IdleRich

IdleRich
Yeah I'd thought he´d killed himself but looking it up it seems that there is at least a suspicion that someone else did it for him.
I keep meaning to check out Vermorel after reading about him here.... thanks for reminder, gonna order it now.
 

william_kent

Well-known member
That "All the Devils" book has been on my amazon wish list ever since I read his "Jack of Jumps" book about the "Jack The Stripper" murders, which co-incidentally Fred Vermorel solves in "Dead Fashion Girl".. Seabrook's "Jack of Jumps" gets some poor reviews because it is so cynical and nasty about the victims, but it's good at showing a really sleazy side to London in the late 50s / early 60s - makes it seem almost like everyone was on the game, involved in crime, or indulging their perverted tastes - I loved it....
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
In All the Devils there is definitely at least a hint of a kind of misanthropy showing at times... it wouldn't take much of a stretch to see it changing into viciousness.
 

william_kent

Well-known member
In All the Devils there is definitely at least a hint of a kind of misanthropy showing at times... it wouldn't take much of a stretch to see it changing into viciousness.

Oh, he is vicious in "Jack of Trumps" - I wouldn't be surprised if he upset a few people with "connections" which may have shortened his life expectancy...
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Yeah that was what I was alluding to. You said he was mean about the victims in that book, I can well imagine that the guy who wrote All the Devils could have that in him.... especially a few years of limited success down the line....
 

william_kent

Well-known member
Yeah that was what I was alluding to. You said he was mean about the victims in that book, I can well imagine that the guy who wrote All the Devils could have that in him.... especially a few years of limited success down the line....

Insensitive doesn't really cover it! but he is also scathing about some of the nightlife people, guys with connections to the Krays, etc
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
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jenks

thread death
A whole bunch of really good stuff at the moment
Polly Barton’s Fifty Sounds - a memoir predicated on her learning Japanese but a delve into language, culture, identity - really enjoying it.
Daša Drndríc’s Leica Format - Croatian writer whom I love - recently republished early work where she rakes up the unsavoury past of a small Croatian town. I’ve mentioned her on here before - if she hadn’t died recently I think she’d have won the Nobel.
Just started Insignificance by James Clammer - a stream of consciousness novel about a plumber returning to work after some kind of breakdown - it’s reminding me of Solar Bones which I think is no bad comparison.
African Europeans: An Untold History by Olivette Otele. Taking my time through this - it’s a reexamination of Europe’s relationship with Africa. She’s really good - the writing is a little worthy but she has good material to work with.
Oh and I’m still slowly wading my way through The Cantos.
 

william_kent

Well-known member
Read David Seabrook's All The Devils today - thoroughly engrossing. The last few pages, the episode in the pub, made me wonder if he had had an unpleasant experience as a kid which could account for the misanthropic attitude he displayed later in life... the seeds of Jack of Jumps are sown in this book, but the latter goes into far more detail about the Jack the Stripper murders, and also Freddie Mills and his clip joint ( obviously, as its about the murders), but is far more bitter in tone. The final chapter prompted me to order Kenneth Williams' diaries... I must be thirsty for more catty gossip...
 

catalog

Well-known member
Have you read Joe ortons diaries? Similar otherside 60s vibe... Williams features as a supporting role when they go to Morocco and get the lads in
 

other_life

bioconfused
nothing. i'm overworked.

i did find a neat (newish) edition of alice in wonderland + through the looking glass though. silver trimmed pages full color plates purple hardback cover
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version

Well-known member
Got a load of books recently,

Cities of the Red Night, Burroughs.
Concrete Island, Ballard.
High-Rise, Ballard.
Buda's Wagon, Mike Davis.
Chaos, Gleick.
American Tabloid, Ellroy.
Spinoza: Practical Philosophy, Deleuze.
The Adding Machine, Burroughs.
Cybernetics, Norbert Wiener.
Finnegans Wake, Joyce.
A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History, De Landa.
Running Dog, DeLillo.
Expelled from Eden, Vollmann.

Also just ordered,

Invisible Man, Ellison.
Spinal Catastrophism, Moynihan.
Dispatches, Herr.
The Atrocity Exhibition, Ballard.
The Drowned World, Ballard.
Mythologies, Barthes.
Imperial, Vollmann.
 
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Mouxault

Active member
got a bunch of new books ill have to read now

Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish
Noam Chomsky, The Essential Chomsky
Alexander Solschenizyn, the Archiple Gulag
Mark Fisher, K-punk (rip)
Predrag Vranicki, History of Marxism
Karl Marx, Das Kapital
George Orwell, 1984
 

Mouxault

Active member
Got a load of books recently,

Cities of the Red Night, Burroughs.
Concrete Island, Ballard.
High-Rise, Ballard.
Buda's Wagon, Mike Davis.
Chaos, Gleick.
American Tabloid, Ellroy.
Spinoza: Practical Philosophy, Deleuze.
The Adding Machine, Burroughs.
Cybernetics, Norbert Wiener.
Finnegans Wake, Joyce.
A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History, De Landa.
Running Dog, DeLillo.
Expelled from Eden, Vollmann.

Also just ordered,

Invisible Man, Ellison.
Spinal Catastrophism, Moynihan.
Dispatches, Herr.
The Atrocity Exhibition, Ballard.
The Drowned World, Ballard.
Mythologies, Barthes.
Imperial, Vollmann.
nice list
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Read David Seabrook's All The Devils today - thoroughly engrossing. The last few pages, the episode in the pub, made me wonder if he had had an unpleasant experience as a kid which could account for the misanthropic attitude he displayed later in life... the seeds of Jack of Jumps are sown in this book, but the latter goes into far more detail about the Jack the Stripper murders, and also Freddie Mills and his clip joint ( obviously, as its about the murders), but is far more bitter in tone. The final chapter prompted me to order Kenneth Williams' diaries... I must be thirsty for more catty gossip...
The final chapter mentions Simon Raven briefly, another you might enjoy if you haven't read him.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
got a bunch of new books ill have to read now


Alexander Solschenizyn, the Archiple Gulag
Just got this out the library as part of my unofficial curriculum of Russian studies. I'm telling myself I need to finish Anna Karenina before I start it though. I have wanted to read it for years.

I'm also reading a book of short stories by John Lanchester which is not that great - he writes so brilliantly about finance and his first novel is amazing but he never seems to scale those heights for me in his newer fiction.

I have a book of Palestinian SF to read next, Palestine +100 taken from this list. I'm very interested in the idea of alternative narratives that people might manage to tell themselves about such intractable situations.

And also David Edgerton Rise and Fall of the British Nation which is amazing - hard to describe. Magisterial. It's a reworking of British 20th Century history, jettisoning a lot of the myths that we have about British isolationism - all the post-Brexit rubbish. Shows how deeply liberal ideas of trade shaped Britain and how interconnected and global the British Empire was. Phenomenally good. Interview with him here.
 
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