The Atrocity Exhibition by JG Ballard
This is the first book I have ever read by JG Ballard. I haven’t read any of his famous ones,Continue Reading
Author: scottmanleyhadley
I like to read but little else. I have bad mental health and a dog. And a baby. And no hair. And a blog.
Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes
Wow. I just finished reading this long collection of themed poems, and found it pretty impressive. Birthday Letters, Ted Hughes’Continue Reading
Umbrella by Will Self
Will Self’s 2012 novel Umbrella, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize that went to Bring Up The Bodies, is a sexy, war-y, JoyceanContinue Reading
On Coming Out As A Catholic
I’ve decided that from now on I am going to self-identify as a Catholic. A couple of days ago IContinue Reading
77 Dream Songs by John Berryman
I’m reading less because I’m busy, yeah, I have a life and whatever. Today I read 77 Dream Songs by JohnContinue Reading
The Skating Rink by Roberto Bolaño
The Skating Rink, or La Pista Del Hielo, was Roberto Bolaño’s first novel. It was published in Spanish in 1993 andContinue Reading
On Missing Linguistic Isolation
Something clicked in my head while I was away this Summer. I don’t know if it was something I ate,Continue Reading
Signifying Rappers by David Foster Wallace & Mark Costello
When I learnt about the recent republication of David Foster Wallace’s 1990 academic text about hip-hop only days after fallingContinue Reading
On The Dotted Line: Signatures, Sobriety*, Schoolbooks & Shearing
So, I’ve been back in the UK for three weeks. What have I been up to? Where has the streamContinue Reading
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
I saw the film version of Watchmen a couple of years ago and hated it. I saw it when my alcoholContinue Reading
Hear Us O Lord from heaven thy dwelling place by Malcolm Lowry
Malcolm Lowry died in 1957, having published only two books (both novels) in his lifetime: the youthful Ultramarine (1934, myContinue Reading
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Wow. Fuck a diddle wank, David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (1996) is a full blown literary compendium of joy. Deeply philosophical,Continue Reading
The Honorary Consul by Graham Greene
Right. My blog is back in business, back to books. (As I’m sure you can see, my hair is far,Continue Reading
Mykonos, My Parasitic Anal Infection & My Binge Drinking Shame
I’m pretty certain, as I sadly sit at my faithful kitchen table back on England’s silage strewn shores, that somewhereContinue Reading
Birthday Blog Post: You Ain’t Achieved Nothin’ Yet, OR Old Men, On The Road and Becoming an Old Man On The Road
Twenty five is not, in itself, a significant birthday. However, it does mean that one has distinctly reached an ageContinue Reading
I Don’t Practice Santorini, I Ain’t Got No Piss-tal Ball: Urinating on a Woman, the Greek Pompeii and Over-Priced Drinks
‘Please,’ she said, wiggling her arse in apparent desperate need and pulling her red and black one piece to theContinue Reading
Having a Riot in Athens: Passing Out on the Floor, Pube Trimming, Heavy Drinking, Self-Harming AND Visiting the New Acropolis Museum
My second day in Athens I woke up, fully dressed, contact lenses in, on the floor. A chair I mayContinue Reading
It Ain’t Brindisi Livin’ Free, Or: You Know What They Say About Men With Big Carbon Footprints*
I woke up at five thirty on my final morning in Palermo. I’d spent the evening before being highly irritatedContinue Reading
Scott Manley Hadley’s Palermo-st Excellent Adventure: Bad Bags, Bad Bank Cards and Caverns of Capuchin Corpses
My last morning in Tunis was dedicated to finding myself a new bag, a new, large, bag in which toContinue Reading
Tunis To See You, To See You Ellipsis (Out of Service, Out of Africa: Returning To Europe, Reading an American Book)
My five day trip to Tunis was a colossal series of fuck ups. My baggage lost by the airline, myContinue Reading
An Outcast of the Islands by Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was notorious for being unable to write women. Actually, no, less that, he was more notorious for veryContinue Reading
Scott Manley Hadley, Queen of Carthage (It Reminds Me That It’s Not So Bad, It’s Not So Ba-ah-ad)*
Despite dandling no one on my lap, my time in Tunis (so far) has been a highspincycle of emotion. ThereContinue Reading
We’ll Always Have Casablanca: Getting Out of Morocco and Racing Through Kurt Vonnegut’s Galapagos
Casablanca felt very different to the other Moroccan cities I visited. Very European, actually, in terms not just of architecture,Continue Reading
Don’t Marrakech, Fuck Me: The Beautiful South of Morocco (And Modern Moroccans on a Train!)
