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Benjamin Zephaniah: 'Coppers were standing on my back and I thought: OK, I’m going to die here.’ [07 Jul 2020|05:00am] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/07/benjamin-zephaniah-coppers-were-standing-on-my-back-and-i-thought-ok-im-going-to-die-here The poet and novelist has had a turbulent lockdown, with two relatives lost to Covid-19 and George Floyd’s death bringing back memories of his cousin, Mikey Powell, who was killed by the police in 2003 It is 42 years since Benjamin Zephaniah wrote the poem Dis Policeman Keeps on Kicking Me To Death, and it has never felt more resonant. Although, to be fair, there has never been a time when it hasn’t felt resonant. It resonated when the teenage Zephaniah was battered by the police, it resonated when Rodney King was beaten to within an inch of his life by the LAPD in 1992, it resonated when Zephaniah’s cousin Mikey Powell was killed by the police in Birmingham in 2003, and of course it resonated when the police officer Derek Chauvin asphyxiated George Floyd this May in Minneapolis. Zephaniah is knackered. The poet/musician/novelist/actor/professor/martial arts teacher thought lockdown meant life would take a turn for the quiet; that he would be able to peacefully tend his allotment at home in rural Spalding, Lincolnshire. In fact, it couldn’t have been more turbulent. He lost two relatives to Covid-19, and his sister and brother-in-law were almost killed by the virus. Then he found himself at the heart of Black Lives Matter after Floyd was killed. Continue reading... post comment

Vernon Subutex 3 by Virginie Despentes review – perfectly over-the-top end to Parisian potboiler [07 Jul 2020|06:00am] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/07/vernon-subutex-3-by-virginie-despentes-review-perfectly-over-the-top-end-to-parisian-potboiler The concluding part to an extraordinary pulpy trilogy features rehab workers, cocaine fiends and much violence Virginie Despentes made her debut with 1992’s Baise-moi (Fuck Me), about a killing spree carried out by two women turning the tables on male violence. Despentes directed the controversial film adaptation, which is probably what she’s still best known for, although she has written several other novels, as well as the nonfiction King Kong Theory, on her experience of rape and brief period as a sex worker. Her latest book, Vernon Subutex 3, concludes a multi-voiced trilogy that holds up a cracked mirror to Paris between the Charlie Hebdo attacks and the Bataclan massacre. It’s been her biggest success yet, although Despentes is characteristically sceptical. “Once you have a male character,” she told an interviewer, “your novel is seen as a portrait of a generation ... if Vernon Subutex had been a woman, the novel ... would have been ‘The sad case of a female loser who did not get properly married and was not able to give birth.’” Imagine, if you will, James Ellroy and William Gibson rewriting High Fidelity and you’re somewhere near the tone Continue reading... post comment

Antiemetic for Homesickness by Romalyn Ante review – tales of yearning [07 Jul 2020|08:00am] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/07/antiemetic-for-homesickness-by-romalyn-ante-review-tales-of-yearning An NHS nurse pines for her native Philippines in her captivating debut as a poet Romalyn Ante is a nurse who came to the UK from the Philippines when she was 16 and is now based in Wolverhampton. This collection, her captivating debut, gives insight into her life: the everyday labour of working for the NHS – with its emergencies – offset by memories of the country she misses (the antiemetic of the title being a drug used to treat sickness and nausea). The opening poem, Half-Empty, begins with a quotation from Prince Philip: “The Philippines must be half empty - you’re all here running the NHS.” His remark, balanced between compliment and insult, throws down a gauntlet (or a hospital glove). Ante is more playful than angry but in this moving, witty and agile book, there is more than one full-hearted poem of prince-shaming potential. Continue reading... post comment

