Gary Knapton > Recent Status Updates

Thanks Laura! I’m hearing Edvard Grieg’s In The Hall of the Mountain King as my default audible hallucination to this magnanimously structured planet that carries the melancholy of The Road (McCarthy), the resilience of Z for Zachariah (O’Brien), the fallen splendid expanse of Earth Abides (Stewart) and the prescience of Oryx & Crake (Atwood) plus Sloosh’s Crossing from Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. Big up.

Recommended in the James English interview of ex-cop Jon Wedger. An attempt to describe how the grooming of young men in Soho in the 1970’s by politicians, army officers and those who move in aristocratic and royal circles, actually looks. From a first person perspective. This man was 20 years old, cash strapped and hungry. The context of The Troubles (NI) is rounded and helpful.

Ten chapters. Ten maps of key world land and sea areas. A delightful roughly thirty-page mini-history and explanation of each. As nation states are so new - the whole Middle East since 1916. Germany since 1871. Italy the same, it’s a refreshing reminder of the nation state - and therefore patriotism and identity, as precisely what they are in actual fact: made-up nonsense from power brokers. Great deconstruction.

Alice at her best. An Agatha Christie styled murder mystery narrated in a never-ending chain of cheeky one liners and wise proverbs. You’ll be an adolescent all over again. I love best the mood and aspect of the old house in the sea. Both funny and compelling. Terrific holiday read.

Austenian in its longing for female emancipation - at least in terms of self-determination - and with a whiff of House of Eliot - Downton in its setting. Gatsby in its timing. Titanic in the narrative device. I loved this. Emmeline is a Louise Brooks bright young thing. Or if you like your heroines fictional - Daisy Buchanan. Clever attention to detail. Very readable and lush if you’re a fan of the epoch.

Written four years before Downton Abbey made TV. The Titanic meets Downton meets Wuthering Heights / Hannah reminding me of a tear-away young Catherine Earnshaw from the Brontë novel. The author has excellent Victorian vernacular, I’ll not gainsay it. And an eye for detail. Gosford Park. Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day. Get lost in the high tide of the fading British empire’s landed gentry. Good stuff.

In 1688 Manchester ran claret through the public water supply, organised bonfires and fireworks and fired a full gun salute. Cromwell was out and the Jacobites were back. Learn about Culloden, the Young Pretender and where the word Geordie originates. The story of how a handful of powerful noble families with their own armies united the Plantagenet banner, knighting a loin steak (Sir Loin!). Heady mead! Rosa Alba.

If you’re familiar with Myers Briggs or have undergone profiling tests for job interviews or L&D, this book isn’t going over old ground it’s adding colour. Chapters 10 and 11 (pages 109-124) coupled with the colour grid on the sleeve, focus on body language and alcohol driven behaviour. See yourself and everyone you know. Hilarious and inspiring. Move closer to understanding. Live in warmer climes.

Wow! My Uncle Pete bought me this paperback a couple of Christmases back and this week I began reading. The writing style is addictive. Grounded. Colloquial. The subject - a long-sweep digest of human evolution - might seem intimidatingly intellectual. Not so for this author. If we were taught in this manner in school from a young age we’d all burn yet with a firebrand thirst of wholesome curiosity. Read this.

Read in conjunction with ‘Magicians of the Gods’ and with a basic appreciation of Plato’s Great Wheel and celestial meridian precession, this is a powerful argument laid out in precise detail with graphics and photo plates. Exciting and profound. Wondrous and riveting. Left-field anti-Egyptology at its pinnacle best. An urge to keep digging stands before me. Superb.

An intense and riveting read. Hilda founded Whitby Abbey in 657 and the southern tip of Danelaw territory is visible by drawing a line on the map from Canterbury to Wroxeter. The English immigrants arrived in such a huge tide of immigration that it overran the British by sheer number. Yet what became ‘England’ was ran from the off by Normans (north men) and their descendent. Hard to put down. Easy not to.

My abundant woman mother goddess lover. We are symphony together. I am mad for you. A Buddhist gets cremated and out of the emptiness letters come together to form words and sentences. A book takes form. Out of the emptiness. Magnetic. Hemingway meets Roddy Doyle. MAN Booker shortlisted. Ruth is a poet. Read this.

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Maybe eat meat as a side dish. If it has a health claim label on it do not eat it. This means it is not food. And food is what you want to be eating. We switched fats for carbs and became, on the whole, fatter and less happy. Switch back. Ignore nutritionists and journalists and the food industry. They are on the make. I love Michael as much as Gary Taubes. Eat food.