Now, being pedantic w/r/t* geography, Marrakech is in CENTRAL Morocco. But it’s further south of everywhere bar the desert IContinue Reading
Of Mutability, Sad and Sand: Me Reading Jo Shapcott in the Sahara Desert as I Really Start To Feel The Loss Of The Anti-Depressants
I’m pretty certain, as I write this on the minibus back to Marrakech, that I have sand inside my anus.Continue Reading
A Rubbish Couple of Days
Over the last few days I have made a series of unforgivable travel booboos. Yesterday I nearly gave myself heatstroke,Continue Reading
Ul-Essaouira-sses: Reading James Joyce’s Ulysses on Morocco’s Atlantic Coast
Desperately needing some cooler weather and a low pressure environment in which to cold turkey from the anti-depressants I’d beenContinue Reading
On Not Being Bowles-ed Over by Paul Bowles’ Let It Come Down
Spent two nights in Marrakech, ran into most of the people I’d met before, had a pleasant time, but I’mContinue Reading
Exploring Fes, Grappling With John Ashbery’s Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
I’ve tried recreation, Reading until late at night, train rides And romance. from ‘Worsening Situation’ by John Ashbery As IContinue Reading
We’re Chefchaouen Most Our Lives: Living In A Stoner’s Paradise
In the Rif mountains, a little under halfway between Tangier and Fes, is the beautiful blue town of Chefchaouen. ItsContinue Reading
Straddling The Strait of Gibraltar: Tarifa & Tangier
In the southernmost tip of Western Europe is a small beach resort town called Tarifa. Full of hostels, kite-boarding schools,Continue Reading
Granada: It’s Pretty Shit
Now, I’m not going to claim that the Alhambra isn’t a stunning and borderline must-see architectural wonderland. The Alhambra’s great.Continue Reading
Seville Sign-Off: Horse Piss, Stunning Views and Roman Remains
Seville is fucking beautiful. Take the Giralda for instance, the 12th century minaret turned belltower. Quite the pleasant monument, no?Continue Reading
Hanging out alone in Seville, reading Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives
Well, I’ve been away four days and have already completed my first read of the trip. Roberto Bolaño’s HUGE TheContinue Reading
Day Two Off The Island
Right. Well, here we are. Day two of my travels. Yesterday was quite mediocre: Woke up before 4am, travelled toContinue Reading
On the Future of This Blog
Right. I am finally taking my own titular advice to heart and heading off for a little bit of living.Continue Reading
Poems by B. S. Johnson
When asked his occupation, or for any kind of self-identification, B. S. Johnson would reply that he was a “poet”.Continue Reading
Travelling People by B. S. Johnson
Today I have returned to the British Library in order to read more out of print books by Bryan StanleyContinue Reading
The Striped World by Emma Jones
Emma Jones’ debut collection, The Striped World, is an evocative and image-fuelled foray into contemporary America, sunken wrecks of transportation shipsContinue Reading
Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez
It’s hot, I’m sweaty, it’s almost late. I’ve just read a little novella by Gabriel García Márquez (Colombian, Nobel Laureate, octogenarianContinue Reading
Angle of Yaw by Ben Lerner
Ben Lerner’s recently published first novel, Leaving the Atocha Station, is a great read I’ve recommended to several people (ReviewContinue Reading
Important Artifacts and Personal Property From The Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion and Jewelry by Leanne Shapton
The day began with a shock. Pascale Petit, the poet, sent me a series of angry tweets about the reviewContinue Reading
Destination X by John Martz
Another original book from my local graphic novel publishing house, Nobrow, Destination X is a short science fiction piece about interstellarContinue Reading
The Plague by Albert Camus
Albert Camus was (according to the blurb of this 1960s Penguin edition) active in the French resistance during the NaziContinue Reading
Hip-Scott: In The Land Of The Dinosaurs
This is a scene that may or may not appear in a forthcoming (when? who knows…) musical about my alter-egoContinue Reading
What The Water Gave Me (Poems After Frida Kahlo) by Pascale Petit
Pacale Petit’s fifth poetry collection, What The Water Gave Me, is a verse biography of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. EachContinue Reading
Arrival and Departure by Arthur Koestler
This is the last of the lovely old books I bought whilst in Hay-on-Wye a few weeks ago, a charmingContinue Reading
Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth by Warsan Shire
Warsan Shire was born the same year I was, 1988, so reading this excellent collection of intelligent, though-provoking and matureContinue Reading
A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro
Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel, A Pale View of Hills, doesn’t quite pack the emotional punch of his later, more famous, The RemainsContinue Reading
Under The Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
Malcolm Lowry was a tragic figure. A hugely talented writer, yet an alcoholic of such self-destructive proportions that he diedContinue Reading
Triumph Of The Now 