Ion Sirbu & the Small, Bearded Priest
This last Friday was the centenary of the birth of the Romanian dramatist and novelist Ion D. Sirbu. His is a name not known to the English speaking world, in … Continue reading
The Narcotic Analgesia of Reading
Tenderness and relaxed reverie in these photos of retreat: Jack London and T. S. Eliot, both at the age of either eight or nine years old. Jack London is possibly … Continue reading
Oxford-thoughts, From Abroad
A part of Oxford has entered the twenty-first century grudgingly. That part is the University, for everything about the University’s observance rests on tradition. Its statutes remain in Latin, Balliol … Continue reading
Books v. Cigarettes
Sibiu railway station waiting room: a vending machine of books, wholesome literary fare at bargain price. It includes Schopenhauer, Theodore Dreiser’s overlong An American Tragedy (here in 3 vols, it’s … Continue reading
Sally Bayley’s Girl With Dove
“Outside of books, nothing much happens. Most of life is boring, which is why you have to make some of it up.” I have read recently Girl With Dove: A … Continue reading
Bookshops I Have Known
In 1982 I was running books from a nearby market town, Aylesbury, to the provincial, academic avatar that is Oxford, to sell them on for what I regarded to be … Continue reading
‘Closed For Business As Usual’
This first pic is a study in the dishonesty of perspective: my fat arse shielding the even fatter arse of Oxford-based writer Dan Holloway, both of us in pursuit of … Continue reading
Harry Worth Meets Little & Little
I was asked recently what were the funniest books, recently published, that I’ve read. I don’t read much modern fiction and suppose I am too old to find too many … Continue reading
A Postcard from the Far North
Stockholm is obsessed with grooming – tattoo parlours, hairdressers, beauticians – each salon marketed, it seems, by its seated ergonomic, its choice of chair. In fact chairs here, their variety … Continue reading
Romanian National Opera House, Cluj
I had a private viewing of the Romanian National Opera House at Cluj. I saw it first in greyscale silhouette, hints of magnificence; somebody then turned the lights on and … Continue reading
Beatnik Curiosities, or Customers Happen
Some of the more noteworthy happenings in the Bookstore of late. Russian guests meet after hours in the Beatnik the night before Prof of Poetry Simon Armitage’s lecture at University Schools to … Continue reading
Fink Looking Too Closely
I saw Fink perform live in Bucharest the other week, as one does. I love his guitar work, his vocal inflections (heightened white man’s blues), his post-John Martyn sobriety. The … Continue reading
A Windermere Postcard
My fascination with hands was temporarily usurped, almost. Viz. Che Guevara’s: cut off after his execution, preserved in formaldehyde, then flown to Argentina for fingerprinting and identification, laid upon newspaper … Continue reading
Cornish Postcards
I have a feeling that wherever I go, whatever I do, the same questions will be asked of me: ‘Are you open?’, ‘Do you have a loo?’, ‘Do you have … Continue reading
Leafology, Dynamite & Richard Nixon
The Leafology beauty product range is my latest sales product here and is an attempt to go commercially peripheral. It’s a range of beauty product that includes body care, lip … Continue reading
Oxford Review of Books
At only £3, the first issue of the excellent (termly) Oxford Review of Books is a bargain and available here in the Bookstore. The newspaper is formatted as the London … Continue reading
Ungaretti’s Typewriter
A new addition to the Beatnik landscape: Ungaretti’s Typewriter. Customers (all two of them) are invited to type any random thought, flow of consciousness dribble, abstract or recited prose or … Continue reading
Homily to Keith Jarrett
What Keith Jarrett plays on any concert evening is so often spellbinding. It needs to be to stand above his histrionic and hissy fit, hypochondria, grunts, Gurdjieff philosophy and Garbarek … Continue reading
Romanian Postcards
Not only has Romania moved tectonically since my childhood days (it never used to be next to the Ukraine in my school atlas), its spelling has changed: we used to … Continue reading
Toilets (or J. Alfred Pisspot)
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock hangs on the inside of the shop toilet door. It would be included in any anthology of poetry read best in the loo and, … Continue reading
