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Lantern Lecture
Lantern Lecture is a stunning debut by a young British writer of extraordinary gifts. Each of the three stories in this collection is a virtuoso performance, a juggling of unlikely subjects and unusual styles that dazzles the reader with the effortless mastery of both tone and content. The stories concern people who are so far from the centre of things that they have to invent the world as they go along (an eccentric, a criminal) and also people (a judge, a Queen) who are so deeply identified with an institution that they somehow cease to exist.
But subject matter is only the beginning. The magical transformation of factual material into something sheerly imaginative is one to the hallmarks of the writing. So Lantern Lecture makes of a chaotic true romance an intricate construction that is, for all its brevity and symmetry, almost a transistorised novel. Hoosh-mi, by contract subjects the idea of royalty to a whirlwind of subversive devices. It is an outrageous satire, but is also exhibits a sneaking fondness for its subject. It is a watercolour as well as a cartoon.
The longest story, Bathpool Park, is closely based on a famous criminal trial. It sets out to be faithful to the facts, but free in its interpretation. Although the story’s starting point is a sensational case, it moves the reader towards a state of mind inaccessible to journalism. Slice by slice, Bathpool Park analyses not only the British legal system, but the other other agents (press, police) which co-operate with it but need not share its priorities. And when elements are reassembled, everything looks a little different.
But subject matter is only the beginning. The magical transformation of factual material into something sheerly imaginative is one to the hallmarks of the writing. So Lantern Lecture makes of a chaotic true romance an intricate construction that is, for all its brevity and symmetry, almost a transistorised novel. Hoosh-mi, by contract subjects the idea of royalty to a whirlwind of subversive devices. It is an outrageous satire, but is also exhibits a sneaking fondness for its subject. It is a watercolour as well as a cartoon.
The longest story, Bathpool Park, is closely based on a famous criminal trial. It sets out to be faithful to the facts, but free in its interpretation. Although the story’s starting point is a sensational case, it moves the reader towards a state of mind inaccessible to journalism. Slice by slice, Bathpool Park analyses not only the British legal system, but the other other agents (press, police) which co-operate with it but need not share its priorities. And when elements are reassembled, everything looks a little different.
- GenresFictionShort Stories
126 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 1, 2026
I read this collection of three novellas/long short stories years ago but had remembered nothing of it and as I was revisiting his novel 'The Waters of Thirst' I decided to look at this, his first work, again. I was impressed with writing but I couldn't help feeling that it wasn't a work I would recommend to anyone and I certainly can't imagine reading it again - though I wouldn't say that about any of the other works by Mars-Jones that I have read. I don't know if the story 'Hoosh-Mi' subtitled 'A Farrago of Scurrilous Untruths' about Queen Elizabeth II catching rabies from one of her corgis ruffled feathers when it first came out in 1977 (the year after silver jubilee - see my footnote *1 below) but I would have thought both its ability to Épater la bourgeoisie or comment on monarchy as institution/national obsession has long been overtaken by events. The opening story 'Lantern Lecture' about a fascist-sympathising eccentric nobleman I read as pure fiction and only subsequently learnt that it was based on a real person (see: https://www.bywgraffiadur.cymru/artic...) while the final one about Donald Nielsen the 'Black Panther', aside from the bizarre coincidence of sharing surname with far more notorious and remember Dennis Nielsen, was only of interest knowing that the father of Mars-Jones was the trial judge.
The work launched Mr. Mars-Jones career as a novelist for which we can be grateful but I can't see any reason to revisit this particular work. Certainly there are other much finer books by him shich I would recommend.
*1 All three stories are dated which may simply refer to when they were written or first published but no details are provided of any previous publication on the copyright page so it is unclear what the dates refer to.
[As GR has little up-to-date author information I supply the following: Adam Mars-Jones’ first collection of stories, Lantern Lecture, won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1982, and he appeared on Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists lists in 1983 and 1993. His debut novel, The Waters of Thirst, was published in 1993 by Faber & Faber. It was followed by Pilcrow (2008), Cedilla (2011) and Caret (2023), which form the first three parts of a semi-infinite novel series. His essay Noriko Smiling (Notting Hill Editions, 2011) is a book-length study of a classic of Japanese cinema, Yasujiro Ozu’s Late Spring. His memoir Kid Gloves was published by Particular Books in 2015. He writes book reviews for the LRB and film reviews for the TLS. He has published two novels with Fitzcarraldo Editions, Box Hill and Batlava Lake.]
