2018: End of year review

2018: End of year review

The hardest working book group in Hove take a well earned break and take stock of 2018

We met at Planet India in Hove on Thursday 6 December 2018 to eat delicious curry, chat shit, and unveil the best of the year.

We agreed to review the scoring process and the methodology for next year after Tristan had established that the best book was, in fact, not the best book at all.

A travesty and a sham, he yelled, whilst gesticulating wildly with a chapati in his hand. 

For now though this will have to do

Our favourite books we discussed in 2018

1/ The English Patient (1992) by Michael Ondaatje - 15

2/ The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood - 12
3/ Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile (2017) by Adelle Stripe - 7
5=/ Wake In Fright (1961) by Kenneth Cook - 6
5=/ Submission (2015) by Michel Houellebecq - 6
6/ Nightmare in Berlin (1947) by Hans Fallada - 5
8=/ Under Major Domo Minor (2015) by Patrick deWitt - 3
8=/ The Lesser Bohemians (2016) by Eimear McBride - 3
9/ Waterland (1983) by Graham Swift - 2

10/ The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) by Agatha Christie - 0


2. Our favourite musical selections we discussed in 2018

1=/ Thatcher’s Britain playlist - 16
1=/ Max Richter - Three Worlds: Music From Woolf Works (2017) - 16

3. Dog Man Star (1994) by Suede - 11
4. Robin’s Summertime playlist - 5
5. Billy Bragg and Wilco ‘Mermaid Avenue’ (1998) - 3
6. I, Gemini (2016) by Let’s Eat Grandma - 1
7. A Certain Ratio 'I’d Like To See You Again' - 1
8. “All That Glitters…” playlist - 2

10=/ The Birthday Party - The Bad Seed EP (1983) - 0
10=/ Max Cooper - One Hundred Billion Sparks (2018) - 0


3. Our favourite film/DVDs we discussed in 2018

1/ Wake In Fright (1971) directed by Ted Kotcheff - 16

2/ Blade Runner 2049 (2017) dir by Denis Villeneuve - 10
4=/ The Arbor (2010) dir by Clio Barnard - 9
4=/ Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq (2014) dir by Guillaume Nicloux - 9
6/ Heavenly Creatures (1994) directed by Peter Jackson - 5
7/ The Levelling directed by Hope Dickson Leach (2018) - 4
8/ Shutter Island (1994) directed by Martin Scorsese - 1

Princess Cyd (2017) directed by Stephen Cone - 0
A Company of Wolves (1984) directed by Neil Jordan - 0
Howards End dir by James Ivory (1992) - 0

4. Our favourite unifying themes of 2018

1/ It’s Grim Up North (aka Thatcher’s Britain) (aka Andrea Dunbar) - 15

2/ Descent Into Hell (aka Aussie Noir) - 13
3/ Dystopian Futures - 8
4/ Rural Idylls - 6
5/ Twisted Fairytales - 4
6/ Michel Houellebecq/Max Richter - 3

9=/ A Slice of Old English Sponge - 0
9=/ Criminality and Art / All that Glitters - 0
9=/ Awakenings - 0

5. Best book you read this year

Nigel - Restoration (+ sequel Merivel) by Rose Tremain
Roland - Waterland by Graham Swift
Robin - The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
Nick - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
Keith - Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
Tristan - All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr


6. What defined 2018 for you

Nigel - No one event or happening (except maybe World Cup 2018) but, the ongoing self harming of Brexit aside, it’s been a really lovely year which I feel privileged to have enjoyed

Roland - Mellowing into older age

Robin - David Byrne gig, Bundesliga match, Holly's exam results, anti-trump march

Nick - Brexit

Keith - ‘I was looking for a job and then I found a job...’

Tristan - Fucking fucking Brexit shitstorm


7. Best thing about Book Group in 2018

Nigel - We’ve upped our game - some really great choices with no real stinkers and even the ones I didn’t necessarily enjoy I was glad to have read/listened/watched PLUS it’s a lovely group and Roland’s fitted right in

Roland - Savouring splendid artistic works I would never otherwise sample + Celebrating our musical differences. Some like droning indie/rock others like melodic jazz and never the twain shall meet!

Robin - Mid summer book club at Devil's Dyke

Nick - A good all round selection this year - good unifying themes

Keith - Continued excellence in our cultural exchanges. My life is richer for it.