Heathcote Williams: The Local Polemic
Painted fluorescent over two walls of the Albion Beatnik loo is Heathcote Williams’ poem ‘Books’. The poem was written perhaps eight or nine years ago. Heathcote Williams died recently, undoubtedly … Continue reading
Parliamentary Filibuster & an Experimental Novel
Published today by the Albion Beatnik Press is Ilia Galán’s novel All: 111 pages, and 31,113 words (31,107 are the same word). Its original Spanish publication in 2004 caused a … Continue reading
Sucking Mintoes in the Bath with Agatha Christie
“Poetry is not the most important thing in life… I’d much rather lie in a hot bath reading Agatha Christie and sucking sweets.” – Dylan Thomas The Orient Express stops … Continue reading
Siciliano, Spirituality & Saccharin
The mid-twentieth century vogue for transcribing Bach chorales or instrumentals for the piano was a meeting point of nostalgia and aspiration, perhaps sounding boards to reflect hope against the political … Continue reading
Sunrise at Wittenham Clumps
I spent the night on the Round Hill at Wittenham Clumps to catch sunrise, fortified by a fire, tea, and the best company. Paul Nash described the view from The … Continue reading
Machiavellian Eisteddfod, Acetate Gold & Death by Corn Flakes
The Oxford Silent Film Society has had regular and mesmerising screenings in the Beatnik. All of the films have been of interest historically, although some nearly as dull as lukewarm ditchwater … Continue reading
Everything Wrong With You Is Beautiful
I’ve always liked Tina Sederholm’s poetry. There is a plumb line weighted with honesty that cuts through it, and she probes either side of its divide. Her whole craft is … Continue reading
Dornford Yates: Snobbery with Violence
It is wonderful to judge a book by its cover, to date a book by its cover also. Here is a recent second-hand addition here: Blind Corner by Dornford Yates, … Continue reading
The Moving Toyshop & the Awkward Hour Between Evensong & Cocktails
EDMUND CRISPIN’s The Moving Toyshop is one of the classic Oxford novels. Crispin was the pseudonym of Robert Bruce Montgomery, a composer of vocal and choral music which included An Oxford … Continue reading
Kerouac & the Sputnik
Whilst living a fairly dissolute life – a university drop out, a naval honourable discharge, arrested as an accessory to murder – Jack Kerouac wrote constantly throughout the turmoil in … Continue reading
Opening Lines
I recently posted online my two favourite opening lines from novels: Earthly Powers, Anthony Burgess: “It was the afternoon of my eighty-fifth birthday, and I was in bed with my … Continue reading
Fettled Hands: You Can Call Me Hal
Pianists each have a distinct touch and each have fettled hands. My pick of the best is displayed below. Dinu Lipatti could stretch an octave and five, brittle and perfect, fluttered his fingers … Continue reading
Catgut & Chopsticks: Chris Garrick & David Gordon
The Bookstore is christened the Beatnik because of Kerouac and Ginsberg’s association with jazz. The shop has a wholesale stash of jazz literature, a wonderful jazz CD cupboard painted (in fact on both … Continue reading
Let’s Talk of Graves, of Worms, & Epitaphs; Make Dust our Paper…
So here’s a nice little copy sold yesterday of George Herbert’s The Temple & A Priest to the Temple, Everyman edition, the binding slightly shaky but from a time when … Continue reading
Stig of the Dump, Ardizzone, Go-karts & Girlies
So I met someone last night who is known as Stig (he’s got an otherwise posh name). He’s nicknamed after Clive King’s hero, Stig of the Dump, the now classic … Continue reading
Ulysses, a Hundred Visions & Revisions, Before the Taking of a Toast & Tea
I never thought I could announce that because of the Christmas rush… well the Beatnik has sold out of James Joyce’s Ulysses. The modernist vade mecum, a stream-of-consciousness experimental prose, full … Continue reading
Julian MacLaren-Ross: Squandered Daylight, Neon-moonlight
JULIAN MacLAREN-ROSS (1912-1964) delineated with brilliance and acuity the sleazy bohemian atmosphere of post-war Soho through a series of amusing short stories and eight novels. His writing style is lively, … Continue reading
Gerald Kersh Died with His Boots Unclean
One of the great chroniclers of London’s metropolitan life was the versatile GERALD KERSH (1911-1968), although he came to settle in Barbados (where his house burnt down), then Canada, and in … Continue reading
