SHOWBIZ MEMOIR
COSMO LANDESMAN
Starstruck (Macmillan) m
Fran and Jay Landesman sound like a tough set of parents. She a poet and jazz singer, he a producer and comedian. Together they fled the US due to a perceived lack of success, viewing Swinging 605 London as a kinder, less competitive atmosphere for their muses to flourish. But still the rejection letters and mixed critical reactions flooded in, all the while injecting their boy Cosmo with a sense of worth lower than that of a dying wasp. Landesman Jr would eventually get hitched to Julie Burchill, whose encouragement of his career was at best idiosyncratic, though she did allow him to write film reviews under her name having grown tired of sitting in dark cinemas with ‘smelly old men’. He may have lived most of his life in the UK, but Landesman has that peculiarly irritating way of discussing ‘England’ when he actually means ‘Britain’; perhaps this celtic blind spot explains why he recalls Tommy Steele being knocked unconscious by screaming fans at Dundee’s ‘Laird’ Hall. Or it could just be the kind of typo which this book is riddled with: while you can understand a misspelling of Haysi Fantayzee, is Alan Davies really that difficult a name to double check? One theory is that getting Starstruck published was a rush job. Yet, with its mix of forensic and often very funny detailing of self-obsession amid the cultural context into which the family’s failures was placed, there appears to be no obvious reason for this book to be hitting the shops right now. Then again, the movie of his mate Toby Young’s memoir has just come out. Such coat-tail hanging activity would be frowned upon even by Cosmo’s publicity-ravenous old
man. (Brian Donaldson)
SOCIAL MEMOlR ANDREW ANTHONY The Fallout (Vintage) .00
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ANDREW ANTHONY
In 2001. Andrew Anthony was just another member of the liberal-left intelligentsia. dutifully filing his anti- conservative copy to The Observer and Guardian. Then a pair of planes swung into the World Trade Center and the belief systems he previously held dear collapsed quicker than the South Tower. It's a wearily familiar tale of the youthful radical turning into a middle-aged reactionary. but few are written with such venom and verve. Anthony's new values are scrawled so brasth on his sleeve that it's now impossible to imagine him hotfooting it to Nicaragua to help out with the Sandinista efion.
While it's hard to argue when he discusses the Danish cartoons scandal. he simply spouts from the right-wing hymn sheet when slamming Michael Moore and Tony
34 THE LIST 16—30 Oct 2008
Benn. And in one chapter. he castigates Old Labourites for holding intractable views. yet later damns them when they. like him. eventually swivel their stances. Flawed but fearless, The Fallout should leave you angry and amazed.
(Brian Donaldson)
POETRY COLLECTION LEMN SISSAY Listener
(Canongate) e
Lemn Sissay‘s latest poetry collection is not exciting fare. The main problem is that it simply lacks freshness with little that is striking or exceptional, largely because he borrows so heavily from idiom, cliche. and adage. There are some good pieces — ‘The Battle of Adwa. 1896' is a memorable historical account. and ‘Barley Field‘ is touching — but the overall impression is of material rehashed and undeveloped.
Had Sissay taken the fledgling ideas hinted at
' LEMN slaw.
USTTM P.
in some of the poems and done something with them, he might have produced engaging pieces. However. listing road signs and informing the reader that “Christmas can be split into two kinds of people: those who look into the windows of houses of others and those who look out“ isn't exactly enthralling. And he labours the point. seemingly unaware that, solely by repetition, the impact of an image. theme. or statement is not augmented.
(Kate G0uld)
TRAVEL BOOK PATRICK RICHARDSON Reports from Beyond (Ultima Thule Press) 0.
The best travel writing is much more than just writing about travel. something this hugely expenenced journeyman doesn't seem to realise despite a lifetime of wanderlust. This glossy coffee table effort is subtitled ‘A Journey Through Life to Remote Places‘ and details Patrick Richardson's many far- flung trips, culled from 20 years of contributions to various broadsheet newspapers. But Reports from Beyond manages to be a lot less than the sum of its pans.
Great travel writing has a narrative. a
REPORTS rnoM BEYOND
purpose and some insight into the writer's mindset. the places visited and the cultures encountered. This book manages to have precious little of that. making treks through East Yemen, Burma and the Ethiopian Highlands seem like banal. trudging itineraries. lists of travels and travails that merge into one big tedious slog. The world is an amazingly diverse and fascinating place. Sadly. Reports from Beyond fails to capture any of that.
(Doug Johnstone)
GHOST STORIES CHRIS PRIESTLEY
Tales of Terror from the Black Ship (Bloomsbury) 000
The great English chiller writer MR James observed that one of the key facets of a good. nerve-shredding ghost story is ‘a pleasing terror‘. Chris Priestley's follow-up to the imaginative Uncle Montague '3 Tales of Terror similarly aims to hook younger readers
with a series of unnerving, yet entertaining, ghost stories set at sea. Like that earlier book. this collection features a wraparound stOry. this time involving a sickly brother and sister left alone at a storm-lashed inn. A stranger knocks at the door. his only means of payment for their hOSpitality some eerie stories from his sea-faring days. lnevitably. all is not as it seems.
Last»:an
Like the best of James‘ work. the terror in Priestley's tales is derived from a creeping sense of unease or suggestion of the supernatural rather than explicit bloodletting. Some of the stories are a touch formulaic. their final twists all too easy to anticipate, yet Priestley is adept at creating a Suitably creepy atmosphere. and his lightness of touch as a writer keeps the pages turning long into the night.
(Allan Radcliffe)
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