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Outlandish
Outlandish is a collection of writings, stories and essays that celebrate some of David Bramwell's favourite countercultural heroes and explore some rather unconventional journeys.
In the company of Werner Herzog, Eva Peron, Gram Parsons, Marina Abramovic, William Burroughs and Andrew Kotting – to name but a few –he takes the roads less travelled, unearthing an artist’s pilgrimage around the world with a giant, inflatable ‘deadad’; the world’s biggest treasure hunt, an extraordinary eleven-year odyssey involving Evita’s mummified corpse, an ethnobotanist’s search for the psychedelic secrets of the Amazon and a couple who walked the Great Wall of China from opposite ends, only to spilt up when they finally met in the middle.
Outlandish is also peppered with the biographies of Pop Art nun Sister Corita Kent, the singer and human rights activist Paul Robeson, psychonaut Amanda Feilding, theosophist Madam Blavatsky and hirsute wizard and author, Alan Moore. At the very end – and with dazzling illustrations from Nye Wright – is a Brighton-based graphic tale that incorporates the town’s hidden river, Aleister Crowley’s ashes and the occult talisman, the Hand of Glory.
In the company of Werner Herzog, Eva Peron, Gram Parsons, Marina Abramovic, William Burroughs and Andrew Kotting – to name but a few –he takes the roads less travelled, unearthing an artist’s pilgrimage around the world with a giant, inflatable ‘deadad’; the world’s biggest treasure hunt, an extraordinary eleven-year odyssey involving Evita’s mummified corpse, an ethnobotanist’s search for the psychedelic secrets of the Amazon and a couple who walked the Great Wall of China from opposite ends, only to spilt up when they finally met in the middle.
Outlandish is also peppered with the biographies of Pop Art nun Sister Corita Kent, the singer and human rights activist Paul Robeson, psychonaut Amanda Feilding, theosophist Madam Blavatsky and hirsute wizard and author, Alan Moore. At the very end – and with dazzling illustrations from Nye Wright – is a Brighton-based graphic tale that incorporates the town’s hidden river, Aleister Crowley’s ashes and the occult talisman, the Hand of Glory.
175 pages, Paperback
Published October 20, 2024
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About the author
David Bramwell
17 books14 followersDr. Bramwell is a man who likes to keep busy. A magpie by nature, he is the creator of the successful Cheeky Guide series, founder and host of Brighton’s Catalyst Club and singer-songwriter in the band Oddfellows Casino (Nightjar Records). His music and spoken word material have been featured on BBC radio 1, 3,4 and 6.
David has written books on subjects ranging from difficult words to sexuality for Penguin, Harper Collins and DK, has spoken at and hosted TEDx events, curated a tent at Port Eliot Festival and, together with fellow musician Eliza Skelton, entertained festival and cinema audiences with “Sing-along-a-Wickerman”.
His one-man show, The Haunted Moustache, won him awards for “Outstanding Theatre” and “Best Comedy Show” during the Brighton Festival, a BBC R3 commission for the series Between the Ears and a Sony Award in 2011.
His second one-man show, the No9 Bus to Utopia was based on a year spent travelling round communities in Europe and America in search of a better life. The show premiered in the Earth Ship in Brighton’s Stanmer Park and has since featured as a TED lecture and been performed at Alain de Botton’s School of Life, 5X15, the Idler Academy and Port Elliot Festival. He is happiest, however, performing it in the back room of a pub.
It is worth noting that Dr Bramwell is a medical man by rumour only; approach with extreme caution, particularly if he offers to whip out your tonsils in exchange for a packet of biscuits.
David has written books on subjects ranging from difficult words to sexuality for Penguin, Harper Collins and DK, has spoken at and hosted TEDx events, curated a tent at Port Eliot Festival and, together with fellow musician Eliza Skelton, entertained festival and cinema audiences with “Sing-along-a-Wickerman”.
His one-man show, The Haunted Moustache, won him awards for “Outstanding Theatre” and “Best Comedy Show” during the Brighton Festival, a BBC R3 commission for the series Between the Ears and a Sony Award in 2011.
His second one-man show, the No9 Bus to Utopia was based on a year spent travelling round communities in Europe and America in search of a better life. The show premiered in the Earth Ship in Brighton’s Stanmer Park and has since featured as a TED lecture and been performed at Alain de Botton’s School of Life, 5X15, the Idler Academy and Port Elliot Festival. He is happiest, however, performing it in the back room of a pub.
It is worth noting that Dr Bramwell is a medical man by rumour only; approach with extreme caution, particularly if he offers to whip out your tonsils in exchange for a packet of biscuits.
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February 25, 2025Some of these short pieces were well worth reading, especially the one on Pop Art nun Sister Corita Kent, of whom I'd never heard despite her Rainbow Swash apparently being the largest copyrighted artwork on Earth. There's also a fascinating account of two cases with parallels to Velvet Underground karaoke classic The Gift, and a (third-)eye-opening item on trepanation. Too often, though, it's potted biographies of Blavatsky and Alan Moore, or another run-through of the saga of Kit Williams and Masquerade. It's not that there's nothing new to be said on these people, more that these articles aren't especially trying to say it, offering broad summaries which would be worthwhile introductions in a magazine aimed at the general audience, but are surely superfluous for most people who'd pick up a David Bramwell book. Between this and his point-missing attempt elsewhere to redefine folk horror with a more homogeneous unholy trinity, I think maybe in future I'd better stick to his musical incarnation, Oddfellows Casino, where with his collaborators he builds soundscapes that add vast layers of complexity to what might be gleaned from the words alone; hell, their Oh, Sealand remains probably my favourite artistic response to Brexit, and if ever there were an overexamined topic...
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