Tristan - The "you can choose the venue" innovation. Although not many people have taken up the option.


8. How we make Book Group even better

Nigel - No need to gild the lily aka don’t fuck with perfection

Roland - Maybe some carefully curated/chosen new blood?

Robin - An extra week to read the book - no surprise there!

Keith - Bring back Hamish

Tristan - Don't include the ratings per-person per-month in the poll. That way people are not influenced by their previous ratings, and you can reveal the comparison when you announce the poll to show the difference between votes-in-the-moment and end-of-year.


9. What else..

Nigel - Keep on keeping on
Robin - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!
Keith - TBA
Tristan - Keep up the great organising and documenting


OPTIONAL EXTRAS

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
Nigel - Confidence Man - Confident Music for Confident People (another brilliant year with so many super duper songs and albums)

SONGS OF THE YEAR
Nigel - Confidence Man - Catch My Breath / Portugal. The Man - So Young / The Vaccines - I Can’t Quit

GIGS OF THE YEAR
Nigel - Idles at The Concorde / John Cooper Clarke at The Dome
Nick - Sons of Kemet
Tristan - Baloji

CULTURAL HAPPENINGS OF THE YEAR (best of the rest - books, TV, films, festivals etc)

Nigel - Better Call Saul (TV) / End of the Road 2018 (Festival) / World Cup 2018 (Football) / Irvine Welsh - Dead Men’s Trousers (Book)

Nick - Widows (Film)

Tristan - Screening of La Haine, with live soundtrack by Asian Dub Foundation

Waterland (1983) by Graham Swift

On Thursday 15th November 2018 we met to discuss Roland's choices

BOOK: Waterland (1983) by Graham Swift

Murder, incest, guilt, insanity, Ale and Eels. Hard to imagine not loving a book with themes like that eh? Or is it?

Roland had chosen Waterland as part of his Rural Idylls theme

Roland was, to use the modern parlance, blown away.

Graham Swift's Fenland of the mind spans more than 200 years in the lives of its haunted narrator and his forebears. Just as Tom Crick, the passionate teacher, tried to inspire his pupils, so Roland, eyes gleaming, tried to persuade the Hove Book Group of its merits. It’s a fantastic book that is imbued with the atmosphere of its surroundings. It does for the Fens what Hardy does for Wessex, or Daphne Du Maurier does for Cornwall. Come lose yourself among the eels and reeds of eastern England, exalted Roland.

Some were less convinced by the books merit’s. All agreed it was undeniably an impressive and ambitious novel which ruminates upon the relentless tide of change and humanity’s subsequent shifting fortunes. It’s also firmly rooted in the watery world of the East Anglian Fens, the rich and fertile flood plains, in which its inhabitants are forever locked in an ongoing battle with water, and which can never be comprehensively won by either side and yet for all the book’s watery pleasures some were unable to stay immersed. Its charms never truly grabbed some: the non linear structure, multiple narratives, and contrasting styles, were just too jarring. Clever, ambitious and diverse, but for some it was a book we admired more than enjoyed. As dull as the River Ouse? Well, for some, perhaps yes….

Tristan 8/10 - Nick 6/10 - Keith 9/10 - Roland 10/10 - Nigel 6/10 - Robin 7/10

MUSIC: Max Cooper - One Hundred Billion Sparks (2018)

Roland recommends headphones and mind altering substances to truly appreciate One Hundred Billion Sparks. Hove Book Group, being a straight edge outfit, eschew chemical shortcuts when it comes to musical appreciation.

According to Max, every track on the LP is a score to a visual story stemming from this system of one hundred billion sparking neurones, which create us. Few picked that up from listening to it however it is all very pleasant. There’s a lot of this electronica knocking about. At one time some of us were quite taken with it. Four Tet and their ilk. We're slightly less enamoured of it now, having swung back towards hooks and lyrics and groove but, yeah, most were happy to have it playing whilst we went about our business.

Nick dubbed it “a poor man’s Boards of Canada” - take that Max

FILM: The Levelling (2017) directed by Hope Dickson Leach

Somerset, England. Trainee veterinarian Clover Catto returns to the farm where she grew up after hearing news that her brother Harry has died in what appears to be a suicide. Finding the family home in a state of horrendous disrepair following the 2014 floods that devastated the area, Clover is forced to confront her father Aubrey about the farm, the livestock and, crucially, the details surrounding Harry's death. Clover's discoveries send her on an emotional journey of reckoning with her family, her childhood and herself.

Most in the group concluded we’d far rather watch something like this than a blockbuster, or an action type film. Meditative, low-key, English, unusual, interesting context, enigmatic.

That said, not ideal content for a non meat eater

ENDORSE IT

They Shall Not Grow Old (Film)

Cider With Rose by Laurie Lee (Book)

Sons of Kemet (Jazz group)

Widows (Film)

Baloji (Pop group)

Killing Eve (TV show)

David Byrne (Live)

Go Go Penguin (Pop group)

Golem (BBC TV programme)

Oliver Burkeman podcast

Wake In Fright (1961) by Kenneth Cook

On Thursday 11th October 2018 we met to discuss Nigel’s “Descent Into Hell” (aka “Aussie Noir”) theme

BOOK: Wake In Fright (1961) by Kenneth Cook



Wake In Fright was praised to the hilt by everyone

A mere 174 pages it packs a mighty punch. Written in 1961, it powerfully relates John Grant's descent into hell, here also known as outback town Bundanyabba ("the Yabba"). The people of the Yabba feel compelled to subsume any outsiders into their world. The ghastly hospitality of the local yokels provide the guileless fish-out-of-water John Grant with the worst days of his short life and from which he is powerless to escape.

'Wake In Fright' delivers a vivid sense of place - the heat, the light, the dust, the savagery, and the scale - are all powerfully rendered.

In the same way that once seen David Lynch's 'Blue Velvet' is never forgotten, so it with 'Wake In Fright'. There are some extraordinary scenes - truly horrific and nightmarish despite the banal and all too plausible set up. The outback is shown in all its weirdness - stark, hallucinogenic and brutal. 

Tristan 7/10 - Nick 7/10 - Keith 8/10 - Roland 9/10 - Nigel 10/10 - Robin 7/10



FILM: Wake In Fright (1971) 

The film adapation was also a bit hit with the denizens of HBG. It was directed by Ted Kotcheff and is a very powerful and faithful rendition of the book. Some parts of the plot are condensed but the essence remains. 

The kangaroo hunt is especially powerful and even more disturbing when depicted on the screen. The darkness of the trip is given even more violence in the film version with the hard drinking macho camaraderie and the disturbing homoerotic undertow writ large.

Apparently, upon release, the Australian critics were appalled as it paints such a horrifying portrait of life in the isolation of the Outback. Once seen never forgotten. The Australian outback seems to be unwelcoming at best, but it has surely never been depicted as grimmer, darker and more violent than in this depiction.

A classic film - every bit as good as the source material.

MUSIC: The Birthday Party - The Bad Seed EP (1983)

Nigel had identified two key tracks - Sonny’s Burning + Deep In The Woods - which epitomise the “Descent Into Hell” (aka “Aussie Noir”) theme

Curiously the music was less celebrated than the other two choices. Nigel was steadfast in his love of these key tracks which capture the moment when Nick Cave metamorphosed from Birthday Party to solo artist. Still, not everyone can enjoy Nigel’s impeccable taste. 

Nigel - impeccable taste

ENDORSE IT

American Animals (film)

Lincoln in the Bardo (book)

Mystery Road (BBC TV series)

Factfulness (book)

Molotov Jukebox (Pop group)

Reported Misgiving (TV)

Money Heist (Netflix)

Journeyman (film)

Snow Country (book)

And so ended another wonderful evening of cultural discourse and bonhomie

The English Patient (1992) by Michael Ondaatje

On Thursday 6th September 2018 we discussed Robin’s selections …

BOOK: The English Patient (1992) by Michael Ondaatje

MUSIC: Robin’s “Summertime” playlist 

FILM: Shutter Island (1994) directed by Martin Scorsese

Robin - loved the book

Robin loved the book. Keith less so. Nick thought it was amazing. Tristan, likewise, was most impressed, Nigel found it a bit of chore, whilst acknowledging its cleverness, and Roland labelled it a snooze fest 

The English Patient (1992) by Michael Ondaatje
Tristan 9/10 - Nick 10/10 - Keith 6/10 - Roland 5/10 - Nigel 6/10 - Robin 9/10

The music was a Summer playlist compiled by DJ Robin. All found it most enjoyable despite a few  bizarre inclusions.

