Tales of London life

Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now--As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It by Craig Taylor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When I first heard about this book I was wondering how this would work. As a fellow Canadian living in London and having spent the bulk of my formative years in Canada, I pondered what more could a guy from the suburbs of Western Canada possibly have to say about the people that live and work in this ancient city? After all hasn't London already been covered by storied writers as varied as Pepys, Dafoe, Blake, Shakespeare, Dickens, AA Gill, John Lanchester, to name but a few? What could a Canadian writer add to literary treasures already penned by many more, British born? Well... Using a method of curating the book rather than writing it the book is a success in the same way that Paul Auster's True Tales of American Life – which asks everyday Americans to submit anecdotes and stories about their personal lives – is a memorable and compelling read; Taylor also asks Londoners to pen thoughts and submit to interviews about daily rituals such as taking the tube to work. One one of the most interesting stories is the tale of the northern girl who became the voice of the London Underground. I found this book very British and astute, as perhaps, the fellow Londoners whom Craig Taylor interviewed opened up to their Canadian cousin, in perhaps the same way a couple on holiday will be more candid than a couple you meet down the pub.
If so, in his role as producer/curator, the author has a kind of silent hand in guiding the myriad London voices with many surprises along the way.



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What the Dickens? Simon Callow, not Cowell

Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World by Simon Callow

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I was impressed by Simon Callow as a writer. This the same actor who appeared memorably in a Room with a View and as an enthusiastic stage clown in Franco Zefferelli's Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton film version of Taming of the Shrew. As a larger personality he restrains his showy stage manner in his thoughtful, erudite prose and researches his subject well, as if to prove that he can hold his own with the great literary biographers, in essence showing that actors have many facets. His thesis that Dickens was a great actor and performer and brought his performances to the page is not a new one and most of the material can be gleaned from earlier biographies such as John Forsters' first account, the Peter Ackroyd Dickens biography and the excellent recent Claire Tomalin biography (amongst others) but where Callow shines is he understands the soul and passion of an actor and sets the tone for his biography when he unearths the first few lines of a poem which the young ten year old Dickens recited to an audience at his home in Chatham, Kent and then takes us through the emotion of being a boy lost in London, being impressed by the stage performances of, amongst others Garibaldi the clown. A different take, so to speak.



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Passion Prince by The Sorrys

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I read this in an afternoon at a library with a guy in front nodding off and an over zealous librarian ready to call time about half an hour before the library was supposed to close. Despite these distractions I was totally engrossed in this book. As the former employee of a London church charity and having written a coming-of-age novel with an bustling broody hen mother figure and which features adventures in dating and romance there was a great deal I could relate to in Oranges are Not The Only Fruit. I liked the main character's sense of humour and uncertainty in her role as religious protegé though found the use of oranges as a metaphor for practical love a little overdone but what stuck with me the most was the part where the real mother comes to claim her child, the little girl listening to the exchange with a glass held to the wall. Later on when the first teenage love becomes pregnant and tells the narrator that she no longer feels anything for her or thinks that their relationship was worth thinking about, these are the parts that make up for the slightly cheeky narrative. The emotion comes right through in these moments and it is a memorable book for that reason.



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INSOLENT BOY UPDATE

ITS BEEN A WHILE BUT THE INSOLENT BOY SITE HAS NOW BEEN UPDATED TO ARCHIVE ALL THE BOOK AND MUSIC REVIEWS OF RECENT YEARS. SOME INCLUDE REVIEWS OF CORB LUND, PAUL VERMEERSCH, STEVE ALMOND, A.A. GILL, PATRICK WOODCOCK, THE SORRY'S, AND SO ON, AND INCLUDE REVIEWS BY TOP WRITERS SUCH AS ANNIE FREUD, GRAHAM MUMMERY, AND MANY MORE...

 *****************ALL BEGINS WITH A REVIEW OF CORB LUND'S BREAKOUT COUNTRY ALBUM HAIR IN MY EYE'S LIKE A HIGHLAND STEER.***********

MORE TO COME.

More Famous thoughts (cont'd)

Below are some real situations I have found myself in over the course of my life. They involve famous people and, um, my 'magination.

PS. This is a continuation of an earlier post. First post found here 

 Famous person 4.  MARIO ANDRETTI.  
Situation: He was in Toronto in 1986 to do some commentary work for the Toronto Indy where I think his son was driving.  I was working as a car jockey at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto. I couldn’t find his car in the parking lot on the ground floor. I brought up the car, late and he wasn’t impressed.
Expression: "You idiot! Where do you think the car was, Cleveland?”
Imagination: "Whitey. Mange Cake!"

Famous Person 5. DAVID WELLS 
Situation: Again working as a car jockey going to get the courtesy car for the Toronto Blue Jays as he had been called up from the Rochester affiliate in Syracuse. I was on time, but he was rude, ruder than Mario Andretti but this guy was my age, tho’ looked like he was already into the sausage and beer.

Expression: “Gimme the keys… and here’s a buck.”
Imagination: "Thanks No Class Bobby Bass – with tats.”

Famous People 6. CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER 
Situation: Christopher Plummer had just filmed Delores Claiborne in Nova Scotia and had been staying near where I was brought up in The Valley. Acadia University asked him to perform a one-act play at Convocation Hall to help them  launch their Atlantic Theatre Festival in Wolfville He did and it was a sell out.He was asked to mingle with theatre goers after the performance.

Expression: “A worthy cause, good luck to you people.”
Imagination: "Don’t stand so close to me! I AM AN ACTOR!"

How to Throw a Literature Festival During the Olympics

NEW ARTICLE HERE

New poem from Wilma Seville

Misty Woods
By Wilma Seville

I brush against low branch
green leaves caress my cheek
its spindly trunk a contrast
among stately, rough barked trees.

I tramp along tree-lined path
carpeted with orangey/red leaves
which crackle under my feet

Slender trees stretch towards heaven
their branches now stripped bare
reaching towards the sun.

My thoughts turn to the Creator
as I meander along the path
thinking how like other living things we are
stretching towards the light of God.

Smiling, I stoop down
Pick up red maple leaves
To make a fall wreath for my door
Happy to be one with nature.

(reponse to Janusz Wrobel’s Misty Woods)
Performed at Carnegie Gallery Nov. 4, 2012

Wilma Seville has been writing poetry since 2003. She enjoys writing about the many wonderful trails in and around the city of Hamilton, Ontario. Her work has been displayed on the ArtWalk in Dundas as well as performed at Carnegie Gallery. She also has had work in various local magazines and anthologies and a newspaper in Toronto. She writes articles and short stories as well. She is originally from Lachine, Quebec.

Get in the Ring: Team Canada and Team GB in the Exhibition Sport of Art

Get in the Ring: Team Canada and Team GB in the Exhibition Sport of Art

Canadian Literary Festival in London

Haliburton in Holborn?
In search of his old rival, Charles Dickens?
"What the Dickens?"

"Hmmm things are different than when set sail for ye old London two hundred afore, yet the streets of Chancery Lane are still alive with the hubub of much activity. Hark I must return to East London to see these poets have safe passage, it is the most Dickensian part of London, I hear. Will I sample some of the local fare such as Jellied Eels, pie n mash, or soak some sun with a bottle of fine Alexander Keiths? I've asked my good man to store some rations for me safely in a secret spot, the library..."

NEXT STOP... LEYTONSTONE LIBRARY

For Haliburton V