The poetic vibrancy of an international city straddling multiple contintents, the resilience of humans amidst heartbreak, the ingenius devices of strangers working together to save lives. The music and food. The smells and sounds. Tne rattling street cars. The dancing girls. The late night bars. The Raj. The Mem Sahibs. The Russians. The French. The Americans. The Greeks. The spiritual essence of old Istanbul.

A station hotel for the Orient Express taking Agatha Christie from Calais to Constantinople in 1905. The Pera Palace was a hang out for the British Colonial elite. With this as a springboard into the birth of modern Istanbul the author weaves a dazzling and romantic history-jammed tale of a glorious time gone by. Electric reading.

'The things you think are the disasters in your life are not the disasters really. Almost anything can be turned around: out of every ditch, a path, if only you can see it.' The depiction of Cromwell in this slow beat Machiavellian examination of the fall of Anne Boleyn is quite something. Mantel has written a trilogy from inside his head. Foreboding and darkly affected. Politics ever.

'The things you think are the disasters in your life are not the disasters really. Almost anything can be turned around: out of every ditch, a path, if only you can see it.' The depiction of Cromwell in this slow beat Machiavellian examination of the fall of Anne Boleyn is quite something. Mantel has written a trilogy from inside his head. Foreboding and darkly affected. Politics ever.

Tracking the fall of Anne Boleyn and the rise of Jane Seymour in Henry's affections. Like Wolf Hall, Mantel writes in a dialogue/ diary notation/ soliloquy style presenting a court from inside the head of Cromwell. Dark and steady and equally magnetic. History made modern. A literary 3D effect.

Then there was the silence. Never before or since have I heard such peace and deep silence. Kashmir filled my mind. Later, it kept me whole. If I had had no idea of perfection, I don't know if I would have come through.

Then there was the silence. Never before or since have I heard such peace and deep silence. Kashmir filled my mind. Later, it kept me whole. If I had had no idea of perfection, I don't know if I would have come through.

I love this book on loneliness which makes me feel connected, in mine, to others, in the modern city. 'It grows like mould or fur around us, a prophylactic that inhibits contact no matter how much I want it. I become hyper-vigilant, suspecting everyone, magnifying negatives. Blind to positives.' The ultimate taboo gets a brace and urgent and poetic address. A prince of books.

Now just fifty pages left. The winter kitchen recipes. Crostini di fegatini. Rustic apple bread budding. Switching mushrooms for zucchini & eggplant for summer lasagne. Guinea hen polenta & walnut pecorino. Cavolo Nero & arugula pesto. Early morning espresso on the beaches of Via Reggio. Oh boy. If I could be anywhere...

Now just fifty pages left. The winter kitchen recipes. Crostini di fegatini. Rustic apple bread budding. Switching mushrooms for zucchini & eggplant for summer lasagne. Guinea hen polenta & walnut pecorino. Cavolo Nero & arugula pesto. Early morning espresso on the beaches of Via Reggio. Oh boy. If I could be anywhere...

A student of body language uses his talents to survive the rough edge of Sheffield. With semiotics as a narrative theme, and written in the first person, this is immediately resonant from my days living in Broomhill and working on Division St. Geoff deploys a sonic and graphic style of writing. A highly crafted page turner. Grab a copy.

I found this on the back wall of The Obediah Brooke public house in Cleckheaton. A shelf filler. They kindly let me keep it. The founder of the SB diet lays out his reasoning for this less puritanical and slightly misinformed alt to Atkins. Early to recognise ketogenics (food as information not energy) - so, for me, an awesome leap forward in health. Cool relaxed narrative.

Picked this up at the library mid-week. Its Sunday and I'm lost in my childhood. Peter Sellers. Dick Emery. Terry Thomas. Working panto and piers in the 1960's. A highly entertaining read - and you can hear his voice as you go. Humble skint north London lad done good.

Narrative books have an internal voice - separating them from all other media. This story is not just very beautiful and poetic, historical and evidence based. The writing technique is stripped back - Hemmingway-esque - and in places it breathes oxygen into old forgotten places. Making still things move. Adding colour to monochrome yellowing photographs. Bringing springtime to winter gardens. Sensational. Literally.

I found this book buried deep in a store box in a disused printing press above an art gallery in Altrincham at 3:20 in the morning last month. Glad I missed the last tram. As a Yorkshireman this makes me nod and laugh. As a writer, these ladies inspire me and pull me through sticky spells. Authentic. Simple. Alive.