COAL by Remi Graves
an excellent and significant chapbook of “poems and experiments”
Tag: life writing
Notes Made While Falling by Jenn Ashworth
some notes on Notes Made While Falling, EXACTLY my kinda book
Playing for Time by Arthur Miller
some life updates, some political commentary and a reflection on an unsubtle Arthur Miller play…
Reverse Cowgirl by McKenzie Wark
a spectacular sex memoir (the memoir is spectacular (and maybe the sex was too))
Girls Gone Old by Fiona Helmsley
exceptional essay collection from an under-appreciated american
Motion Sickness by Lynne Tillman
a surprisingly disappointing book about flaneuring about
2024? A fine year!
it was a fine year, yes it was [in my personal life]
The Motion Of Light In Water by Samuel R Delany
i thoroughly enjoyed this 1980s memoir about the halycon days of cruising (and sci-fi)
Still Pictures: On Photography & Memory by Janet Malcolm
Janet Malcolm did it again one last time
Chapterhouse: Dune by Frank Herbert (Dune #6)
dune to myself as i would dune to others
Talking At The Gates: A Life of James Baldwin by James Campbell
a solid and non hagiographic literary biography
James Baldwin: Living in Fire by Bill V. Mullen
an interesting – tho intentionally unemotive – biography of Big Jimmy B
Ethel & Ernest by Raymond Briggs
a book about some of the worst people in the world
The Yellow House by Sarah M Broom
boooorrrrriiiiinnnggg
Thriftwood: A Personal History of Scouting by Alice Wickenden
great memoir about youth and scouting
The Years by Annie Ernaux
cracking under lockdown and stunning books
Happening by Annie Ernaux
feeling sad so read a sad book on abortion
The Silent Woman by Janet Malcolm
stunning essay on the ethics and impossibilities of biography
Ushant by Conrad Aiken
a sub-mediocre memoir
Eulogy for Josephine Bunyan
the eulogy I read at my grandmother’s funeral in 2014
Found Diary Entry from April 17th, 2010
bizarre note to self from 2010
I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell
near death experiences in a bad blog post
Sursum Corda! The Collected Letters of Malcolm Lowry Volume One: 1926 – 46
700 pages of Lowryian bliss…
Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
ideologically, i’d love to tear this apart, but i cannot…
Design as Art by Bruno Munari
i read a book that’s aged badly and reflect on bad times
#TotNTV: Writing From Life
What does it mean to turn life into art?
Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson
Finally, a book about race that makes me angry at myself
Dark Chapter by Winnie M Li
An important new novel about sexual assault. Long post.
Extravagant Stranger: A Memoir by Daniel Roy Connelly
A book that describes itself as “Ian Fleming meets Rimbaud”
Nicotine by Gregor Hens
If Gregor Hens can give up smoking, I can give up booze.
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
this is not a test, it’s a memoir
White Girls by Hilton Als
Off the booze (again), I enjoy a book but despair of life.
The Man With The Golden Typewriter: Ian Fleming’s James Bond Letters edited by Fergus Fleming
He always writes while others talk
The Last Holiday: A Memoir by Gil Scott-Heron
The ‘Godfather of Rap’ offers a rose-tinted memoir.
On a Chinese Screen by W. Somerset Maugham
Very Colonial travel writing from author of The Painted Veil
Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl
Fantastic Mr Fox is an ode to adventure capitalism. My life is an ode to wine.
One of Us by Åsne Seierstad
A beautiful book about a horrible thing.
Specimen Days by Walt Whitman
The life and memories of Walt Whitman, focusing on war and nature.
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
In America alone, 281 pounds of pig shit is produced for every one person per year. I don’t know if that’s a lot as I don’t know what a pound is.
The Shepherd’s Life: A Tale of the Lake District by James Rebanks
Living in the city is bad for the soul
From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming
This is my first blog post in a while, and even then it’s still happening a little earlier than expected.Continue Reading
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
Some Rain Must Fall: My Struggle Book Five by Karl Ove Knausgaard
It’s taken me a few more days than I’d hoped, but I’ve just finished reading the fifth book of KarlContinue Reading
Shaking Hands with Death by Terry Pratchett
When I was young it was normal practice for supermarkets to fill the spaces around the tills – where peopleContinue Reading
You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat] by Andrew Hankinson
My new puppy hasn’t been very well. I’ve spent the day taking him to the vets and watching him sleep,Continue Reading
But You Did Not Come Back by Marceline Loridan-Ivens
I haven’t cried this much at a book in a while. I haven’t cried this much at a non-fiction bookContinue Reading
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Iran. Who knows much about it? We’ve all seen Argo, we’ve all heard of nuclear weapons, we’re all aware thatContinue Reading
The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy
This is a late novella of Tolstoy’s, and one famous for espousing a narrative rooted in his late-life, anti-sexuality, opinions.Continue Reading
Dancing in the Dark: My Struggle Book Four by Karl Ove Knausgaard
For the past four years, the big literary release (for me) has been the continuing publication of Karl Ove Knausgaard’sContinue 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
Triumph Of The Now 