPBl8HeCDiA/s1600/80MontrealLeaving1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC0SuWCF8jW0JPv1n-OWomviToplZ51POTBq0UlPApXLeeYV_Pr_eTLyQLVMtCNzGWGGODeCuDNwVVSK9FqdIvzy6PEo08ALuWSNnGW6IntntPKx2VTouigN49KYnfemn3VQPBl8HeCDiA/s640/80MontrealLeaving1.jpg" width="361" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">flying out of Montreal, November 1st</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG2sRm2LBDAyRuSe-1aRIcB0CXYlZc78uqJulbszRQSZlNdKqRhDZjxNaPDFgfmLHf59_hxRzAnjpxAFhu15gQrN-sHeJKm68tuMTI5n3B7AQdopadfrnbvdVuzOVqPcTZuqLdlZzPC2LA/s1600/83TowardsParisEarly1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG2sRm2LBDAyRuSe-1aRIcB0CXYlZc78uqJulbszRQSZlNdKqRhDZjxNaPDFgfmLHf59_hxRzAnjpxAFhu15gQrN-sHeJKm68tuMTI5n3B7AQdopadfrnbvdVuzOVqPcTZuqLdlZzPC2LA/s640/83TowardsParisEarly1.jpg" width="361" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">flying in towards Paris next morning</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
My first visit to Norway, and an unexpected pleasure from first to last - from the elegant airport with its beautiful wood-floored corridors and the highly congenial, efficient train into the good-looking city centre to the university and my reception there. Texas is well over twice the size of Norway, but a good deal less civilised.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Back again via London, and home to beautiful weather: days of 25+ degrees Celsius (77+ Fahrenheit), and the keen anticipation of receiving Bob Dylan's most essential Bootleg Series issue, <i>The Cutting Edge</i>. Altogether this trip I was away for 26 days.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
I calculated my mileage totals this morning: </div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
By road: 891 </div>
<div dir="ltr">
By rail: 1,780 </div>
<div dir="ltr">
By air: 15,829</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
TOTAL = 18,500 miles.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">
________________</div>
<br />
<br />Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-30630224372082308532015-09-07T22:45:00.000+02:002015-09-07T22:45:31.332+02:00BUDDY HOLLY BY DAVE LAING, FROM 1971<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I’ve been reading - for the first time
since it was new - Dave Laing’s fine little book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Buddy Holly</i>, published by Rock Books/November Books in the UK in
1971.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4GS9a3xQymxMQBZpdKaWne9D-rtLTMFZtN5NJM6E453X8x_VDAVWmhFOeILeVmlwocykvYit40B4AjPVtU5vFKbiQzNQsl3qIO2qPr330_6CP3TXRqsfvK7xMZHZ5aqQ0zyBy7bT7r-CB/s1600/Scan069.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4GS9a3xQymxMQBZpdKaWne9D-rtLTMFZtN5NJM6E453X8x_VDAVWmhFOeILeVmlwocykvYit40B4AjPVtU5vFKbiQzNQsl3qIO2qPr330_6CP3TXRqsfvK7xMZHZ5aqQ0zyBy7bT7r-CB/s640/Scan069.jpg" width="401" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Its atmosphere is, savoured today, soaked
in the modesty of the pre-Google age: when we knew we had access to limited
knowledge and that finding things out meant taking pains to explore around a
subject. Laing’s personal style tends to the beguilingly tentative in any case,
but this sense of limitation, of there being room for doubt, of learning being
something demanding care and time, is also a symptom of the era.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Perhaps too there was a special
compatibility between subject and book because back then there were only a very
small number of books about rock music, a subject still regarded with disdain
by broadsheet newspapers and the vast majority of publishers. The rock writing
of the early 1970s was as far from mainstream as rock’n’roll when The Crickets
cut ‘That’ll Be The Day’.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">So we may know more about Buddy Holly’s
life and work now - and of course we have easy access to hearing every
aspirated glottal stop he ever put on tape; but the spirit of the book gets us
closer to Holly’s own. It was published only 12 years after that plane crash,
and when Dave Laing was only 24: hardly older than Buddy had been. Book and
subject occupy a more similar world than ours can do, and comparable niches
within it. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">One of Laing’s observations, which I’ve not
encountered elsewhere, is that Holly differed from the other major rock’n’roll
stars in having a long, slow route to success whereas the others found stardom
more or less from the start. He failed to get anywhere with the ‘Buddy and Bob’
Nesman Studio sessions at Wichita Falls, and again with the 1956 sessions for
Decca in Nashville, returning to Lubbock still an unknown both times:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“In
this Holly is unique, for the first records of most of the young white
rock’n’roll singers were their first hits.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He
could have omitted the word “white”, since the same virtually instant success
happened for rock’n’roll’s biggest black stars too, Little Richard and Chuck
Berry.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">It may be an obvious thing to say, too, as
Laing does, that “in most rock’n’roll records...sound dominates meaning” - and
that typically a Holly record exemplifies this: “the themes of the words on the
page need not necessarily relate to the way the words are sung on the record.”