The work launched Mr. Mars-Jones career as a novelist for which we can be grateful but I can't see any reason to revisit this particular work. Certainly there are other much finer books by him shich I would recommend.
*1 All three stories are dated which may simply refer to when they were written or first published but no details are provided of any previous publication on the copyright page so it is unclear what the dates refer to.
[As GR has little up-to-date author information I supply the following: Adam Mars-Jones’ first collection of stories, Lantern Lecture, won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1982, and he appeared on Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists lists in 1983 and 1993. His debut novel, The Waters of Thirst, was published in 1993 by Faber & Faber. It was followed by Pilcrow (2008), Cedilla (2011) and Caret (2023), which form the first three parts of a semi-infinite novel series. His essay Noriko Smiling (Notting Hill Editions, 2011) is a book-length study of a classic of Japanese cinema, Yasujiro Ozu’s Late Spring. His memoir Kid Gloves was published by Particular Books in 2015. He writes book reviews for the LRB and film reviews for the TLS. He has published two novels with Fitzcarraldo Editions, Box Hill and Batlava Lake.]
November 8, 2022
It was very Sex Pistols of Mars-Jones to have written his 1977 story on the Queen getting rabies. This striking tale sits like the diseased rose between the two thorns of 'Lantern Lecture' (a fascist-sympathising eccentric nobleman: 1982) and 'Bathpool Park (the Black Panther, AKA serial killer Dennis Neilsen: 1980).
I actually wish more of the Somerset Maugham books I'd read from the 1970s and early 1980s had this punk disregard for social niceties. These are books by the (relatively) young, awarded to those aged under 35. Surely if an author is ever to take risks, this is the moment, and the time it should be rewarded? The content and quality has varied for the Somerset Maugham, but 1983 was a vintage year, as Mars-Jones shared the honours with William Boyd. Both raised a satire-appreciating smile, with Mars-Jones my favourite.
It was bold to the point of wreckless to write about the Neilsen robberies and murders less than a decade after they had happened, but Mars-Jones makes some astute readings on motive, and without cloying sentiment also cedes sympathy for the victims. The jury is said to be chosen for its biddable stupidity (drip fed clues, rather than allowed flights of independent deduction), and the judicial system and police are presented as clowns. The victims sit in the eye of the storm - at once the focus, and the neutral centre-point around which the whole story pivots.
So too, the duty-bound indefatigably of the Queen despite the onset of terminal rabies plays with the idea that the monarchy is for show. The unwearable court-steward's gloves and ceremonial judge's wigs do the same in the Neilsen story. Whether murderer, prosecutor, monarch or anachronistic aristo, Mars-Jones spears the performativity of their roles, and self-conscious awareness of themselves.
In the year when (40 years on), Charles does finally become king, I can warmly recommend this alternative to BBC bunting, and a fitting side-dish to The Crown.
I actually wish more of the Somerset Maugham books I'd read from the 1970s and early 1980s had this punk disregard for social niceties. These are books by the (relatively) young, awarded to those aged under 35. Surely if an author is ever to take risks, this is the moment, and the time it should be rewarded? The content and quality has varied for the Somerset Maugham, but 1983 was a vintage year, as Mars-Jones shared the honours with William Boyd. Both raised a satire-appreciating smile, with Mars-Jones my favourite.
It was bold to the point of wreckless to write about the Neilsen robberies and murders less than a decade after they had happened, but Mars-Jones makes some astute readings on motive, and without cloying sentiment also cedes sympathy for the victims. The jury is said to be chosen for its biddable stupidity (drip fed clues, rather than allowed flights of independent deduction), and the judicial system and police are presented as clowns. The victims sit in the eye of the storm - at once the focus, and the neutral centre-point around which the whole story pivots.
So too, the duty-bound indefatigably of the Queen despite the onset of terminal rabies plays with the idea that the monarchy is for show. The unwearable court-steward's gloves and ceremonial judge's wigs do the same in the Neilsen story. Whether murderer, prosecutor, monarch or anachronistic aristo, Mars-Jones spears the performativity of their roles, and self-conscious awareness of themselves.