Sadly Robin was not able to provide a DVD for the group to watch so not everyone had seen it. Robin (from memory) was gripped, Tristan deemed it ham fisted.

And finally here's what we're endorsing...

Idles (Punk group)

End of the Road Festival 2018

Wanderlust (BBC TV)

Venice - the place

Nick Harkaway 'Noon" (book)

Christopher Isherwood - Mr Norris Changes Trains (book)

Hamilton (musical)

Coasteering (kamikaze activity done on Cornish cliffs)

Sexy Beast (film)

Thomas More (historical figure)

See you next time

Nightmare in Berlin (1947) by Hans Fallada

BOOK: Nightmare in Berlin (1947) by Hans Fallada

HBG gathered on a balmy summer night in the agreeable pub garden at the Westbourne to discuss Keith’s Criminality and Art themed selections. Could we enjoy the work of artists who have done bad shit?

First up was Hans Fallada, best known for the runaway success of Alone in Berlin recently republished, and whose 'Nightmare in Berlin’ is the story of a married couple contending with a devastated postwar Germany.

Hans Fallada’s 1947 novel Alone in Berlin was the hit book of summer 2010, selling 300,000 copies and making a bestseller of an author who had been largely forgotten. In 2018 the late German author’s Nightmare in Berlin, an autobiographical novel beginning on the day the war ends, was published in English for the first time.

Keith, ever diligent, read it twice. This is writing as therapy, he announced, before lavishing a murderous 7/10

The rest of HBG were generally positive, albeit with some misgivings. It has an immediacy and is full of great details, however is also a tad repetitive and meandering. Overall though the consensus was it’s worth a read but it’s no ‘Alone in Berlin’, which many HBGers resolved to read at the earliest opportunity.

Keith tries to forgive Hans Fallada's murderous childhood

Tristan 6/10
Keith 7/10
Robin 6/10
Roland 6/10
Nigel 8/10
Nick 6.5/10

FILM: Heavenly Creatures (1994) directed by Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson’s 1994 feature film features a pair of murderous school girls. It is based on a true story. New Zealand was unsurprisingly stunned in 1952 by a brutal murder carried out by two girls, ages 15 and 16, who crushed the skull of one of their mothers with a rock. 

To varying degrees we loved it

MUSIC: Keith’s “All That Glitters…” playlist 

Keith went through the rap sheet of all the miscreants on his playlist and used this as a springboard to debate the extent to which their work is separate from their crimes.

So what’s on it?

Gary Glitter - I’m the leader
Phil Spector - To Know Him
Sex Pistols - Something Else
Babyshambles - Pentonville
Ian Brown - My Star
Jonathan King - Everybody’s Gone To The Moon
Wham! - Bad Boys
2Pace - Me Against The World
Culture Club - Do You Really Want To Hurt Me
Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls of Fire

Jerry Lee...Keeping it in the family

ENDORSE IT

Dr Chatterjee’s Feel Better Live More podcast

Defiant Ones (Dr Dre/Jimmy Iovine doc) - Netflix

Paddington 2 - film

Death of Stalin - film

Wild Wild Country - Netflix

Nick Cave live in Pisa

Black Panther - film

New Dark Age - book 

Under Major Domo Minor (2015) by Patrick deWitt

It being the Summer Solstice it was time for our traditional cycle to Devil’s Dyke where, as usual, the sun shined and the sunset was a thing of beauty. 

Nigel was confined to his sick bed after being beset by a vicious virus however managed to convey his reactions to Tristan’s choices by email.

BOOK: Under Major Domo Minor (2015) by Patrick deWitt

So, without further ado, why Tristan why? What the heck is this Twisted Fairytales theme all about?

Turns out Tristan had read other work by Patrick deWitt and bloody loved it. Furthermore after the frown fest that was The Handsmaid’s Tale didn’t we deserve something a bit more lighthearted? Much nodding greeted this question.

'Under Major Domo Minor’ was everything Tristan had hoped for and more. He lavished it with praise before sticking a flake-like 9/10 into the finished review.

In a rare moment of HBG harmony everyone echoed this view…

Tristan 9/10
Keith 8/10
Robin 8.5/10
Roland 9/10
Nigel 8/10

Nick 8/10

Could this be a book of the year moment?

