Books

Crudo – Olivia Laing (Picador, 2018)

Kathy Acker did not die in 1997. She, or someone very much like her, lives on to witness the recent rise of right-leaning populism in Europe and the United States and, when we meet her in 2017, is on the verge of getting married to an older, somewhat conventional man.

This is the premise of Olivia Laing’s latest book, but it is much more than a speculative fiction about where two decades more life might have taken Kathy Acker. Like her previous works, Crudo is a book which Olivia Laing inhabits and which provides her with a vehicle to explore elements of her own life and experience. She recreates the rawness and urgency of the best of Kathy Acker’s work and adds her own style, wit and story-telling powers to this heady mix.

Modern Nature: The Journals of Derek Jarman, 1989 – 1990 – Derek Jarman (Vintage Classics, 2018)

The late 1980s were a bleak time in this country. Margaret Thatcher’s economic policies were ripping out manufacturing jobs and devasting working-class communities whilst new legislation, enforced by police power, was emasculating the trade unions. HIV/AIDS was killing people every day, yet Section 28 prevented young people from asking questions about their sexuality and teachers from providing them with answers. This newly reissued journal covers this period in Derek Jarman’s life and is framed by his efforts to create a garden in the unpromising soil of his cottage near the sea in Dungeness. His sand and shingle garden sits in the shadow of a nuclear power station and is assailed by wind and spray. And yet, in this most unpromising of locations, and with his health steadily failing, he creates a place of beauty. Jarman continues to make films in this period, and gives the reader fascinating insights into his working methods. While throughout the journal he rails against the cruelty of attitudes towards gay people and others affected by HIV/AIDS. Modern Nature is a beautiful, compelling and angry work, and this edition has the added bonus of superb introduction by Olivia Laing.

Music

Shildam Hall Tapes – A Year in the Country (2018)

Shildam Hall, we are led to believe, is a manor house in rural England and in the late-1960s it was the setting for a film that was never completed. The film became mired in alleged drug use and occult practices and all funding was withdrawn. Sadly, the script and all footage have since disappeared without trace.

Shildam Hall Tapes is an imagined soundtrack for the film and includes tracks by several artists who have featured on other A Year in the Country releases. Indeed, the collective is steadily building up a body of work that presents an alternative view of rural Britain. A Year in the Country’s lens both distorts and illuminates its subject matter, but the project’s output is consistently fascinating.

Inspirational Talks – HMS Morris (2018)

Other reviewers have compared the work of HMS Morris with the early psych-pop of Gruff Rhys and the band themselves cite Syd Barrett as a major influence. But with this release the Cardiff three-piece show that they have evolved into a unit that creates a sound which is very much their own. Inspirational Talks features tracks in both English and the Welsh and lead singer/guitarist Heledd Watkins showcases her perfect pop voice in both languages.

But, using the format of the pop song as a launch pad, HMS Morris head out into realms of synth-led experimentation, particularly with the stand-out tracks Cyrff and (On Our Way From) Earth.

Film

Disobedience – Sebastián Lelio (2018)

I watched Disobedience because it was an adaptation of the Naomi Alderman novel, which I enjoyed when I read it in 2006. In my experience, films of well-loved novels are not always a success, but I’m pleased to say that in this case I was not disappointed. Sebastián Lelio, as a male Chilean-Argentine director is not perhaps the obvious choice to direct this story of a lesbian love affair within the North London orthodox Jewish community. 

However, he handles his subject matter with grace and sensitivity, helped, no doubt, by Alderman’s role as an adviser to the production process.  The three leads, Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams and Alessandro Nivola also make a major contribution to the success of this adaptation.

The Bookshop – Isabel Coixet (2017)

The Bookshop is an odd somewhat sombre film set in a Suffolk seaside town in the 1950s.  Florence Green (played by Emily Mortimer) opens a bookshop in the town and faces opposition from several of the locals.  The England we are presented with by the Catalan film-maker, Isabel Coixet, is a deeply strange place.  But perhaps it is only through the eyes of an outsider that we can gain new insights and learn new truths about a time and a place we thought we already knew. 

The atmosphere of Coixet’s film puts me in mind of a snippet of lyrics from Pink Floyd’s Time: ‘Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way’. Emily Mortimer captures this mood beautifully and Bill Nighy, as one might expect, is excellent as her eccentric local supporter.