But if this seems obvious, it is at least usefully specific. To say “sound
dominates meaning” is a brilliantly economical statement of a truth that
applies not just to 1950s rock’n’roll but throughout the whole of pop. I’m
drawn towards words, and always have been, and find them infinitely easier to
write about than music, yet when I listen back now to 1959-1963 records I
bought and thought were great, not only do the words make me cringe but they
show me that I never absorbed the verbal import of the words at all then.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I heard them as sounds, and as a kind of
expressive colouring for the singer. Only by doing so could I not have found
them risible. The last thing the teenage me would have said to my girlfriend
was “Bless you - bless every breath that you take”, and yet it splashed through
me cheerily enough on the hit single by Tony Orlando, himself only sixteen when
he made the record.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">(It’s a charming quirk of this book, then,
that having insisted on the secondary importance of Holly’s lyrics on his
records, Laing pays quite close attention <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to
</i>those lyrics.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The exception was Elvis, whose records
before he came out of the army tended to have lyrics that were either so striking
as to break through the sound (‘Heartbreak Hotel’ - and what a sound the lyric
had to break through!) or they had meaning that impinged because it augmented
and played upon his smouldering image of the dangerous, rebellious sexpot.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Which was, of course, the last thing you
could say of Buddy Holly. What he and the Crickets did instead, more
significantly, was, as Dave Laing summed up long before most, to open up “new
possibilities for guitar-based rock’n’roll groups, and directly [foreshadow]
the way many groups of the mid-’60s came to function as self-contained
composing and performing units.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">That’s one hell of a prototype to have
offered the music, in the early years of rock’n’roll and ever since.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-GB">________</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">To declare an interest - I've known Dave Laing off and on since about the same time this book was published. He was editor of <i>Let It Rock </i>when we were members of the Let It Rock Writers' Co-operative; he took me in, and we ate toast together a lot, to save me being homeless in London at some point in the 1980s, and in the late 1990s he organised the first Robert Shelton Memorial Conference at Liverpool University at which I was a speaker.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-13211161798573079932015-08-28T13:56:00.002+02:002015-08-28T13:56:57.603+02:00BOB DYLAN & THE HISTORY OF ROCK'N'ROLL: A VIDEOHere's a neat little video created by The Forum Tunbridge Wells to promote my BOB DYLAN & THE HISTORY OF ROCK'N'ROLL gig there on Sunday Sept 20 at 8pm.<br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Aq6dZzkDLuY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<br />
But just a reminder that I'll also be giving this 1-man-show-type talk with loud audio and rare footage at...<br />
<br />
An Lanntair, Stornoway, Sept 9<br />
Halifax Square Chapel, Sept 11<br />
Civic Theatre, Barnsley, Sept 12<br />
Artrix Studio, Bromsgrove, Sept 13<br />
Kitchen Garden Cafe, B'ham, Sept 15<br />
Swindon Arts Centre, Sept 16<br />
The Flavel, Dartmouth, Sept 19<br />
Stamford Arts Centre, Sept 22<br />
Colchester Arts Centre, Sept 23<br />
Norwich Arts Centre, Sept 24 and<br />
Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal Sept 25...Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-54214102426624661672015-08-07T16:49:00.000+02:002015-08-07T16:49:41.004+02:00FACING UP TO FACEBOOKYes, after being urged by so many people that an author "needs" a Facebook page, I've succumbed:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michael-Gray/886444541429784" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michael-Gray/886444541429784</a><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">and hope you'll have a look at it from time to time, for news & pictures.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"></span></div>
Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-20982629050883714532015-07-30T14:02:00.000+02:002015-07-30T14:02:39.788+02:00UPDATED BOB & ROCK'N'ROLL POSTER!Due to circumstances beyond my control, one of my September UK dates (the one in Dorset) has been cancelled. I believe it's the first time in 15 years that any of my gigs ever has been. So here's the updated tour poster, kindly revised by its brilliant designer, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/JonWainwrightArt" target="_blank"><b>Jon Wainwright</b></a>:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-kzPLrXivyjDGB20McKK7o5MpQCm1-QJW2_D5HEBC6QkCuevuzxxDpGZRd_d63L3l3p28dgW79MNlgz1ud-zis6lDzYy8YwUl7owyF4D05ukFyYh-pD_8I-S70bQDVSfhV_vsdeyjXVj8/s1600/2015PosterWithDates.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-kzPLrXivyjDGB20McKK7o5MpQCm1-QJW2_D5HEBC6QkCuevuzxxDpGZRd_d63L3l3p28dgW79MNlgz1ud-zis6lDzYy8YwUl7owyF4D05ukFyYh-pD_8I-S70bQDVSfhV_vsdeyjXVj8/s640/2015PosterWithDates.jpg" width="451" /></a></div>
<br />Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-42396448569586055132015-07-14T17:10:00.000+02:002015-07-14T17:10:35.416+02:00TERRIFIC TOUR POSTER FOR MY SEPTEMBER UK DATES<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrt2kgAZ7MT4ksyMOvHUpoiHXg5R46P9t1HtFZog76SLoijwD99bwCAYPYHPXSi3N2O0PWkmHfRiJAzuhAHfjKZXl8rPyHmeyMNSwOEh06bL0IhsCaIGqB1JmO3WUXbzPzsczsmFrDAUm-/s1600/2015UKTourPosterWithDates.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrt2kgAZ7MT4ksyMOvHUpoiHXg5R46P9t1HtFZog76SLoijwD99bwCAYPYHPXSi3N2O0PWkmHfRiJAzuhAHfjKZXl8rPyHmeyMNSwOEh06bL0IhsCaIGqB1JmO3WUXbzPzsczsmFrDAUm-/s640/2015UKTourPosterWithDates.jpg" width="451" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>design by Jon Wainwright</u></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-89135157607841627102015-06-02T13:24:00.001+02:002015-06-02T13:24:09.541+02:00THE STAVES: WHITE TEETH & PLEASANT HARMONIESI don't know why I can't an official video to go with the single of The Staves' 'Teeth White' - it's a pity, because I think it's better than this live version - but here they are on French TV. I like them because they remind me of that early Kate & Anna McGarrigle sound:<br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OL_XSPjv2Ys" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<br />
<br />
Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-20356593511080016362015-05-23T17:22:00.000+02:002015-08-07T17:04:22.807+02:00MAP NO. 26 - MY GIGS ROUTE in SEPTEMBER<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG7AG26XewBZwkgvXR-bJfzIwKoWg0fbHwUOgtAGFrGVAKgFx-ZB6pQ2rhavmUKgz2UUFEUmWklVjo_F-hSmCTIMOsArFv53M50FAhn2GfqgprSTq4sB8A3WxzvWXICQOTz-ISm3MH1kOp/s1600/2015SeptUKTourMap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="704" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG7AG26XewBZwkgvXR-bJfzIwKoWg0fbHwUOgtAGFrGVAKgFx-ZB6pQ2rhavmUKgz2UUFEUmWklVjo_F-hSmCTIMOsArFv53M50FAhn2GfqgprSTq4sB8A3WxzvWXICQOTz-ISm3MH1kOp/s640/2015SeptUKTourMap.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><br />
WED SEPT 9 - An Lanntair, STORNOWAY<br />
FRI SEPT 11 - Square Chapel Arts Centre, HALIFAX<br />
SAT SEPT 12 - The Civic, BARNSLEY<br />
SUN SEPT 13 - Artrix, BROMSGROVE<br />
TUE SEPT 15 - Kitchen Garden Cafe, BIRMINGHAM<br />
WED SEPT 16 - Arts Centre, SWINDON<br />
SAT SEPT 19 - The Flavel, DARTMOUTH<br />
SUN SEPT 20 - The Forum, TUNBRIDGE WELLS<br />
TUE SEPT 22 - Arts Centre, STAMFORD<br />
WED SEPT 23 - Arts Centre, COLCHESTER<br />
THU SEPT 24 - Arts Centre, NORWICH<br />
FRI SEPT 25 - The Brewery, KENDAL.<br />
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Details of times, tickets etc <a href="http://www.michaelgray.net/live-appearances.html" target="_blank"><b>here on my website</b></a><br />
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[NB: The WIMBORNE event shown on the map has been cancelled.]Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295152976515631639.post-82349151208325127732015-05-22T17:53:00.000+02:002015-05-22T17:53:01.526+02:00BIG FRONT YARD: A MEMOIR<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">There was a Birmingham (UK) based band at the start of the 1970s, Hard Meat, that released two albums on Warner Brothers Records, though being on that major label did them no good at all so far as sales were concerned. The core of the band was the Dolan Brothers, Mike (or Mick: people chose which to call him and he took no offence either way) and Steve.