Eventbrite is now saying 'Few tickets left' for my talk in London on 7 February. I'll try to add some more places by the end of the week for this FREE event as I find that roughly one third of people book and never turn up, so I allow for that.
BOOK HERE
COPIES OF MANSION OF GLOOM WILL BE AVAILABLE ON THE NIGHT AND I WILL OF COURSE SIGN THEM.
Mansion of Gloom: the Unsettling Legacy of Poe's 'The Fall of the House of Usher' is now available to purchase online through The Big Cartel Accumulator Press shop. The ideal Christmas present at £25.00 for what is bound to become a collector's item with a limited edition of 500 (50+already sold).
Click here to visit the shop.
The book should also be available from the following shops:
Hastings Hare & Hawthorn and Hastings Bookshop.
St Leonards Black Gull Books
London Watkins
In February next year I shall be delivering a talk based on my new book Mansion of Gloom about the various cultural interpretations and manifestations of Poe's classic tale 'The Fall of the House of Usher'.
It will take place at Westminster Arts Library in central London on Friday 7 February between 6 and 7pm.
It's FREE but you need to reserve a place through Eventbrite as two thirds of tickets have already been taken.
Book a place and find out more here.
Copies of Mansion of Gloom will be on sale at this event. Around 50 (of an edition of 500) have sold since the launch last Saturday.
In the meantime I have one copy for sale on eBay. See here
Watkins Books in London have taken 20 copies and you can purchase through them.
I'm hoping to have online sales of Mansion of Gloom sorted out in a couple of days - probably through The Big Cartel which I've used in the past and seems easy to use and efficient.
There will also be more Mansion of Gloom events in the early months of 2025 which will be announced here and on Facebook.
I should be having a conversation with writer and broadcaster and Hastings resident Ben Thompson on 19 December to be broadcast on Resonance FM. The show is called The London Ear and the subject will be Edgar Allan Poe and Music, something I cover in my forthcoming book Mansion of Gloom.
Only one week to go before the launch of Mansion of Gloom on 7 December in Hastings Old Town. Incidentally the talk advertised as part of the launch will instead take place early next year.
Nino Rota ‘O Venezia, Venaga, Venusia’
Francesco De Masi ‘Oggi in Africa’
Franco de Gemini ‘Cheops and Nefertiti’
Manfred Hübler & Siegfried Schwab/Vampires Sound Incorporation ‘Droge CK9’
John Surman and Friends ‘Glancing Backwards (For Junior)’
Miles Davis ‘Duran (Take 4)’
Ian Carr Double Quintet ‘Snakehips’ Dream’
Donald Byrd ‘Estavanico’
John Coltrane ‘Bass Blues’
The Alan Tew Orchestra ‘Ironside’ [tribute to the late Quincy Jones]
I am honoured to have been asked to do a DJ spot (first ever!) at the Berth of the Cool club in the White Rock Hotel Hastings on Thursday 14 November. I shall be in the esteemed company of Mr Bevis Frond Nick Saloman. Thanks to Ben Thompson and Ian Greensmith. I shall be spinning some al dente Italian film soundtracks and venturing into psychedelic jazz for an hour or so.
Details here
The new book Mansion of Gloom: The Unsettling Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher will be launched on 7 December at Tadhg Mae Projects in George Street, Hastings Old Town. Please note I shall be there between 3 and 5.30 (possibly staying a bit later) to sign books and have a chat. Apart from being an art gallery Tadhg Mae also sells Poe-related items, witchy stuff, candles and cards.
Quality 650-page paperback retailing at £25. Also includes a bookmark and separate booklet with Poe's tale in full (see website).
There will be other book-related events including a London launch and film and music evenings in 2025.
The website for Mansion of Gloom can be found here.
Trailer by Luciana Haill here.
My latest book will, I hope go to the printers in August to be published in September when there will be a series of promotional events in London and Hastings - and elsewhere if anyone wants me. I don't get as many requests to do talks as I used to, although I don't mind as I have less energy these days.
The book has taken more than 3 years and now runs to over 600 pages, which makes it the longest I've written. It's got quite a few illustrations and I suppose fits in with the Fu Manchu book I did with Strange Attractor a few years ago rather than my historical works. Aleister Crowley gets a chapter to himself as a bit of a digression from the main theme which is about popular culture. I've watched a huge number of films for this project which was mostly fun.
Last shout out for Darren Coffield's Queens of Bohemia event at Westminster Arts Library on 12 July.
Reserve a FREE place here. I'll be hosting.
I've just learned of the death of John Richardson in May. Not to be confused with the biographer of Picasso, he was the founder of Historical Publications who published so many interesting books on parts of London and aspects of the capital's history.
