CHRISTMAS BOOKS
CHRISTMAS BOOKS SPECIAL
THEATRE PAPERBACKS
Mark ‘What’s wrong with ! Iain Grant dog-ears this gold lame Y-fronts?‘ l year’s more original Fisher selects the best of l paperbacks.
the year‘s theatre books. :
It has been a healthy year for i There are, as ever, rich pickings tor the
Scottish theatre books. although the avid paperback buyerthis Christmas. it precarious world of publishing keeps you know where to look and are too the future in jeopardy. Nick llern mean to splash out on hardbacks. Books made two important Scottish Heading up the field is Simon contributions before being spurned Louvish’s Your Monkey’s Schmuck by its parent company and is' (Flamingo £3.99), a wild, anarchic, currently raising money to make a and very Jewish comedy about a tailed much needed comeback. The good writer. The narrative is continually news is that Nick llern himself is being interrupted by characters from optimistic and in the meantime his the hero's aborted books— Drekula, the imaginative list is readily available. Jewish vampire; Winnie the Poof and ‘ f" ' his chum Faglet etc-and really gets ' nowhere, but it doesn‘t matter. Louvish's The Therapy of Avram Block (the unexpurgated version) is » a . . DubliShed 8' the end 0' this "With characters in Britain, this book takes section 9.16 ‘Reproduction‘. (Flamingo 94-99) and promises more the epistolary novel to new horizons. Two paperbacks which got a great M the same- Extraordinarily, it reads like a deal or attention when they came out M80 very amusing i8 MOW "he's Japanese novel in translation. Very this year are A History of the World in Class Porn (Abacus 24.99). about a strange, but very interesting. 10% Chapters byJulian Barnes (Picador iunior philosophy Iecturerwho writes Iwould recommend the paperback £4.99) and Wildlife by Richard Ford smlmy hOOKS 0" the Side- Those people edition or the Scots Thesaurus to (Collins Harvill £6.95). lwasn’t overly Who have liberated. tree-thinking anybody (AUP £17). Enormoust impressed by either of them. Both are -. . mothers are 0010 3 Winner here. expensive, it is also enormously extremely well written, but somehow The Citz (NHB £14.95 h/b. £6.95 Present-WISB- rewarding and by larthe funniest book I lacking in the energy all the other p/b) is Observer critic Michael MiChael WeSilake has 0'09"?“ 3 have read this year. Another of its books in this list generate. They are, Coveney‘s enthusiastic appraisal of h00k ‘0 hahle your "lends: Wlih '0 51 merits is that, some weeks after however, sate options as presents for the last 21 years of innovative theatre 30'“! (P0|V90|1)- Motlec'lon 0' 51 Christmas you can inspect the copy you one’s Presbyterian parents or other under the direction of Giles letters "0'" magma” Japan?“ have given your friend or relative and people who are easily offended. Havergal at the Citizens'. Glasgow. People“, various 793' Oilmag'ned see where it falls open. My money is on Placing the Gorbals theatre in a ' Scottish. British and European COHICXI. it’s it passionate read excellent SCOIS production Of MiChCl contractual hassle and trivia] detail Hendrix Information Centre. and that pTOVidCS much more than a Tremblay‘s The (Illid Sisters t0 tZtkC that threaten to push their ostensible has dug deep into its resources“ hi5wrl'0i35inglc ihcalfc- “’T‘m’m" injunc and [hc . subjects outofthe spotlight. Bill bringing out handwritten letters. If you look at the plays which are self-published script. The Guid Sisters Wyman‘s A Stone Alone (Viking technical information and details of most commonly WVin ‘1hCJOhn (Tron 'l‘hcaIrC £4 p/b). by William £15.99) is probably the greater Hendrix‘s background that neither Byrnes. the Liz Lochheads — they are Findlay and Martin Bowman. is disappointment after its build-up as Redding nor Mitchell touch on. almost invariably the ones that have available from both the 'l‘ron and the the definitive Stones biog. Not only 3" . made it into