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">In their post-Hard Meat days I knew the Dolans very well. Mike Dolan died last year, on August 2nd, from brain cancer, having survived the throat cancer he had fought against a few years earlier. Steve, the younger brother, died 15 years ago today - May 22, 2000.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">I met the Dolans in 1973 when we all lived around Malvern, Worcestershire. They played a few local gigs with a changing assortment of other local musicians; I met them by going to one or two of these gigs. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">At some point in 1974 they became Big Front Yard (another bad name? – anyway, taken from a sci-fi short story Mike admired) and I became their manager. They got nowhere.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">When exactly they became Big Front Yard I’m not sure, but it was fixed only after Mike & his wife Sue </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">(whose sister lived in the Napa Valley in California) </span></span>went to London, supposedly for a week, so that he could rehearse with, and join, a group named Forsyth... but they came home a few days later, Forsyth having broken up. They paid Mike off with £30. This was in March 1974.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mike Dolan in my West Malvern garden, June 1973 <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> <br />
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<span lang="EN-GB">© Michael Gray, 2015</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">£30 was about the amount Big Front Yard were being paid for most of their gigs: £30 to be shared between the band, roadie Phil, me and the petrol for </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">one gas-guzzling old van after another</span></span>. They played all around the Birmingham area, on average once a week. It was that weary period punk soon abolished, when groups had to be fine musicians with loads of heavy-maintenance equipment just to be able to play in a pub for next to nothing. The best-paying gig was the one we promoted ourselves every couple of weeks at the Foley Arms Hotel in Malvern.</span></span> <br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">Mike was the leader of the group, lead guitarist and lead vocalist. He and Sue lived down a winding hill just outside West Malvern, in a cottage that had once been a country pub and was still called The Bell, with Jesse, their very Just-William little boy. (Sue and Jesse both live in California now.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">The first drummer, I believe, was Alan Mennie, always known as Min, and he was older. If he’s still alive, he’ll be 74 now. My then-wife and I had a house on a hill, with two storeys at the front but four at the back, and these extra layers were flats we rented out. In 1974 Min and girlfriend Dot had one of them. Min and I played chess together from time to time. I can’t remember when he quit the group, but it must have been at some point soon after February 1975, when he was playing (and speaking) on <b><a href="https://youtu.be/laPgO03R824" target="_blank">the recording session they did at Birmingham’s commercial radio station BRMB</a></b>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">Min gets credits on albums by King Crimson and Pete Sinfield, and was always somewhat jazz-oriented. Many years later – in the early 1990s – he and Dot co-owned a house in a little village in Turkey with Mike Dolan and his girlfriend Glenn, and I remember calling in there once on a family holiday and seeing Mike emerging from the sea with his surfboard, looking far healthier than he’d ever looked in the 1970s of his youth.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">Min seems to have disappeared without trace now, along with Dot and the son they had called Jamie. We’ve googled till we’re blue in the face but cannot find them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">There were a couple of drummers after Min – the dark, handsome one whose name I’ve forgotten: Rob Mason? - in the "official" photo from mid-1975 (below) - and then Keith Baker, a local postman who in 1976 also became a tenant of a flat at our house.