For the day that’s in it, I’ve been considering the immortality of authors.
A book is a way of speaking to people from beyond the grave.
In the past week, I’ve been reacquainting myself with Malcolm Bradbury’s appallingly believable character Howard Kirk.
I first read this masterpiece when I was an undergraduate at York University.
It fascinated me because of the widely believed rumour that Kirk was based on Professor Laurie Taylor.
As he was teaching several of my courses in the sociology department, it lent a certain frisson to Bradbury’s work.
Sadly, Taylor himself could easily disprove that particular urban myth as he hadn’t met Bradbury until after the novel had been published.
Now I’ve recently returned to the narcissistically right-on world of Howard Kirk and read it as what I am now, a novelist.
Malcolm Bradbury died in November 2000, aged 68.
Yet, in my study, on the west coast of Ireland, I heard him again this week as the rain played a percussion solo on the window.
Dear reader, that is why authors are immortal.
A crucial part of becoming one is accessing your writer’s voice, the unique way you see the world.
That process can take a long time, many years. For some, it is a task that is never achieved.
I hate reading my own work because I immediately see where I could have improved on a piece of dialogue or some plot device.
However, I know that my voice is to be found in the pages of The Squad and Native Shore.
That is especially true in the latter work.
One day, after I’m long gone, someone will let me speak to them l in the same way that Malcolm Bradbury has been tutoring and guiding me this past week.
Now, that is a very comforting thought for this atheist.
UNESCO picked the 23rd of April because it date on which William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died.
That iconic trio still speak clearly to us centuries after they stopped breathing.
So, for the day that’s in it, please pick up a book.
You’ll be the better for it.
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Currently reading Joe Cahill my life in the IRA very good book very good insight into the death of Tom Williams which I didn’t know
I can thoroughly recommend “I Am Legend” by Richard Matheson. Ignore the film.
It asks the question if everybody else is something and you are the only one not that then what is normal.
Dan Schneider from International Writers Magazine: Book Review wrote:
“Despite having vampires in it, [the novel] is not a novel on vampires, nor even a horror nor sci-fi novel at all, in the deepest sense. Instead, it is perhaps the greatest novel written on human loneliness. It far surpasses Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe in that regard. Its insights into what it is to be human go far beyond genre,
Im currently reading The Yank . I’m less enamoured by Martin McGuinness the more I read about him,not just in this book but in general. But that’s just my opinion,and that’s what reading gives me, a more open minded view of the world
As a boy growing up in the back streets of Glasgow in the sixties, books were my escape from the rather harsh realities of daily life. The contents of the local library was a mixed treasure trove full of both an escape to imagined other times and places in the form of fiction, together with the ability to learn of things from other exotic places in the reality of non fiction.
I remember the monumental event of receiving my ticket to “The Big” library as if it was yesterday. I don’t remember a time when i haven’t had a book on the go.
A world without books is unimaginable to me, unthinkable is probably nearer the mark.
While looking into the Irish branch of my family, in particular my Granda Vincent and his brother Francis, both of whom took part in the Easter Rebellion, I came across a brit document that listed my Granda as being illiterate, in fact the majority of the people listed had “illiterate” next to their names.
This completely baffled me as i knew for a fact that there wasn’t a book of any note in his local library that he hadn’t read, he lived across the road from the Shettleston library, and always had at least one request on the go. Further, his house was wall to wall with his favourite books, you couldn’t have squeezed a Wee Red Book onto the shelves. When i asked him about the illiterate tag on the brit document, he told me, “if you cant read and write you cant give a written statement”. The brits were only too readily willing to accept this as it fitted their Irish stereotype……………………so much for “the illiterate Irish”. Good reading…and writing Phil.
It’s truly sad what’s happened to the old Shettleston Library building. It’s so dilapidated now, I doubt it’s financially viable for anyone to even try to save it.
I’m not from the area but vaguely familiar with it. I assume you’re talking about the old library building just up the road from Tolcross Park.
Charger… the library virtually stood alone next to the park, i think there was another municipal building next to it. It was a lovely building, i’m afraid it’s over 40 yrs since i was out that way. If it has been left to ruin, it’s just another fuck up from this totally fucked up GCC..the city has never looked worse…IMHO. be lucky
Wellshot halls… only facade left after a fire. Another tragic loss to both heritage and the local community
I remember when it was first ‘modernised which meant gutting out all the wood panelled walls and other ornate fixtures and fittings… was never the same.
I have 5 books available on a well known ebook source…I don’t class myself as an author…or indeed a writer…I just had an itch that needed scratched….I am in awe of people like you who write so well…More power to your pen.
A person who doesn’t read had no advantage over someone who can’t!
A wise comment.