In the year when (40 years on), Charles does finally become king, I can warmly recommend this alternative to BBC bunting, and a fitting side-dish to The Crown.
September 23, 2014
Charles Lambert's rating reminded me I'd read this - this is the one with the 'Black Panther' (a real life kidnapper/murderer: Adam Mars-Jones' father was the trial judge)story. One of the first examples of docu-fiction that I'd read.
Found this in a 80s notebook: read on a train journey, outside fields of snow cut with the blue shadows of telegraph poles. Like this criminal's mind: ice cold, filled with 'The Plan'. The military mind in action, humans figure as elements in the landscape to be moved around, manipulated. A help or hindrance to 'The Plan'.
Found this in a 80s notebook: read on a train journey, outside fields of snow cut with the blue shadows of telegraph poles. Like this criminal's mind: ice cold, filled with 'The Plan'. The military mind in action, humans figure as elements in the landscape to be moved around, manipulated. A help or hindrance to 'The Plan'.
January 1, 2019
Absolutely superb. I don't want to read anything else he's written since then as it will just look like a failure to follow up on this brilliant debut. I remember Private Eye being nasty about "The Darker Proof", if you look up the press reactions to that you can see how attitudes to LBG writers and their writings has changed over the years, and what they had to face back then.
January 5, 2021
I came for the Queen getting rabies, but these stories are much denser and less pure satire than I expected. The three stories are about appearances, forced and unforced and how roles can become so much more than the human behind them.
Also, thanks to The Crown for prepping me for the Queen story, without which I probably would have missed many references.
Also, thanks to The Crown for prepping me for the Queen story, without which I probably would have missed many references.
December 11, 2018
Three short novella are gathered in this book. They appear to have little in common, other perhaps than an element of experimentation in the way they are written.
The first story, which gives its title to the whole volume, is a collection of paragraphs, each a short window into a random element or episode of the life of the protagonist, a sort of shambolic David Attenborough. The effect is circular, rather hazy and unfocused, like the character imperfectly presented to the reader.
Then we are presented with a short black comedy, sacrilegious in its premise but rather more panegyrical in its tone. Written in the year of the Silver Jubilee, the story describes the Queen's last days after she is infected with rabies by one of her corgies.
The last story, based, it transpires on true events, is a rambling exploration of the justice system as well as a criminal mind and its actions, on the day of the man's trial.
Coincidentally, Geoffrey Cox, the now Attorney General currently in the news as the government refused to publish his advice on Brexit, is one of the characters in this last story.
Throughout the language is very rich and the writing most enjoyable but, mostly because of the form of the narrations, I found I remained very detached from the characters and therefore didn't really care about them or what I was reading. It is also unclear to me what point the author is trying to put across or make with those stories.
The first story, which gives its title to the whole volume, is a collection of paragraphs, each a short window into a random element or episode of the life of the protagonist, a sort of shambolic David Attenborough. The effect is circular, rather hazy and unfocused, like the character imperfectly presented to the reader.
Then we are presented with a short black comedy, sacrilegious in its premise but rather more panegyrical in its tone. Written in the year of the Silver Jubilee, the story describes the Queen's last days after she is infected with rabies by one of her corgies.
The last story, based, it transpires on true events, is a rambling exploration of the justice system as well as a criminal mind and its actions, on the day of the man's trial.
Coincidentally, Geoffrey Cox, the now Attorney General currently in the news as the government refused to publish his advice on Brexit, is one of the characters in this last story.
Throughout the language is very rich and the writing most enjoyable but, mostly because of the form of the narrations, I found I remained very detached from the characters and therefore didn't really care about them or what I was reading. It is also unclear to me what point the author is trying to put across or make with those stories.
August 7, 2024
Really objected to the author’s snide vignette of Philip Yorke - a very kind human being despite some of his somewhat dubious political views.
October 14, 2014
I find it difficult to rate a collection of three stories. 'Bathpool Park' the third story in this book is a great story. I'd rate it as 3+, almost a 4. The first story, 'Lantern Lecture', perhaps 2 or 3. But story number two, 'Hoosh-Mi', has no appeal for me at all. I would have liked the book much more if that one was left right out.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews