Will Self will be reading from Liver, out in paperback on June 4, at the Big Green Bookshop, June 10, 7pm at Unit 1, Brampton Park Road, Wood Green, London, N22 6BG. Admission free.
Monthly Archives: May 2009
The Butt: Observer and Guardian reviews
“Tom Brodzinski, on holiday in a strange, unnamed country, decides to cave in to the strict anti-smoking laws and give up his nicotine habit. First, he wants a final cigarette. When he flicks the butt from the balcony of his rented apartment, it drops on to the head of a man sunbathing below. Forced to make reparations to the victim’s family for this “assault”, Brodzinski begins a nightmare journey of redemption through a crazy landscape ravaged by warfare and characterised by the tribal customs of its inhabitants. Self’s homage to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is written with razor-sharp descriptions and dark comedy which grip the reader until the concluding pages. Lucy Scholes”
The Verb: Walking to the World
Another chance to listen to Will Self on The Verb talking about his walk from JG Ballard’s house in Shepperton to Heathrow and then his two-day trek from the airport in Dubai to The World resort. He also gives a short reading. The essay will feature as the introduction to his second collection of Psychogeography columns to be published in November by Bloomsbury.
London Review bookshop talk
Will Self is going to be discussing The Butt and Liver with Nicholas Blincoe on Wednesday May 29 at the London Review bookshop, 14 Bury Place, London WC1, tickets £6. For more details, go here.
London’s taxi wars
Feature article in the Evening Standard about the tension between black-cab drivers and mini-cab drivers as the recession bites.
Metro: 60 Seconds
Interview with Will Self in the Metro, chiefly about his time on the Scottish island of Jura.
Comedy Zone: Literary Comedians
Interview with Will Self in his Edinburgh hotel room, available on the BBC iplayer, under the rubric of “literary comedians”, about The Book of Dave. It’s an 11-minute segment, starting at 4hrs 28mins.
Bat Segundo interview
Podcast interview with Will Self as part of the Bat Segundo show in December 2007, taking in The Book of Dave and Psychogeography among many other things. The Bat Segundo website can be found here.
The Butt out in paperback
Review of The Butt (now out in paperback, Bloomsbury, £5.99) in the Telegraph: “You can always trust Will Self to take a mildly amusing conceit, blow it up to seemingly absurd proportions and produce something of lasting comic value. The Butt is pure Self, pushing satire to its limits and beyond. A man holidaying in an unnamed country flips the butt of his cigarette off the balcony of his apartment on to the head of another man, which is treated as assault, which carries draconian penalties, which?…?But why give away such a splendidly barmy plot? Just read it.”
Nick Griffin and his pea-brained saddos
“The British National Party are always whining about how the ‘media pigs’ distort their honest yeoman words into sinister neo-fascist claptrap, and demanding they be given serious consideration. The other night, listening to the midnight news on Radio 4, it seemed to me that they’d got what they asked for.
“It was a dispassionate report about a meeting of BNP candidates for the European parliamentary elections. Nick Griffin, the party fuhrer, had said that he didn’t mind picking up protest votes because of the expenses scandal – the British public had every right to protest.