MUSIC: I, Gemini (2016) by Let’s Eat Grandma 

Sadly the music was greeted with less enthusiasm. Nigel has already been recommended Let’s Eat Grandma by a couple of friends with reliable taste so was delighted to get stuck into this album. Sadly the uber-girly vocals grated on his delicate eardrums and he could not really detect much by way of tuneage. 

This seemed to sum up much of the HBG reaction

FILM: A Company of Wolves (1984) directed by Neil Jordan

Again most seemed at best underwhelmed. Nigel thought this was a steaming pile of cack. and perhaps the worst film we’ve ever done. He was ill though.

ENDORSE IT

MUSIC: Boy Azooga - 1, 2 Kung Fu (2018 Heavenly records) 
BOOK: Brett Anderson - Coal Black Morning (2018) 
COMEDY: Rhys Darby stand up

BOOK: Richard Ford - Canada

TELEVISION: Atlanta (iPlayer)

BOOK: Patrick deWitt - The Sisters Brothers

Keith made the selections for our gathering on 19th July 2018

The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood

Sir Nick prioritised Robert Peston over HBG so we all dutifully waited for him to arrive. Whilst waiting we were not idle, we endorsed….

ENDORSE IT:

TV: Atlanta (iPlayer) written by & starring Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino)

TV: Parks and Recreation (Amazon TV) 

FESTIVAL: The Great Escape 2018 (x 2 endorsements)

FOOTBALL: Unai Emery - new Arsenal FC manager

BOOK: Can't Stand Up For Falling Down: Rock'n'Roll War Stories by Allan Jones

BOOK: Happy by Derren Brown

BOOK: All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

BOOK: King Rat by China Mieville 

FILM: The Florida Project (2017)

FILM: A Quiet Place (2018)

PLAY: The Ferryman at The Gielgud Theatre

PLAY: Flying Lovers

PERFORMANCE: Shut Down, Vincent Dance Theatre at Brighton Festival 2018

WILDLIFE: Tawny Owls in Partridge Green 

TALK: Arnhem talk by Antony Beevor

DRINK: Tarquin’s Gin from Cornwall 

COMING UP NEXT TIME:

Thursday 21st June 2018 (Tristan's choice)

Twisted Fairytales 

MUSIC: I Gemini - Let’s Eat Grandma

FILM: A Company of Wolves

BOOK: UnderMajorDomo Minor by Patrick deWitt

And so, finally, a breathless and bedraggled Nick arrived to discuss his "Dystopian Futures" selections…

BOOK: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood

MUSIC: Dog Man Star (1994) by Suede

FILM: Blade Runner 2049 (2017) dir by Denis Villeneuve 

BOOK: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, Atwood's chilling tale of a concubine in an oppressive future America, was generally very well received by HBG.

Keith deemed it assured

Nigel identified it as fiercely political and bleak, yet witty and wise

Tristan opined that it is a cautionary tale with ever more prescience and relevance

Robin muttered it was post-feminism writ large, but dismissed the characterisation as weak and unconvincing

Roland concluded that it was claustrophobic and domestic 

Nick, controversially, going last, declared it hard to put down

Nick	7.5
Tristan	6.5
Keith	8
Robin	6.5
Roland	8
Nigel	7

MUSIC: Dog Man Star (1994) by Suede

Roland needed a lie down

Robin and Nigel had enjoyed an audience with Brett, Suede’s singer and lyricist, by way of preparation. Caps were doffed and forelocks tugged.

Keith and Nick adore Dog Man Star. 

Roland was troubled by the lack of slap bass and the histrionic vocals. After one listen he needed a  lie down

However, everyone else was firmly in favour, impressed by the sheer degree of ambition and the demented, doomed, destructive folly.

FILM: Blade Runner 2049 (2017) dir by Denis Villeneuve 

Robin didn’t watch it. More fool him.

