Tuesday 3 January 2023

2023

 


Happy New Year. 

My year got off to a good start yesterday when I noticed on Facebook a blog review of favourite books of the year that included my own Decadent London. My sincere thanks to the blogger - these things make you feel that you're not wasting your time. You can find it here.

Work on my next book continues slowly but surely. I would like to be more productive as a publisher this year but we'll have to wait and see. I have to admire the workload of this publisher.

Reading some academic articles online I became interested in the work of the religious studies scholar Carole Cusack, who has written about invented religions. I listened to a couple of podcasts she's been involved with:

The Religious Studies Project here. Also an interesting discussion on Gurdjieff.

Invented Religions here.

Also an article on occultural bricolage and popular culture here.

Jeremy Harte is an excellent speaker and has written about many aspects of folklore. His latest book on devilish folklore will be on my reading list this year. Guardian review here. Magonia review here.

Three gigs for this year: 

April 2 Steve Hillage Band Brighton Concorde 2

April 4 Matt Ridley Hastings Jazz Club

June 20 Yes Hammersmith Apollo Definitely my last time seeing the much-depleted Yes, but have to go as they are playing my favourite of their albums: Relayer.