Reviews, thoughts and ideas on music, movies and more
A little while back I re-read Irvine Welsh's era defining novel Trainspotting, largely to remind myself of its characters before embarking on its sequel, the far less subtly titled, Porno. As is likely well-known to any who really cares, Porno picks up the lives of the earlier story's characters ten years on with Sick Boy... Continue Reading →
Despite the reputation of both the author, and this book in particular, this was my first time reading anything by Kurt Vonnegut and it is, arguably, his most well-known work, Slaughterhouse-Five. I'll admit that going in I knew very little of it other than it was vaguely science fiction and had an anti-war message so... Continue Reading →
It might come as a surprise to some that there are many, many books on the subject of that most misunderstood and strange of 'sports' (or is it 'entertainments', or is it both), professional wrestling. From autobiographies to detailed histories many have charted aspects and periods of its near century and a half of history,... Continue Reading →
I'll admit that when I got Help by Simon Amstell, I believe as a Christmas present, it had been added to my Amazon wish list on something of a whim after hearing its author on a couple of podcasts, not really talking about the book but just about his life and career and I thought... Continue Reading →
I think it's fair to say that Trainspotting is now more famous thanks to the 1996 film adaptation staring Ewan McGregor and directed by Danny Boyle than the book that spawned it, by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh and released in 1993. While the film was a breath of fresh air for the rather stuffy British... Continue Reading →
A couple of months ago writer and broadcaster David Hepworth, contributor and editor to the likes of a The Word, Q and Mojo and presenter of classic BBC TV music show The Old Grey Whistle Test, appeared as part of the Guernsey Literary Festival to give a talk about his career and, of course, his... Continue Reading →
Following on from the albums and movies ‘memes’ on social media came one for sharing ten favourite or most important and influential books, so once again, here are mine with a little more explanation. Again rather than simple going for out-and-out favourites or 'best' in a critical sense, I've chosen books that mean something to... Continue Reading →
The idea of a biography of Jack Kerouac, so-called King of the Beats, is an interesting one given his work is, on first glance at least, almost entirely autobiographical, just with names changed (partially to protect the not-so-innocent and partially to allow tweaks to reality without damaging the sense of truth). So, when I picked... Continue Reading →
A little over six years ago I started this blog as a place to archive some of the freelance writing I was doing for different magazines and newspapers, as well a seeing a place for original articles and entries related to my radio work. Now, as I hit 1000 posts, I thought I'd take a... Continue Reading →
