Jonathan Coe's Blog, page 3

America! (and Dorset)

Two blogs in one week - really, I think I'm beginning to spoil you people. The main purpose of this one is to send out an optimistic message to American visitors to this site (are there any?) letting them know that I shall be in the USA and Canada for the next ten days. I'm doing five events (see the news page), most of them organised by the brilliant Wesley Stace - whose most recent novel, Charles Jessold, Considered as A Murderer I would recommend to everyone most warmly. Especially anyone with an interest in English classical music, which provides the fascinating (and unfashionable) backdrop to Wesley's narrative.

Last month I was briefly in Paris to do some interviews in support of Gallimard's publication of The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim, and I was bowled over by the general enthusiasm for the novel there. I think it has been my most successful novel in France to date. Dare I hope that anything similar will happen in the US? Well, last time I looked, Maxwell Sim was at #69 in amazon.com's bestseller list. Not the main bestseller list, of course, but a curious subcategory of it called "Books>Entertainment>Humor>Self-help and Psychology". How on earth does my novel make it into this category, you ask? Well, it's an eclectic list, to be sure. Not only does it include such titles as Creative Ideas for Exciting Sex and 100 Rules Every Real Man Must Live By, but it also encompasses Burroughs's Naked Lunch and The Collected Works of Mark Twain. The title directly ahead of mine, the last time I looked, was The Cunt Coloring Book, a book of line drawings of female genitalia for colouring in. ("Crayons not included.") I think Twain, Burroughs and I should feel honoured to be in such company.

When I get back I shall try to blog again on the subject of From Page To Screen, the five-day film festival which I have been asked to guest-direct in April this year. It takes place in Bridport, Dorset from April 13-17, and when the final programme (of which I'm very proud) is announced, I hope people will feel motivated to spend a day or two in this beautiful part of England. We're going to feature some real rarities - both screenings and personal appearances by film-makers  - so I think that cinéastes will find it worth the trip. Anyway, more of that on my return.

The two Jonathans

Two months into 2011, and not a word from me on this blog. So here is a little update on what's been going on.

I've spent most of the year so far writing for children. This is a new venture for me. Last year when I was in Torino, the Scuola Holden asked me to take part in a series called Save the Story, which is the creation of Alessandro Baricco, in collaoraton with L'Espresso Gruppo Editoriale. The idea – a brilliantly simple one – is that authors from around the world should be invited to retell one of their favourite stories from the literary canon, in a version which is suitable for reading aloud to young children. The series was launched last year and so far Baricco himself has retold Don Giovanni, Stefano Benni has done Cyrano de Bergerac, and Umberto Eco has done I promessi sposi.

My own choice of book for re-telling was Gulliver's Travels. In many ways this presented a double challenge: Jonathan Swift's story has, after all, already been adapted for children many times. Usually, though, these versions only include the first two sections (Lilliput and Brobdingnag) and leave out the more savage or unsettling passages. I decided that I wanted to cover the whole thing – including Books III and IV – and not spare the reader any of the radicalism with which Swift uses his narrative to ask questions about human nature. Quite difficult, when you only have 9,000 words to play with, and your target audience consists of eight-year-old children who will mostly be listening to your version as a bedtime story!

I delivered the text to the Scuola Holden last week, and hope that it will be translated and published in a few months' time. The text will be illustrated by Riki Blanco. At the moment, so far as I know, this book will only appear in Italian. I hope that children like it. Whatever their reaction, it has been a huge pleasure and excitement to immerse myself in Swift's text again for the first time in thirty years (since I was a student, in fact) and remind myself of the qualities of anger, precision and clear-sightedness which make it such a great masterpiece.

Radio show and portrait

Hello everybody and sorry for the long silence. I'm very conscious that I haven't posted anything here for a long time (and haven't said much on the message board lately either). The bad news is that this is going to be another short message; the good news (for some of you, I hope) is that this is because I'm busy writing at the moment.

In the meantime, I quickly wanted to post a couple of things. The first was to say that anyone with a digital radio - or access to BBC iPlayer - can listen to BBC 6 Music this Sunday, 12th December, at noon, and hear me introducing an hour's worth of recent music that I like. Programme details are here.

The second thing is to give my thanks to Chiara Coccorese (www.chiaracoccorese.com) who, when I visited her in Naples a couple of months ago, made this beautiful portait. Click on the thumbnail to see it:

The Ocean Tango

I've been given some splendid musical recommendations by readers recently - thanks to the people on my message board who pointed me in the direction of Interpol, and also to the kind souls in Amsterdam who gave me a CD of Bauer's wonderful album Baueresque. Now, if I can return the compliment, please check out the latest offering from my friend and collaborator Louis Philippe, who has joined forces with those lovely purveyors of Swedish chamber-pop, Testbild. Collectively they call themselves The Ocean Tango, and their debut album is a real beauty - melodic, delicate and haunting. And I'm not just saying that because one of the tracks is a setting of my (or rather Benjamin Trotter's) poem 'The Munich Train' from The Closed Circle.

For those who are tempted, the album can be easily sampled - and indeed bought - here on bandcamp.com.  And you can find further information on Louis' website.

Flanders

Thanks to all the people who recently made my recent visits to Belgium and Holland so rewarding. There are too many to mention by name, but it was a week full of inspiring encounters - particularly with Flemish writers, who left me feeling (as so often) ashamed and frustrated that we in the English-speaking world make so little effort to acquaint ourselves with contemporary literature from other European countries. I also enjoyed the rather surreal experience of giving a radio interview at the Brussels Atomium in the middle of a crowded lift full of tourists.

On my first night in Brussels I appeared on a TV programme called De Laatste Show and (for the time being, anyway) you can see the interview here.

BBC Rotters' Club on DVD

See the blog entry for September 12th 2010

The Rotters' Club on DVD

Much to my surprise, a DVD of the BBC adaptation of The Rotters' Club has finally appeared.

It's a Dutch release, on the Just Entertainment label. The soundtrack is in English, with Dutch subtitles that can be turned off. At the moment you can buy it through sellers in the Netherlands and Germany, using Amazon's UK site.

Still no sign of a British release though …

Italian souvenirs

As usual when I return from a trip abroad, I came back from Italy laden with so many gifts that I needed to pack another suitcase. Many thanks to the people who gave me letters, books, CDs - even a filmscript in one case. Although I've been home for several weeks, I'm only slowly making my way through the pile. Yesterday I listened to Massimo Giuntoli's instrumental album Giraffe - recorded in 1992, and very reminiscent (to my ears) of one of my favourite Frank Zappa albums, Jazz From Hell...

Welcome Surprises

Two nice things arrived in my inbox this morning. One was this picture of the shop window at the Jaffé and Neale Bookshop in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. Patrick Neale has been a great supporter of my latest novel but I think he's surpassed himself this time. I particularly like the inclusion of books about Donald Crowhurst and Bernard Moitessier in the display.

The other welcome surprise was a link to this review of Maxwell Sim by Ed Lake in The National.  There have been several dozen...

Music (Part One)

I did promise a while ago that I would post a blog about music and inspiration. This isn't it. Instead, I'm taking the opportunity to point people in the direction of a free music download that is not only wonderful in its own right, but also gives a snapshot of the kind of thing I've been listening to lately.

Chris Evans will be a figure familiar to most British readers as a former television personality and now Radio Two breakfast DJ. However, he has a less well-known but much more...