Everyone else, aside from Roland, who was slightly underwhelmed in the cinema when it was released, was blown away by this visually stunning film: a narcotic spectacle of eerie and pitiless vastness, by turns satirical, tragic and romantic. Blade Runner 2049 riffs on the first film, to our collective approval

Tristan disappearing into the Hove night 

Nick	9
Tristan	8
Keith	7
Robin	-
Roland	6
Nigel	9

And with that, we disappeared wraith-like into the Hove night

The Lesser Bohemians (2016) by Eimear McBride

With Hove Book Group still reeling from the shock news of Hamish's departure (hopefully only a sabbatical, but time will tell), on Thursday 19th April 2018 we discussed Roland’s “Awakenings” themed selections at The Westbourne public house in Hove

AWAKENINGS

BOOK: The Lesser Bohemians (2016) by Eimear McBride
MUSIC: A Certain Ratio 'I’d Like To See You Again' (1982)
FILM: Princess Cyd (2017) directed by Stephen Cone (Netflix)

BOOK: The Lesser Bohemians (2016) by Eimear McBride

Roland wondered if he might still be back on the Magic Bus, scene of his life’s greatest triumph. Here was a diffident 18-year-old Irish girl talking, writing or thinking in Eimear McBride’s characteristic broken sentences, gliding between the demotic and the lyrical. “Daub my soul with a good few pints til my mouth swings wide with unutterable shite. Laughing lots too, like it’s true. Worldening maybe, I think. I hope.” 

"Surely I’ve heard this voice before” exclaimed Roland

He then relaxed, no, it was not a Magic Bus flashback, the voice here is different, though it took a couple of chapters for Roland to calm down. The girl whose head we are in now is more eagerly poetic, more gently amused, more responsive to the sights around her. This is Eily, a young drama student new to the London of the 1990s and determined to lose her virginity as quickly and decorously as possible. "Hmmm, so there’s still a few parallels", Roland chuckled.

Roland - was he back on the Magic Bus

Eily meets Stephen, a 38-year-old actor, wiry, handsome, damaged. Like Roland, he is promiscuous on principle, dedicated to sensual pleasure but determined to control the feelings it unleashes. The two embark on a course of friendly but casual sex that turns, without either of them quite understanding what is happening, into a love affair that frightens them both in its intensity. Most of the book chronicles in microscopic detail their encounters in bed and out of it, offering a lens on to the touch and talk of lovers unlike any Roland had come across before.

The Lesser Bohemians confirms McBride’s status as a major novelist. She writes with beauty, wisdom and humour and she is uniquely sensitive to what is being communicated with every look or jerk of the body. If, Roland continued, in DH Lawrence’s formulation, the novel is “the one bright book of life”, then the life here radiates through the pages and illuminates ours.

How could the rest of the HBG fail to be impressed?

In a moment reminiscent of Don Moore hisself, Keith said he needed to refer to his notes, he unfolded a piece of A4 paper to reveal just one huge word - SHIT - and then he opened up another piece of A4 paper upon which was written 0/10

Roland on the Magic Bus

Ouch.

Nick and Robin were also dismissive.

Nigel was more positive. Despite struggling at the outset Nigel grew into it and, by the end, was impressed and very glad to have read it.

Tristan, through the medium of email stated….

Sitting at back of conference hall, I. Soft susurrus of pages turning near. Tap of hands on keyboard. Presenter talking glasses flash middle distance stare words slipping out just so. So on. On with the review. And what to say but fffff?

Fffff because this is not what I like. Ffffff because I’ve told you before it’s simple words expressing complex thoughts that move me that connect with me that drive the spear of comprehension right up into my brainpan until Oh! I am one with the author’s thoughts and Oh! That is how it should be now and forevermore. Why am I doing this? Paul Auster. Kurt Vonnegut. Hemmingway. You know the score. Not some fucked-up adolescent thought-dribble meandering.

And yet. And yet. And yet. I want to hate it. And I want to double-down on my views and tell you all again and again about the way to write and how. I mean Nigel’s going to have to read this out .This. Is. Not. It.

But I can’t. I am wrong. I have been beguiled and bewitched. And yes the snickersnack of ill-expressed half-expressed hinted-at jumble and the Oh what now? It’s some dialogue! Oh no it isn’t. Oh yes it is. Right in the middle of things just makes it harder to grasp. How is he going to say these comments in a smaller font? I cannot imagine. But be that as it may, I want to know. I really fucking care. I’m engrossed now and cannot get out. Great and prolonged and convincing descriptions of sex and drugs. The characters acutely observed and the plot riveting and all those things that it shouldn’t be,it is.

So bravo. Bravfuckingo. The book remains unfinished because it’s slow going ,so. But I will finish it. And I do enjoy it. And it gets from my mealy-mouthed mouth and fingers high a rapturous blinding eight. And a half.

So a mixed response for The Lesser Bohemians (2016) by Eimear McBride...

Roland 8.5/10 - Nigel 7/10 - Robin 4/10 - Tristan 8.5/10 - Nick 3/10 - Keith 0/10

…but a memorable discussion

MUSIC: A Certain Ratio 'I’d Like To See You Again' (1982)

Universally dissed by all and sundry - not what Roland, the self styled King of Jazz Funk, had expected

Back on the Magic Bus, yet again

FILM: Princess Cyd (2017) directed by Stephen Cone (Netflix)

Princess Cyd contained more Magic Bus flashbacks for Roland

We first hear of Cyd through an emergency call, where we learn two people have died in a shooting that leaves only a little girl behind as the survivor. When we see her for the first time, she is a teenager played by Jessie Pinnick. For reasons unknown to us, she is sent to spend the summer with her aunt Miranda (Rebecca Spence) a renowned novelist who lives in the Chicago house where she’s spent her whole life. 

Roland concluded that Princess Cyd recalls languorous films such as To Kill a Mockingbird, and, just like Robert Mulligan’s touching snapshot of childhood, it seems like the kind of film in which viewers will best identify with the leading character closest to their age, though without failing to see the beauty in the other. So while Cyd’s need to belong and discover pleasure are exquisite to behold, Miranda’s introspection left a stronger mark on this viewer. Her serene wisdom and patience, as channeled by Spence, brought to mind Auntie Mame had she had been an ascetic who found fulfillment in sensible banquets.

Roland 7.5/10 - Nigel 810 - Robin 6.5/10 - Tristan "Meh" - Nick 7/10 - Keith 5/10

ENDORSE IT

TV: This Country (Series Two) - BBC iPlayer (NB last month’s endorsement was Series One)

TV: The City and the City - BBC iPlayer
TV: Limmy’s Homemade Show - BBC iPlayer

PODCAST: Anger Management - Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage episode
BOOK: Dead Men’s Trousers by Irvine Welsh (latest installment of Trainspotting series)
MUSIC: Combat Sport by The Vaccines
MUSIC: The Deconstruction by Eels

FOOTBALL: Forest Green Rovers FC - Nigel loved his visit to the League Two vegan football club
PUB: The Woolpack in Stroud (Laurie Lee’s local)

NEXT TIME

Dystopian Futures

BOOK: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood
MUSIC: Dog Man Star (1994) by Suede
FILM: Blade Runner 2049 (2017) dir by Denis Villeneuve 

Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile (2017) by Adelle Stripe

Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile (2017) by Adelle Stripe

Nigel introduced the theme….

It’s Grim Up North
(aka Thatcher’s Britain)
(aka Andrea Dunbar)

…which we discussed on Thursday 15th March 2018 @ The Westbourne 

All except Hamish (AWOL) and Tristan (hanging out with parents)

Nigel heard the author, Adelle Stripe, on a podcast and was intrigued to find out more about her work and so discovered (the wonderfully titled) “Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile”

Despite Robin’s reaction to “Rita, Sue and Bob Too” (not enough smut), Nigel had very positive memories of the film, which he remembered as amusing, v English, original and unusual. He concluded that Andrea Dunbar was a rare talent, especially given her background, and was keen to find out more.

A bittersweet tale of the north/south divide, it reveals how a shy teenage girl defied the circumstances into which she was born and went on to become one of her generation's greatest dramatists. Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile is a poignant piece of kitchen sink noir that tells Dunbar's compelling story in print for the very first time.

What did the HBG make of Andrea + “Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile”?

In the main it was a resounding thumbs up for Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile (2017) by Adelle Stripe

Stitched together from letters and scripts, newspaper cuttings and fractured memory, it is an undeniably harsh, yet fair portrait of one of the UK’s most original voices.

‘Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile’ would be an engrossing book if it were simply a portrait of Andrea’s life on the Buttershaw estate in Bradford. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the book is set, Buttershaw was a deprived council on the edge of Bradford. Most people there seem to have few opportunities to escape the place. 

What elevates ‘Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile’ is the incredible story of Andrea Dunbar, who got ‘The Arbor’, her first play, premiered at London's Royal Court Theatre in 1980. 