print. It was good news Third Eye Centre bookshop. Also does Wyman indulge in some I therefore when Glasgow academic helping to put Scottish theatre on the shameless score-settling, but it stops and critic. Alasdair Cameron. mapisaslim factual volume of short in 1969 and isa less reet rivetin‘ ’ brought together seven recent historical research by J . H. Littlejohn read than one would have expected M" SC‘ntl5h Plays in scat Free (Ni 18 called The Scottish MUSiC Hall after all this time, a ti t! O c l‘ c' H' l C kl £195 P'lhi- I‘VC already hCilrd 0f 11 (CLC. BOOK Publishers Disgruntled bassist Noel Redding new Irish production of Dead Dad : £10.95 ). ofThe Jimi Hendrix Experience also 008- Mil“ MCKZKVS 1‘)88'1‘rit\'CfSC ()n the wider theatrical scene. found the lure oftour itineraries and _ I , a hit which isincluded here. andJohn , ArthurMillerand Company(Methucn financialdisembowelment too 9 gr ' i a " s Clifford‘s Ines De Castro. which ' £17.50 h’b) is a fitting and fascinating strong to resist, it is Redding‘s _ "i LVN." -\ a appeared in First Run 2 (Ni 18 £7.95 l 75th birthday tribute to America's autobiography after all. and by the r ‘h ii. ‘ 9:. pb). was recently performed by foremost playwright and incisive end ofAre You Experienced? 't if“ students in Liverpool. Also featured political thinker. while Burnt Bridges (Fourth Estate £14,99)‘ we have in Scot Free are plays by Tony (Hodder oh Stoughton £17.95 h 'b) is learnt a great deal about life on the ROPCF. Chris Hannah and Ann 1 an entertaining. personal account of road and how musicians are cheated Marie Di Mambro. 'i the social movements that defined , out of fortunes and occasionally left Methuen‘s major contribution to the Swinging falls by (‘harles destitute, but don’t feel we know ' ._ Scottish drama this year came asa ' Marowitz.writer. directorandearly l Jimi Hendrix any betterthan when t md__*_ two-pronng attack from 7:84. leading force at the Traverse. And we started out. Tellingly. the Bang up to date. And God Created Elizabeth MiiCLCnn'dn‘S The M00" it's Worth noting that Kenneth i bassist‘s account of his first meeting Manchester by Sarah Champion Belongs To Everyone (Methuen £9.99 Tymmk cxccucm collection of - with the greatest guitarist ofa (wordsmith £9.99) wads as thOUgh pm is “Viewed in this issue‘s Them” i CSSZ‘YS‘ Frames l Nle “cm 800“ . generation is $0 undersmiw as 10 b0 the author took one huge gulp of air PTCV'lCW section. “llth th husband. i now available in almost invisiblc_ I and didn‘t let it out until She‘d JOhn Mcomth hmught 0‘" his i PZ‘PCThZ‘Ck- Hendrik and [his is why ShClVCS reached the final full stop. It's a
polemical volume. The Bone Won't Break (Methuen £7.99 p/b) earlier in the year. It‘s an uncompromising
cash-insmid-summcr.dlcdtwcnty : whichtellsyouverylittleandaIotat
Alastair Mabbott picks his ‘ years ago. Not to be outdone. Mitch the same time. It alsogives rise to the
and provocative account of radical I . ‘ Mitchell. the Experiencc‘s ; eerie feeling that. like the Beatles‘ theatre in the right-wing btls and. way through a pOI-pOUI‘I‘l ; drummer, added his own book to the tours of Liverpool or the hordes of alIhOUgh his “$10915 SOmCIImCS of rock and pop in print, ; pile. lighter on text but attractively 3 Smiths fanatics that have already i
mUddiCd h." SUbJCCiWHY~ Scotland‘s adorned with colour photos. Best for descended on Manchester to write
adoplcd left-wing playwright! This year. the bassists of two of the l the Hendrixophile. though. is l their names on the walls of Salford
dlrccu’r1595'nsplrlng as he 15 most venerated 60s groups published i Electric Gypsy by Harry Shapiro and l Lads‘ Club. the Manchester
COUIYOVCFSI'dl. their memoirs. and both books show i Caeser Glebeek (Heinemann i Museum of Scallidelic Arts is just The Tron'l‘heatre revived its aconcern for accounting. l £16.99). Glebeek is founder ofthe l around the corner.
-__. _J
The List 23 November — 6 December [990 93