Hans Fallada & Despair at Brookfield Farm
HANS FALLADA was published by Melville House only in 2009, Penguin thereafter (translated by Michael Hofmann), so he is a recent invention in the English-speaking world, and a surprising commercial … Continue reading
Colin MacInnes & London’s Jazz Age
Colin MacInnes, who died in 1976, is a fascinating novelist. He identified both the rise of the rebel teenage generation and an emergent multicultural London. He was openly gay at … Continue reading
Onanism Fleshed Out: Dan Holloway’s Evie & Guy
I so often go on and about Dan Holloway’s onanistic novel Evie and Guy, and am pleased to have heard that Dan is preparing a second edition. It is a … Continue reading
The Limits of Nostalgia
I went to Brighton recently, not a first call for bucket and spade for it’s all shingle and, this time of year, freezing cold. In my childhood, news consisted of Francis … Continue reading
Malcolm Saville’s Yard Broom
Malcolm Saville was born in Hastings in 1901 and educated there. His first job was as a clerk with the Oxford University Press, and the rest of his working life … Continue reading
Three Doorbells in Search of a Door
It took an act of generosity from a Portuguese friend to deliver the rooster, an ornament as fine as a Botticelli angel. But it took my brilliance with a drill to … Continue reading
A One-Night Stand with Erroll Garner
I am reminded by the recent release of lost studio takes by Erroll Garner, Ready Take One, that my eyes have been thrown always to the heavens with wonderment at … Continue reading
Spiritual Synaesthesia: John Coltrane at Ninety
In a brief and urgent career, John Coltrane transformed jazz and became a beacon for much else; he died aged only forty in 1967. A spiritual awakening in 1957 removed from him … Continue reading
She’s Leaving Home
She’s Leaving Home, a sublime and yet sorrowful song, is one of the more unusual in the Beatles’ catalogue. Like Eleanor Rigby from the earlier Revolver LP it did not include any band … Continue reading
Salzburg: Mozart & Lot’s Wife
Salzburg on a clear day is an impressive city to fly into. The city is stockaded by mountains, mainly southward, but when the stockade appears to consist of both mountain and … Continue reading
Buy One Get One Free
This decade’s Beatnik BOGOF (Buy One Get One Free) offer: a cup of tea, a free piddle, in any order. All for £2. Usually over seventy types of tea, loose leaf mainly. … Continue reading
Ten Books to Make You See a Big Picture
This selection is made from the Albion Beatnik Press’ book Fifty Shades of Re(a)d (an attempt to curate a vital book collection). These books attempt to take us outside of … Continue reading
Arthur Does Casablanca
Arthur, a finalist in last year’s Canine Halitosis World Championship, stumbled through my life again for two weeks this summer. His boundless lackadaisical posture, his turbulent sangfroid nature and his … Continue reading
Miles and Muhammad Ali: the Momentum of the Moment
The personas of Miles Davis and Muhammad Ali have fascinated the world always. Both men are iconic: you would expect to see them in any poster shop in any far-flung corner of the world … Continue reading
Miles, Boxing & Jack Johnson
“Boxing’s got style like music’s got style,” said Miles Davis. “Joe Louis had a style… and Sugar Ray Robinson had his style – as did Muhammad Ali… But you’ve got … Continue reading
A Privy Culprit of Poetry Readings
What is the collective noun for poets? I was asked that recently and was rather stumped for an answer. It’s been like Radio 4’s Any Questions recently, and not so … Continue reading
The Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library was refurnished by 1613, and the Old Schools Quadrangle extension was already under serious planning – to be measured in cubits rather than feet and inches, based on … Continue reading
Four Books to Visit a Shrink with
The book cover designs by Oxford based artist Stella Shakerchi for four of the titles from the forthcoming Oxfordshire Art Weeks exhibition (from 7th May), 50 Shades of Re(a)d, with … Continue reading
Fifty Shades of Re(a)d
It was Oxford based artist Stella Shakerchi who came up with the idea of hanging a collection of book cover design in the Albion Beatnik Bookstore windows, and the shop … Continue reading
This Is A Bookshop
The poster found often in the shop window did for a few golden days go viral and rampant on the internet. Its tale is told here by Dan Holloway in … Continue reading