Recovery by John Berryman
Long before James Frey was breaking Oprah Winfrey’s fragile heart by fictionalising his time in addiction therapy and the behaviourContinue Reading
Category: Travel
on the beach from fat man on a beach
Visiting the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales.
Martin John by Anakana Schofield
I’ve accidentally grown a goatee and as a result of this I now look like a sex pervert*. This wasContinue Reading
The Ongoing Moment: A Book About Photographs by Geoff Dyer
Well, as some of you may be aware, I’m off having adventures. Yes, again. After an 18 month stint inContinue Reading
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Over the last month, Don Quixote has travelled a huge amount with me. He was with me for the tailContinue Reading
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
Many months ago, back when I had a regular social life, a friend of mine who works in publishing gaveContinue Reading
Othello by William Shakespeare
About two months ago I spent a week in Finland, driving through the countryside from flea market to charity shopContinue Reading
Notes on Suicide by Simon Critchley
Slowly, the land recedes. I am writing this on a ferry, pushing its way across the surprisingly flat Bay (orContinue Reading
Midland: A Novel Out of Time by Honor Gavin
midlands novel and a road trip into childhood
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a big, serious novel all about big, serious things. It is intelligent, articulate, humaneContinue Reading
Kolymsky Heights by Lionel Davidson
So, am back in London and have a little over an hour in which to wash, shave, iron clothes, cleanContinue Reading
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Last night, as I wandered between bars and cafes in Taksim, North of the Golden Horn, I read most ofContinue Reading
The Diamond Smugglers by Ian Fleming
I’m writing this on an aeroplane to Istanbul, off for a “mimibreak”*. Treating myself to a trip, all on myContinue Reading
The Missing of the Somme by Geoff Dyer
Yes, I read another book by Geoff Dyer and, yes, because it was a structurally complex non-fiction text featuring aContinue Reading
Lonesome Traveler by Jack Kerouac
Last Summer, whilst twatpacking* around the Mediterranean, Tunisair lost my backpack between Casablanca and Tunis. Though it contained nothing ofContinue Reading
Swann’s Way (À la recherche du temps perdu 1) by Marcel Proust
I’m writing this in the beautiful Spanish Pyrenees, having spent a day doing little more than reading Proust and lookingContinue Reading
Distracted Holiday Book Review: The Fields by Kevin Maher and Season One of Game of Thrones
Kevin Maher’s The Fields is a hilarious, moving and impressively broad coming of age novel set (mostly in Dublin) inContinue Reading
A Long Weekend in Italy: Naples, Pompeii and Capri
Mount Vesuvius is big. It creaks over Naples from the southeast, with a threat made obvious by the fame ofContinue Reading
Pompeii: A Documentary
Please enjoy a lo-fi video I made during a day trip to Pompeii last weekend. I will write a fullContinue Reading
On Going To The Football
Last Saturday I did something utterly unprecedented and attended a professional football match. It feels like it happened ages ago,Continue Reading
Review of 2013
A hip-hop review of the year now ending.
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
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
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
On The Overwhelming Sadness I Felt My Last Morning In Rome
Sat in the central courtyard, Michelangelo’s Cloister, of the National Museum of Rome, I was filled with an immense andContinue Reading
On Ancient Rome
The Roman Forum is fantastic. Eerie, elegant, a little bit scary… Despite being full of other tourists and located inContinue Reading
On Santa Croce With No Baedeker
Rather lamely, Florence is probably the non-British city I know best. It’s full of beautiful, wonderful buildings, sculptures and paintings,Continue Reading
On the rolling hills of Tuscany
I’m spending a short spell off Shit Island*, which is always pleasant. Even leaving it to be in a countryContinue Reading
Triumph Of The Now 