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Kingdom Swann
'Woman will be the death of me,' mutters Kingdom Swann, peering up at the nude woman hung by her wrists from a pillar. An impressive old man with a wonderful wealth of beard, he appears the very picture of Victorian respectability. Yet behind the walls of his Piccadilly studio the erotic fantasies of a generation are being acted out for the eye of his camera. For this master of the epic nude painting has turned his hand to art has come to life and all hell is breaking loose . . .'With enormous relish Gibson presents a memorable and hugely enjoyable portrait of both the man and the world he inhabited.' Today'As in Daniel Defoe's Roxanna, a voyeuristic fascination plays games with high morality.' Times'Wonderful fun to read.' Daily Mail
- GenresFiction
223 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1990
About the author
Miles Gibson
22 books8 followersMiles Gibson (born 1947) is a reclusive English novelist, poet and artist.
Gibson was born in a squatters camp at an abandoned World War II airbase, RAF Holmsley South in the New Forest, and raised in Mudeford, Dorset. The camp was dubbed Tintown and had been sanctioned by Christchurch Town Council as a way to ease postwar housing shortages. He was educated at Sandhills Infant School, Somerford Junior School and Somerford Secondary Modern - now The Grange School.
Gibson’s darkly satirical writing has been described as both “magic realism” and “absurdist fiction”. Although his narratives remain linear in construction his employment of black humour, pastiche, and untrustworthy narrators places him firmly among the postmodernists.
Gibson was born in a squatters camp at an abandoned World War II airbase, RAF Holmsley South in the New Forest, and raised in Mudeford, Dorset. The camp was dubbed Tintown and had been sanctioned by Christchurch Town Council as a way to ease postwar housing shortages. He was educated at Sandhills Infant School, Somerford Junior School and Somerford Secondary Modern - now The Grange School.
Gibson’s darkly satirical writing has been described as both “magic realism” and “absurdist fiction”. Although his narratives remain linear in construction his employment of black humour, pastiche, and untrustworthy narrators places him firmly among the postmodernists.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 25, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az7fA...
Description: Kingdom Swann is a delicious fantasy by one of Britain's most exuberantly imaginative novelists, a comic foray into the sub-world of Victorian and Edwardian pornography and the double standards that marked life and art. Rambunctious and bawdy, it imagines the redhot reality behind the coy sepia nudes of ninety years ago. Kingdom Swann, Victorian master of the epic nude painting turns to photography and finds himself recording the erotic fantasies of a generation through the eye of the camera. This is a disgraceful tale of murky morals and unbridled matrons in a world of Suffragettes, flying machines, and the shadow of war. Art has come to life and all hell is breaking loose.
October 27, 2010
This book could easily have been called Kingdom Swann: The Story of a Pornographer but such a title would have certainly misrepresented the man at the heart of this charming comic tale.
It chronicles the life of a successful portrait artist throughout a period of great political and technological change - the photograph is replacing the painted portrait, carriages are becoming mechanised and suffragettes are on the march in late Victorian London.
At the beginning, Swann reacts to the forces of change by adapting his artistic skills to become a portrait photographer. However, it is when his ever-wily partner Cromwell Marsh spies a lucrative niche in the under-the-counter market for titilating photos of the buttocks of large women (the bigger the better) that their collective fortunes are made.
This is a funny book. I laughed aloud about a half a dozen times while I was reading it. In particular, the politically incorrect descriptions of Swann's generously proportioned models are first rate. The pseudo-historical feel of the book makes it quite enjoyable to read.
However, towards the final third of the book, I felt like it lost its way a little. Kingdom becomes increasingly aged and he takes in a rag-tag bunch of waifs and strays to no real purpose as he becomes more and more disillusioned with modernity. Personally, I think that the author had so much time for his lovable central character that he was reluctant to finish him off.
It chronicles the life of a successful portrait artist throughout a period of great political and technological change - the photograph is replacing the painted portrait, carriages are becoming mechanised and suffragettes are on the march in late Victorian London.
At the beginning, Swann reacts to the forces of change by adapting his artistic skills to become a portrait photographer. However, it is when his ever-wily partner Cromwell Marsh spies a lucrative niche in the under-the-counter market for titilating photos of the buttocks of large women (the bigger the better) that their collective fortunes are made.
This is a funny book. I laughed aloud about a half a dozen times while I was reading it. In particular, the politically incorrect descriptions of Swann's generously proportioned models are first rate. The pseudo-historical feel of the book makes it quite enjoyable to read.
However, towards the final third of the book, I felt like it lost its way a little. Kingdom becomes increasingly aged and he takes in a rag-tag bunch of waifs and strays to no real purpose as he becomes more and more disillusioned with modernity. Personally, I think that the author had so much time for his lovable central character that he was reluctant to finish him off.
May 8, 2017
I would never have encountered this fine novel if I hadn't read David Nobbs' autobiography, I Didn't Get Where I Am, where he describes working on a dramatisation of Kingdom Swann (which eventually became the BBC drama Gentleman's Relish). I am so glad that I was inspired to find a copy of the original novel as it is a remarkably entertaining read, exploring a little known corner of late Victorian and Edwardian life. There's a real sense of an old world, with all its certainties, slipping away in the face of ever more rapid technological development. I love the character of Kingdom Swann, and the way Miles Gibson portrays him as ageing but still vital, still energetic, angered into action by the plight of those at the bottom of the heap. I'm surprised this wasn't brought back into print to tie in with the TV adaptation a few years ago - it's certainly a book worthy of a new audience.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews