The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society discussion
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Discuss the last book you read, or are currently reading
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'Dead Men's Trousers' by Irvine Welsh
So what's in store? Drugs, sex, violence, profanity, scams, murder, organ harvesting, prostitution, football, jeopardy, friends making up, friends falling out, family loyalties, revenge, Brexit, music, clubbing, death, tragedy, STDs, blackmail, abuse, euphoria, and even that doesn't cover it all. It's genius.
Click here to read my review
5/5
Finished reading Our Spoons Came From Woolworth’s by Barbara Comyns this week, and can recommend it in an odd sort of way. Originally published in 1950, it reminded me of a somewhat sanitised version of Lynne Reid-Banks or Laura Del-Rivo’s The Furnished Room. From the publisher:
“Pretty, unworldly Sophia is twenty-one years old and hastily married to a young painter called Charles. An artist's model with an eccentric collection of pets, she is ill-equipped to cope with the bohemian London of the 1930s, where poverty, babies (however much loved) and husband conspire to torment her. Hoping to add some spice to her life, Sophia takes up with Peregrine, a dismal, ageing critic...”
The novel might conceivably suffer a bit from having been published before the Angry Young Men and Women kicked down the doors and ushered in a new permissiveness in gritty social realism, but that shouldn’t take away from its merits. What sets it apart, for me at least, was its almost childlike near-surrealism. A quick read, so well worth a look in. While maybe not in leaguue with Hamilton, Maclaren-Ross and the rest, it’s absolutely an interesting addition to any shelf of London fiction.
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That’s good to hear, hopefully I swayed you a little bit towards giving the novel a chance. It left me wanting to try at least one more of hers, which I’m sure to do at some point. Meanwhile, I’m absolutely loving Good Evening, Mrs Craven, despite not being a big fan of short stories in general, so thank you for bringing that one to my attention!
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I started to leaf through it in the library and quickly became quite engrossed. Now I'm about a 100 pages through I remain engrossed. It's authoritative, comprehensive and fascinating, as much a social history of post-War Britain, as an examination of the Mod subculture.
I'm really loving it - which is just as well as it's quite a weighty tome at nigh on 500 pages
Here's some more information about MOD: A Very British Style.....
Welcome to the world of the sharp-suited ‘faces’. The Italianistas. The scooter-riding, all-night-dancing instigators of what became, from its myriad sources, a very British phenomenon.
Mod began life as the quintessential working-class movement of a newly affluent nation – a uniquely British amalgam of American music and European fashions that mixed modern jazz with modernist design in an attempt to escape the drab conformity, snobbery and prudery of life in 1950s Britain. But what started as a popular cult became a mainstream culture, and a style became a revolution.
In Mod, Richard Weight tells the story of Britain’s biggest and most influential youth cult. He charts the origins of Mod in the Soho jazz scene of the 1950s, set to the cool sounds of Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. He explores Mod’s heyday in Swinging London in the mid-60s – to a new soundtrack courtesy of the Small Faces, the Who and the Kinks. He takes us to the Mod–Rocker riots at Margate and Brighton, and into the world of fashion and design dominated by Twiggy, Mary Quant and Terence Conran.
But Mod did not end in the 1960s. Richard Weight not only brings us up to the cult’s revival in the late 70s – played out against its own soundtrack of Quadrophenia and the Jam – but reveals Mod to be the DNA of British youth culture, leaving its mark on glam and Northern Soul, punk and Two Tone, Britpop and rave.
This is the story of Britain’s biggest and brassiest youth movement – and of its legacy. Music, film, fashion, art, architecture and design – nothing was untouched by the eclectic, frenetic, irresistible energy of Mod.
MOD: A Very British Style by Richard Weight
Richard Weight has a blog, which looks pretty interesting content-wise...http://monkey-picks.blogspot.com/
Mod
Beatnik modernist world of records, books, films, art and whatnot.
I'm not sure it's actually Richard's blog though. It seems to be by someone called Mark Raison (unless that's a nom de plumme for RW)
Maybe I mis-read that... I found the link within a review of the book, but maybe the blog is run by the reviewer?Either way, I’m really glad that you brought the book to my attention. It’s one for the To Read pile.
Meanwhile, I've just ordered battered old paperback copies of Nigel Richardson’s Brighton & Soho books, thanks to your enthusiasm. Very much looking forward to each.
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Mod
I've finally finished it. Hurrah.
Click here to read my review
4/5
MOD: A Very British Style by Richard Weight
Can’t guarantee that the link is still active, but when the cost is free, ya’ takes yer chances...http://arouseyourpassion.blogspot.com...