Poetry book of the month: Antiemetic for Homesickness by Romalyn Ante – review [07 Jul 2020|08:00am] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/07/antiemetic-for-homesickness-by-romalyn-ante-review-tales-of-yearning An NHS nurse pines for her native Philippines in her captivating debut as a poet Romalyn Ante is a nurse who came to the UK from the Philippines when she was 16 and is now based in Wolverhampton. This collection, her captivating debut, gives insight into her life: the everyday labour of working for the NHS – with its emergencies – offset by memories of the country she misses (the antiemetic of the title being a drug used to treat sickness and nausea). The opening poem, Half-Empty, begins with a quotation from Prince Philip: “The Philippines must be half empty - you’re all here running the NHS.” His remark, balanced between compliment and insult, throws down a gauntlet (or a hospital glove). Ante is more playful than angry but in this moving, witty and agile book, there is more than one full-hearted poem of prince-shaming potential. Continue reading... post comment

'Living legend' Linton Kwesi Johnson wins PEN Pinter prize [07 Jul 2020|09:59am] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/07/living-legend-linton-kwesi-johnson-wins-pen-pinter-prize The pioneer of dub poetry has been hailed for his ‘political ferocity’ and ‘tireless scrutiny of history’ Linton Kwesi Johnson: ‘It was a myth that immigrants didn’t want to fit into British society. We weren’t allowed’ Linton Kwesi Johnson has won the PEN Pinter prize, with the Jamaican dub poet’s “political ferocity” and “tireless scrutiny of history” praised as “truly Pinteresque” by judges. Related: Linton Kwesi Johnson: ‘It was a myth that immigrants didn’t want to fit into British society. We weren’t allowed’ Continue reading... post comment

Final Terry Pratchett stories to be published in September [07 Jul 2020|10:56am] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/07/terry-prachett-the-time-travelling-caveman-published-september Many stories in The Time-travelling Caveman – written by Pratchett when he was a journalist in the 60s and 70s – have never been published in a book Scroll down to read one of the short stories The final collection of early stories from the late Terry Pratchett, written while the Discworld creator was a young reporter, will be published in September. The tales in The Time-travelling Caveman, many of them never released in book form before, range from a steam-powered rocket’s flight to Mars to a Welsh shepherd’s discovery of the resting place of King Arthur. “Bedwyr was the handsomest of all the shepherds, and his dog, Bedwetter, the finest sheepdog in all Wales,” writes the young Pratchett, with typical flourish. The stories appeared in the Bucks Free Press and Western Daily Press in the 60s and early 70s. Pratchett left school at 17, in 1965, to work at the Bucks Free Press, writing a weekly Children’s Circle story column as part of his new job. He published his first novel, The Carpet People, in 1971, when he was only 23. Editions of the newspapers containing the stories sell for hundreds of pounds online. Dragons at Crumbling Castle, a first collection of the stories, was published in 2014. Continue reading... post comment

Reading group: we're reading White Teeth by Zadie Smith in July [07 Jul 2020|01:45pm] https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/jul/07/reading-group-were-reading-white-teeth-by-zadie-smith-in-july After astounding and confusing critics in 2000, Smith’s landmark debut is turning 20 as an established classic. Which should make it a cracking tale to read together Zadie Smith’s White Teeth has come out of the hat and will be the subject of July’s reading group. Which feels like a great thing for all sorts of reasons – not least that this year marks the 20th anniversary of this landmark in British literature. Even before White Teeth was published at the start of 2000, Zadie Smith was a sensation. Just 24 and brilliantly clever, her debut novel was rumoured to have sold for around £250,000 on the basis of an 80-page extract. Unusually in publishing, White Teeth actually repaid the big money up front. It sold big and fast and people loved it. It was a Guardian first book award winner. It won the James Tait Black memorial prize, the Whitbread book award, and the Betty Trask award. “Believe the hype,” said The Times. The Telegraph said it was “outstanding”. The Financial Times declared it “extraordinarily accomplished”. The Independent heard “a great big blast of a novel.” When it arrived in the US, critics’ doyenne Michiko Kakutani declared it “a novel that announces the debut of a preternaturally gifted new writer” in the New York Times. Continue reading... post comment

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