Gruts

by Ivor Cutler, Martin Honeysett (Illustrator)

Hardcover with unclipped dust jacket. Marks to jacket rear and wear to jacket edges, including a few small tears. Light wear to board edges as well. Spine is tight and contents clean. AD

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

First published May 8, 1986

About the author

Ivor Cutler was a Scottish poet, songwriter and humorist. He became known for his regular performances on BBC radio, and in particular his numerous sessions recorded for John Peel's influential radio programme, and later for Andy Kershaw's programme. He appeared in the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour film in 1967 and on Neil Innes' television programmes. Cutler also wrote books for children and adults and was a teacher at A. S. Neill's Summerhill School and for 30 years in inner-city schools in London.

In live performances Cutler would often accompany himself on a harmonium. Phyllis King appears on several of his records, and for a number of years was a part of his concerts. She usually read small phrases but also read a few short stories. The two starred in a BBC radio series, King Cutler, in which they performed their material jointly and singly. Cutler is known to have had a long term relationship with King, but they never married or set up home together. Cutler also collaborated with pianist Neil Ardley and singer Robert Wyatt.

Cutler was an anti-intellectual and noted eccentric, dressing in a distinctive style including plus-fours and hats adorned with many badges, travelling mainly by bicycle and often communicating by means of sticky labels printed with "Cutlerisms", one of which, "never knowingly understood" came to be summary applied by supporters and detractors alike. Others included "Kindly disregard", reserved for official correspondence, and "to remove this label take it off", designed to confuse pedants.

Many of Cutler's poems and songs involve conversations delivered as a monologue and, in these, one party is often Cutler as a child, a part of his intended "bypassing the intellect". Cutler describes poverty and neglect from his parents with great stoicism. He focuses on acceptance and gratitude for the basic elements of life, nature and love, which allows him to make points about mother-love in particular. The humour develops from the child's curiosity and the playful or self-serving lies the parent tells him to get, for example, a chore done or simply to stop the incessant questions. Cutler recited his poems in a gentle Scottish burr, and this, combined with the absurdity of the subject matter, is a mix that earned him a faithful cult following. John Peel once remarked that Cutler was probably the only performer whose work had been featured on Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4. Cutler was a member of the Noise Abatement Society and the Voluntary Euthanasia Society. He retired from performing in 2004, and died on 3 March 2006. The reception room of his home contained a number of pieces of ivory cutlery, deliberately intended as a pun on his name.

Reviews

[Jake Hainey · Rating 3 out of 5]

For more book reviews, check out: talesfromideath.blogspot.com

It’s difficult to describe Ivor Cutler to someone who’s never heard of him. He writes poems, but he’s not strictly a poet. He’s released several albums, but he’s not just a musician. You could call him a humorist, but that’s a term that does no justice to the multitude of his works that are more bittersweet and touching. He’s all of these things and none of them. He’s…well, he’s just Ivor Cutler and you either get him or you don’t.

Gruts, is a collection of Cutler’s short stories and by short stories, I mean short stories, most of them are less than a page long. They’re all funny, but few contain traditional setups or punchlines. Instead, their humour comes from the vague descriptions, the unexplained twists and absurd concepts. Imagine a joke book written by Salvador Dali and you’d be in the right area.
The book is illustrated by Martin Honeysett and he’s the perfect match for Cutler’s prose. His drawings are detailed and disturbing and he does a great job of putting visions of Cutler’s surreal tales on the page.

My favourite stories are the ones with a hint of darkness about them, be it The Hoogri House, a restaurant manned by strange mechanical men and an aggressive wheel-footed waiter, the woman who sends her son to the shop for Egg meat, which she feeds to a packet of carnivorous eggs she keeps in her drawer, or the story which lends the book it’s title, Gruts for Tea in which a father and son dine on Gruts, A mysterious and horrible substance that withers their bodies and might poison the dog, but which is the best food available in the woods in which they live.

Sadly however, Gruts fails to grasp me the way many of Cutler’s other works do. It’s a personal preference but I prefer it when his work contains a good helping of both the surreal and the normal. Books like Life in a Scottish Sitting Room Vol. 2 do a great job of creating weird tales that are also grounded in reality and play on stereotypes of Scotland in the way that only Cutler can.
Here however, that grounding is almost entirely absent, and, while it does show its head in stories like Letter from a Granny or The Greasy Button, these instances are few and far between.

I still love this book though, and over the near fifteen years it’s resided in the family home I have picked it up and read it cover to cover with glee multiple times. If you’re interested in getting in to Ivor Cutler it’s a great place to start, it’s just not my favourite.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightfully Cutleresque. I think he's someone you either get or you don't.