Friday 18 March 2016

All over the place

About a Girl was published yesterday and (coincidentally) I have a couple of pieces in print and online in this week's Times Literary Supplement. Such exposure - I feel like a Kardashian. Gummo Kardashian.

Here's my review of Jumpin' Jack Flash, Kieron Pym's disturbing biography of the cultish 1960s figure David Litvinoff. And here's a link to my TLS blog about a recent arts event in East London hosted by the enterprising and ever-surprising Henningham Family Press (the artists David and Ping Henningham). It had its origins in a remark by George Orwell in his 1941 essay The Lion and the Unicorn (which I expect you know, but if you haven't read it recently now is a good time to do so because nothing has changed when it comes to jaw-dropping inequalities of wealth and a lack of social cohesion).

There's more. I've just submitted my review of Dodge Rose, an astonishing experimental novel by a young Australian writer called Jack Cox to the Literary Review, and this will appear in the April issue. For the first and last time in my reviewing career I have to admit that I could not make head or tail of most of it, but that was part of the attraction. I'll blog about this novel after the review appears.

I've also been blogging daily since the beginning of February and am beginning to run out of time, and steam, so there will be a break of sorts after Easter. I'm startled to discover that I've attracted more than 900,000 'views' (whatever they are) on Google plus. Does that mean anything? Is it above or below average? It seems a lot to me, of course, and I assume my core readership (and you know who you are) is a mere handful (though beyond value to me). Now if each of this 900,000 could be persuaded to take out a subscription at, say, a pound a year (or a dollar) I could do this full-time and become a global brand - or at least Harpo Kardashian.




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