Four of these books: Subterranean City, London's Coffeehouses Folklore of London and Decadent London (first edition) were by me. I will be eternally grateful to John for getting in touch after reading an article (the first!) I wrote and having the confidence to ask me to write Subterranean City. I had never written a book before and this one took a lot of research. The book did extremely well (John printed a revised and expanded edition in 2010) and I was pretty much allowed to choose the subjects of my next couple of books. I was also impressed by the amount of freedom given regarding illustrations and cover etc.
John was a lovely man who was fascinated by local history, particularly of Camden - he wrote a number of books himself and supported many local projects and enterprises. He wound up HP a few years ago and retired to Whitstable, where I visited him a couple of times. On one occasion he gave me the rights to all my work to publish myself and I duly republished Decadent London in a larger revised and updated paperback edition under my imprint Accumulator Books (which I may reprint this year). My thoughts go out to his wife Helen and his children.
Roll up for a FREE talk on Friday 12 July at Westminster Arts Library by Darren Coffield who wrote a great book about London's legendary Colony Room. His latest book is Queens of Bohemia chronicling the women who took Soho and Fitzrovia by storm in the previous century including Isabel Rawsthorne, Betty May, Sonia Orwell and Nina Hamnett who has featured on this blog.
Book for this fascinating talk on Eventbrite here.
I'm excited at the moment because my next book has now entered the typesetting and design stage, which is usually my favourite part of the writing and publishing process. I'm using a new Hastings-based typesetter and designer and ideas are being batted around as I type. It's not quite finished as there are a couple of people to interview and a research item that's proving surprisingly difficult to track down. I find that once typesetting commences it's a spur to completion. The finished book will be published by Accumulator Press and I hope will be available through the previously used online channels (eBay, Big Cartel etc) and a number of independent bookshops. It will be a signed limited edition paperback with French flaps, probably with postcards and extras - maybe a print - retailing at somewhere around £20 to £25. There will also be some promotional talks and events in the next six months. Watch this space . . .
THERE ARE STILL PLACES FOR THE DAVID MCGILLIVRAY TALK ON 22 MARCH HERE
Hastings Fat Tuesday has come around once more - an opportunity to roam around Hastings Old Town pubs watching bands and musicians playing 20 minute sets for free, including some rising local stars such as Borough Council and Office for Personal Development. I'm also hoping to check out The Veltmans, Black Limes, and Creature Creature. Apparently quite a few people are travelling some distance especially for this increasingly popular festival. See here.
Another event for the diary. If you are in London on the evening of Friday 22 March why not visit Westminster Music Library where David McGillivray will be talking about his varied life in the British film and entertainment industry as a performer, writer and critic. Probably not suitable for children.
It's FREE and starts at 6.15
I shall be doing the introduction and Q&A.
Now I must finally get round to watching House of Whipcord.
BOOK THROUGH EVENTBRITE HERE
A reminder that the episode of the Radio 4 documentary series History on the Edge with Anita Anand about Films and Filming was repeated this week and is available on BBC Sounds for a while. I put in a brief appearance showing Anita and David McGillivray old copies of the magazine.
If you're in Hastings on Thursday 15th February musician and writer Max Decharne will be talking about his latest book on Teddy Boys at Hastings Bookshop. I shall be 'in conversation' asking some pertinent questions (especially as I know very little about Teddy Boy culture) at this FREE event.
Happy New Year!
This year I'm hoping to bring out the book I've been working on since the COVID lockdown and a period of illness. I am aiming at publishing it at some point in the late spring/early summer if possible.
In the meantime I really must post more often. To counteract the post-Christmas torpidity, some things that have caught my attention recently:
It's a pity I missed out on buying this 'cursed' painting that was on sale in a charity shop in St Leonards and has since been bringing 'bad luck' to its owners. Now on display at the London Bridge Experience. I wrote a blog entry about a couple of other 'cursed' works here.
Some recent reading has included John Szwed's fascinating biography of collector, film maker, occultist and eccentric Harry Smith Cosmic Scholar. Responsible for compiling the hugely influential Anthology of American Folk Music, Smith's animated films are well worth viewing on You Tube - an obvious influence on Terry Gilliam. There's one here.
Also Alex Ross The Rest is Noise, a book about 20th century Western music I've been meaning to read for years. It's a big book on a thorny topic, but I'm gradually making my way through, listening to the music described online while reading. I'm having to write about 20th century music in the new book, so, as a non-musicologist, I'm looking for ways of approaching the subject.
I seem to be increasingly divorced from contemporary culture, so I won't be giving a list of my favourite music or films of 2023 as I've barely seen or heard any. There's so much stuff from the past to catch up with! I'll just say that I've enjoyed finally getting the chance to view the early films of Jean Rollin which have been released on Blu-ray over the last few months. I like the oneiric Surrealistic qualities of his vampiric visions.