Whoever’s behind that Arouse Your Passion blog is a very, very tasteful thief indeed. If I went in for the whole e-reading lark, I’d absolutely pillage the hell out of that blog. A ton of obscure and rare titles, free for the taking.
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Both of those Dury biogs were fantastic, but if you’ve not read either, run don’t walk to the Will Birch one. Recommended with confidence. Not sure whether it’s offered on that blog or not, but there’s another book by Birch that I can heartily recommend, titled No Sleep Til Canvey Island, which is a history of Pub Rock.
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I've also not read the Pub Rock book which sounds well worth a gander.
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I'd wanted to read The History Man for decades having been enthralled by the 1981 BBC four part adaptation. Whilst my memories of it are hazy, I do remember I really enjoyed it. I am also fascinated by the late 1960s and early 1970s, and so tend to enjoy books which credibly evoke that era.
An exhilarating, dark, energetic and compelling satire that still feel relevant, and brilliantly evokes the era and milieu of English university life in the early 1970s - and every bit as good as I had hoped. It's crashed into my list of all time favourite novels.
Click here to read my review
5/5
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Click here to read my review
3/5
No Good Deed by John Niven
Thanks for that one, and thanks especially for recommending two better entry points. Duly added to my shopping list, sir!
Reading Saville at the moment, David Storey’s 1976 Booker Prize winning novel, and already know that five stars ain’t gonna be nowhere near enough. I’d previously read and loved his This Sporting Life [1960] and Flight From Camden [1961]... but Saville will go down as one of the best novels I’ve ever read, and certainly Storey’s finest.
Recommended with confidence and enthusiasm, particularly for those who dug Barry Hines’ A Kestrel For A Knave.
Mod
I have yet to read any of those books, even Kes, so will prioritise all those titles - and report back
Saville is an absolute masterpiece, in my opinion. No question about it. At nearly seven hundred pages, and not exactly action-packed, I imagine some would liken it to something worse than waterboarding, but I’ve found that it’s more than worth the investment, and that it pays handsome dividends. I’m not in the habit of wishing that a seven hundred page novel never ends, but that’s definitely the case with Saville. It’s a work of astonishing beauty and insight. Universal and timeless.
I’ve finished with Saville this evening, and if forced to quantify, it’s got its rightful place in my top ten. It’s that good. Superb.
That’s some recommendation Mark, enough to have me order a copy at the cost of a few magic beans and pieces of coloured glass from eBay. It will be joining er...several others on ‘the reading pile’ which is once again being regularly tutted at by the co-owner.
Thank you.
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Might have to set up a David Storey discussion thread
I’ve only gone and put the pressure on myself, haven’t I? I’ll be offering refunds in full if you’re not completely satisfied with your purchases. Hopefully, though, it won’t come to that.If it’s any consolation, David, I’m now up to two -- soon to be three -- reading piles next to the bed. It’s a disease...
Mark, I think I’ll start naming my reading mountains. Just by my elbow I have Stuart Cosgrove’s twin volumes on Detroit and Memphis soul, Billy Bragg’s Radicals and Rockers, and both volumes of Kenneth Womack’s George Martin biog. This will henceforth be known as ‘The Rockies’.
I will strive to catalogue my books to fit with global upland formations, but refuse to garner Andy McNabb books just to refer to the teetering pile as, well, you know...
Have a good weekend.
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I hope you scale the various peaks before too long.
I loved that Bragg book on Skiffle
I’ve got Bragg’s skiffle book in my stack, as well, which was given me by a friend with the caveat that it’s not without its share of glaring erroneous info within. It’ll be approached with caution.At the moment, on that same friend’s enthusiastic recommendation, I’m reading Tom Jones’ recent autobiography, which is superb. He paints an evocative picture of his youth in the Welsh mining village of Pontypridd, as well as his becoming a Ted in his teens.
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It’s a breeze of a read, and very well-written -- like an engaging raconteur. I can’t imagine you not digging it. He comes across as a very likeable guy, which isn’t always the case when writing about yourself [see Sick On You by Andrew Matheson].
If you’ve not already heard it, this is classic Word pocastry. http://wordpodcast.co.uk/2018/10/11/w...
David wrote: "If you’ve not already heard it, this is classic Word pocastry..."Noted, with thanks!
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Thanks for expanding on the charms of the Jones biog Mark.
My copy of Saville arrived today. A Penguin imprint and not as bulky as the volume which thrilled Mark. The print’s none too big though, so I’ve spent the day looking directly into the photocopier, hoping that my cataract would be fried in the same way as Jasper’s was in The Simpsons.
As Danny Baker says, “Life should be far more like cartoons”.
I guess the advantage of seven hundred pages is larger text, more openly spaced.Good luck with the Penguin edition, though. I’ll look forward to hearing how you get on with it.
Among the books I’m reading which are of probable interest to PHAS members are Francis Stuart’s extremely autobiographical novel Black List, Section H (sort of “My Life as an Irish Nazi”), and Gwyn Thomas’s The Dark Philosophers, a collection of three novellas from 1946.
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Diary of a Rock 'n' Roll Star by Ian Hunter
Ian Hunter's Diary of a Rock `n' Roll Star, first published in 1974, is a fascinating diary of Mott the Hoople's 1972 US tour. It has received a litany of plaudits and been described as what "may well be the best rock book ever" and "an enduring crystallization of the rock musician's lot, and a quietly glorious period piece" from Q and The Guardian. A brutally honest chronicle of touring life in the Seventies, and a classic of the rock writing genre, Diary of a Rock `n' Roll Star remains the gold standard for rock writing. This edition includes new content from Hunter. Ian Hunter is the lead singer in Mott the Hoople and a successful solo artist in his own right. He continues to record and perform across the world after more than fifty years in rock'n'roll.
Home and Away: Round Britain in Search of Non-League Football Nirvana by Dave Roberts
Dave Roberts was, for once, almost lost for words as the news sank in. Perennial underachievers Bromley, in the vertigo-inducing fifth tier of English football? It was the greatest achievement in the club's 130-year history and, by extraordinary coincidence, Dave had decided to spend the next 12 months in the UK, after an absence of 35 years, deciding whether he and his wife Liz could live there. And what better way to explore modern day Blighty than by following a roadmap based on the fixtures in the Vanarama National League? It was like the ultimate package holiday; well, for Dave at least.
Home and Away takes Dave - and occasionally Liz too - the length and breadth of the land on a journey of discovery, with Bromley games thrown in. So from the White Cliffs of Dover and the English Riviera (Torquay) through the timeless charm of the Cotswolds (Forest Green, Cheltenham) to towns steeped in history (Lincoln, Chester), faded seaside resorts (Southport, Barrow) and fallen giants of the game (Grimsby, Wrexham, Tranmere - OK, pushing it there), the season unfolds, and the ultimate 'home or away' decision approaches.
Against the odds, the season also proves not to be full of the endless disappointments football fans are conditioned to expect. Unfancied Bromley are on a mission, they have a man called Moses up front, and the promised land of the Football League might not be beyond their capabilities...
If you’ve never read Ian Hunter’s book before, my best recommendation would be to push everything -- literally everything -- aside and sit down with it immediately. If you keep it in the context of when it was written, it’s absolutely unbeatable. One of the best music books ever written, if not thee best. A stone classic, and Hunter really comes across as the lovely gent that, even after all of the intervening years, he still is. You’re in for a proper king-sized treat.Let me know what the new bonus chapter entails, won’t you? I think it might chronicle his tour of Japan from a few years ago, which was originally published in Mojo.
Man, I’m jealous of you for reading it for the first time. I can’t imagine you walking away disappointed in the slightest. For me, five stars was criminally negligent.
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I will indeed let you know what the new bonus chapter is all about. I can't wait to get into it.
At the moment, I’m reading Difficulties With Girls, by Kingsley Amis. It’s okay enough... nothing to really recommend it, nor anything to warn against. I was overjoyed, though, to find a character named T. Valentine in the novel.I know... I know... there’s a fairly good chance that nobody else here would be half as overjoyed as I was. Or am.
There’s another T. Valentine that you might not be aware of.
The other T. Valentine was responsible for some of the most bonkers recordings ever. Trust me. After his girlfriend Lucille left him for a woman, our T. Valentine was so incensed that he wrote a song of vengeful retribution on the spot, quickly recorded it, pressed up a stack of copies on 45 and distributed them around his native Chicago. In the decades since, it became something of a cult classic, traveling far and wide via cassette. It reached me for the first time around 1988. Behold the majesty of T. Valentine’s Hello Lucille, Are You A Lesbian? here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIcz1...
Unbelievably, The Great Man Himself performed here in NYC back in 2012. For advance promotion, he posted a suitably enthusiastic announcement on YouTube. Our very first glimpse of the legend could not have been more satisfying, as he was everything we’d hoped him to be. And a bit more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4PED...