Andrea was ill equipped for this meteoric rise from obscurity. The book perfectly chronicles her discomfort at being thrust into the middle class theatrical world of London. People on the Buttershaw estate treated her differently, and Andrea also felt under pressure to deliver more plays. Her disappointment with the cinematic adaptation of ‘Rita, Sue and Bob Too’, and the reaction of many of her neighbours, also seems to have had a detrimental effect. Her success almost certainly contributed to her early death as she spent more and more time seeking escape in alcohol. 

Improbably Adelle Stripe has managed to make a page-turner out of this material, and that is a credit to both her writing skill, and also to the extraordinary Andrea Dunbar. All the dialogue rings true and the glimpses into Andrea’s thoughts and feelings are also completely credible. It’s a brilliant, concise (230 pages), darkly humorous, tragic, fascinating book which brings a talented, troubled, shy young woman to life whilst also unerringly evoking 1980s Britain. Wonderful.

Nigel 9/10

Nick 9/10

Robin 8/10

Roland 8.5/10

Keith 6/10

Tristan 6.5/10

Hamish - did not read

Music: Thatcher’s Britain playlist

Thatcher’s Britain playlist tracks

The Beat - Stand Down Margaret
Fun Boy Three - The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum)
XTC - Making Plans For Nigel
The Flying Lizards - Money
Heaven 17 - (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang
The Redskins - Bring it Down!
Wham! - Wham Rap!
The Jam - Town Called Malice
The Clash - Clampdown
The Pop Group - She is Beyond Good and Evil
The The - Heartland
UB40 - One In Ten
Linton Kwesi Johnson - Five Nights Of Bleeding
The Specials - Ghost Town
Billy Bragg - Which Side Are You On?
Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding

Keith felt these songs were not sufficiently Thatcherite, or anti-Thatcherite. Most found plenty to love. 

Film: The Arbor (2010) dir by Clio Barnard

Blown away. We were. Gritty. Grim. Cinematic. Powerful

Wow. Phew etc

Robin explained how verbatim theatre is a new form of contemporary political drama, in which the proceedings of some hearing or trial are reconstituted word-for-word on stage, acted out by performers. Artist and film-maker Clio Barnard experimentally and rather brilliantly applied this technique to her film about Andrea Dunbar and her family, ventriloquising the past with a new kind of "verbatim cinema". She journeyed back 30 years with this film about Andrea Dunbar who, physically weakened by alcoholism, died in 1990 of a brain haemorrhage aged 29.

Dunbar came from that part of Bradford's tough Buttershaw estate known as "the Arbor". Barnard has interviewed Dunbar's family, friends and grownup children and then got actors to lip-synch to the resulting audio soundtrack, talking about their memories. Passages of Dunbar's autobiographical plays are acted out in the open spaces of the very estates where she grew up, surrounded by the residents looking on. The effect is eerie and compelling: it merges the texture of fact and fiction. Her technique produces a hyperreal intensification of the pain in Dunbar's work and in her life, and the tragic story of how this pain was replicated, almost genetically, in the life of her daughter Lorraine, who suffered parental neglect as a child and domestic violence and racism in adult life, taking refuge in drugs in almost the same way that Andrea took refuge in alcohol. The story of Lorraine's own child is almost unbearably sad, and the experience of this child's temporary foster-parents – who were fatefully persuaded to release the child back into Lorraine's care – is very moving.

Endorse It

What we’re endorsing at the moment….

BOOK: Restoration (1989) by Rose Tremain
MUSIC: The Orielles - Silver Dollar Moment (2018) (Heavenly Records)
TV: This Country (BBC 3 Comedy) - iPlayer
TV: Man Like Mobeen (BBC 3 Comedy) - iPlayer
TV: Damned (Channel 4 Comedy) - All4
PODCAST: The A to Z of David Bowie

YOUTUBE VID: Mark Lemar and Bernard Manning

MUSIC: Franz Ferdinand live at the Brighton Dome 2018

BOOK: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

TV: Derry Girls (Channel 4 Comedy) - All4
TV: Mum (BBC 3 Comedy) - iPlayer

MUSIC: King of the South Seas (folk band)

FILM: I, Tonya

Next time….

BOOK: The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride

MUSIC: A Certain Ratio - ‘I’d Like To See You Again’

FILM: Princess Cyd (Netflix)