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">Keith had known the Dolans forever, and had played music with them in earlier incarnations; he's here at the back in a photo from 1965 (which I've no idea how I acquired):</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Front: Mike Dolan; Back, left to right: unknown; Keith Baker; Steve Dolan</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">At one point, early on, the band had also included an organ player, and he’s to be heard to good effect on ‘Mad John’s Dream’, the B-side of their one single. The A-side was ‘Money-Go-Round’. It was recorded in a nearby barn, and issued on Rampant Records, a label formed by my then-wife and I specially to release their record.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">Around the end of 1974, BFY lost the organist and added a second guitarist, Sam Sun (Keith Sampson), who is on the BRMB sessions and the A-side and was a long-time stalwart of their gigs. He was a likeable, sensitive man, full of pain, who drank far too much horrible Barley Wine. He’s dead now too. I believe he killed himself.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mike Dolan, Sam Sun, Rob Mason (?) & Steve Dolan, early 1976</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">Live and on record, Big Front Yard sounded pretty much like Hard Meat – which, impressively, the Dolans rarely mentioned afterwards. Big Front Yard played a couple of London gigs (eg Newlands Tavern, Peckham, Feb 19, 1975: fee £20) which we hoped A&R men would come to, but none did. We sent a demo cassette to John Peel. Nothing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">Mike also had a little home studio at The Bell, and there produced, and played guitar on, a couple of tracks by a childhood friend of mine, Peter Harrison – whose splendidly politically incorrect stage name was Huge Black Gussie Watson – which I still have on a home-made CD. (Peter died in 2007.) Steve played bass on an unissued track I wrote and produced in 1981 and have yet to give up on... Mike went on to achieve a great deal <a href="http://www.theharpnews.com/fond-tributes-paid-to-michael-dolan/" target="_blank"><b>in the latter half of his life</b></a>. Steve died too young for us to know what he might have done.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">I last spoke to Mike on the telephone when he was living in Cornwall in another relationship that broke up subsequently. In his last two or three years he spent half his time in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, with his final partner Jackie, and half his time, also with her, in another little village house in Turkey, having quarrelled irretrievably with Min & Dot over their previous shared Turkey house. I was able to get to Steve's funeral but not to Mike's, nor to Sam Sun's.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">Here's another picture of the late-75-and-76 line-up, all posed with their dilapidated Renault 4s outside The Bell in summer 1975:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">It's disturbing to me that of these four, all younger than me, only one is still alive (Keith Baker, on the left of the picture). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">Lastly, here are the Dolans onstage at the Foley Arms, Great Malvern in 1976:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;"> It's a long time ago (so any corrections will be welcomed), but it was a distinct part of my life in that pre-Thatcher world, in which I'd not long given up my dayjob (teaching English in schools) on the strength of signing my first book's US deal (1972) and had moved to the Malvern hills with wife, young son and high hopes. By the end of the long hot summer of 1976 I was on social security and by the start of 1977 I'd taken a job as Head of Press at UA Records in London, where self-styled punk artistes were telling 30-year-old Old Hippies like me that we ought to be lined up against a wall and shot. Mike Dolan's response would have been to turn the other cheek. Steve's would have been to throw a punch.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">Footnote: I'm pleased to say I shall be revisiting Big Front Yard's general area on my own <a href="http://www.michaelgray.net/live-appearances.html" target="_blank"><b>September tour of gigs</b></a>: I'll be at Artrix in Bromsgrove on the 13th and then at the Kitchen Garden Cafe in King's Heath, Birmingham, on the 15th. I'm hoping Keith Baker might come along...</span></span></div>
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Michael Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717701464512635145noreply@blogger.com12