Need more? Here’s one of his earlier masterpieces, the unbeatable Betty Sue...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84VKP...
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Wow. That's how to get back at an ex
Betty Sue is less striking but after two tunes it's clear his vibe is sort of the R&B version of the Legendary Stardust Cowboy - pretty much ignores the music and just does his own thing over an instrumental backing
Bravo T Valentine
And he certainly knows how to promote a show - though guessing he has some "issues"
Thanks Mark - splendid stuff and another nugget of wonderful triv to store away (ready to unleash when the moment is right)
Yep, when the Haywire Hall of Fame is finally built, T. Valentine and The Legendary Stardust Cowboy are sure to be amongst the initial inductees. Bravo indeed, glad you dug it!
Ive just finished reading a book that had been on my Books-To-Get-Round-To list for far too long, Battersea Girl, by Martin Knight. Was it worth the wait? Too fucking right, it was. I’ve reviewed it thusly...In the final pages of his evocative London novel, Windows On The Moon, Alan Brownjohn concluded that “It was odd that the most important parts of life, the things that changed you forever, went on in the midst of so much ordinariness, so many trivial things.”
It’s Martin Knight's understanding of this, coupled with his understanding that history begins as living memory fades, which give Battersea Girl its wealth of vitality. The book had its genesis decades earlier when, as a childhood school project, Martin Knight began to document the life of his grandmother, Ellen “Nell” Tregent [1888-1988]. Through Nell’s reminiscences of family, neighborhood, and experiences both personal and collective, a remarkable life unfolds as a century’s worth of change — some welcomed, others not — eventually renders the world unrecognisable.
Epic in its scope, Battersea Girl never fails to engage in ways both inspirational and heartbreaking, not merely evoking a time and a place, but transporting the reader to that time and place with great ease and facility. From Nell’s recounting of her grandfather’s emigration to London from the ravages of the famine in Galway, and through the Boer War, the 14-18 War and World War Two, the ever-present Thames serves as main player in the story, both giving life and taking life away, the river's strength and endurance mirroring Nell’s own.
With Battersea Girl, Martin Knight has bequeathed a gift to be treasured not only by his own familial descendants for generations to come, but to be treasured by all who read it.
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Thanks as always Mark - that's an amazing and inspirational review
Here's the blurb....
A couple of years ago, Martin Knight began a quest to delve into his family history. He had a head start on many amateur genealogists, as 30 years earlier he had produced a school project on the very subject. The project was based on the papers and oral history of his then elderly grandmother, Ellen Tregent. Martin dusted this off and began to assemble the chain of events that shaped his grandmother's life. He even made contact with several living relatives who had known Ellen or some of the people and events she described.
Ellen Tregent was born in 1888 and died in 1988 - her lifetime encompassing an unprecedented century of social change and world upheaval. She was born into a poor working-class family in Battersea, London. Her grandfather had arrived from Ireland 40 years earlier to escape almost certain death as potato famine ravaged his country.
In Battersea Girl, Martin Knight charts Ellen's long and eventful life and the lives of her siblings. They encounter abject poverty, disease, suicide, murder, war and inevitably death, but, equally, the spirit of stoical people who were determined to make the most of their lives shines through in this enchanting book.
Mod
I can’t recommend it highly enough, Nigel. It’s one of those books which, unless there’s something fundamentally wrong with the reader, will stay with you through life. You’ll absolutely love it, just as you’ll absolutely love Nell, herself. Its up there right alongside the very best.
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'Dead Men's Trousers' by Irvine Welsh
Mark Renton is finally a success. An international jet-setter, he now makes significant money managing DJs, but the constant travel, airport lounges, soulless hotel rooms and broken relationships have left him dissatisfied with his life. He’s then rocked by a chance encounter with Frank Begbie, from whom he’d been hiding for years after a terrible betrayal and the resulting debt. But the psychotic Begbie appears to have reinvented himself as a celebrated artist and – much to Mark’s astonishment – doesn’t seem interested in revenge.
Sick Boy and Spud, who have agendas of their own, are intrigued to learn that their old friends are back in town, but when they enter the bleak world of organ-harvesting, things start to go so badly wrong. Lurching from crisis to crisis, the four men circle each other, driven by their personal histories and addictions, confused, angry – so desperate that even Hibs winning the Scottish Cup doesn’t really help. One of these four will not survive to the end of this book. Which one of them is wearing Dead Men’s Trousers?
Fast and furious, scabrously funny and weirdly moving, this is a spectacular return of the crew from Trainspotting.