Coming soon...
Years ago I worked for a book distributor and as a result had an overflowing ongoing reading list. I remember at one stage there were at least seven books started on my bedside table that all glared at me, demanding they be finished first.
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Having only recently bought a Kindle (much more convenient to read while waiting for a two-year-old to finally drop off), I feel somewhat in that situation again.
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All this means that I'm flitting between books and don't know as yet which will feature here first. It's likely to be, however, one of the following...
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Start Finishing – Charlie Gilkey
The Dancing Bear – Frances Faviell
Clive James on Television – Clive James
Let's Do It – Bob Stanley
The White War – Mark Thompson
James and the Giant Peach – Roald Dahl
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And in the meantime, here's a picture of Clive James (right) with the historian Simon Schama circa 1970. What a fantastic picture it is.
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I'd had this book for two years before finally opening it. That's what a move to Berlin and a new baby will do to your reading habits.
Cultural historian Paul Gorman's work has reeled me in every time. I've never forgotten getting The Look, his book on the relationship between popular music and fashion, one Christmas and having to wait until my father and two guests flicked through it before me. The cooing recognition these men, who'd been teens in the 50s, 60s and 70s, made as they pored over the pictures will stay with me for a long time.
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Gorman's biography is an affectionate, evocative and in-depth portrayal of McLaren and his output but it's no hagiography. His subject could be an awful creature and Gorman doesn't shy away from this fact. However, he was also an incredible talent and, as his biographer argues and I agree, a true artist.
Punk and the Sex Pistols, who McLaren so infamously managed - or mismanaged - are not the sole focus here. His chaotic childhood, life as an art student in radical 60s London, relationships both personal and creative with Vivienne Westwood and time in the film industry are also covered.
It's a marathon but rewarding read and one of those books I will keep recommending.
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