Happy birthday to me
Well, to my book, anyway.....
Ghost Signs turns two today, which is pretty fucking mental from where I’m sitting. Doesn’t feel like all that long since I was typing up a post for its first anniversary, yet here were are again. Despite the upcoming election, the outlook still seems pretty bleak, given the absence of anyone standing up with some policies aimed at driving positive change. It’d be wonderful to have something to vote FOR instead of against, wouldn’t it? Cos surely that’s how democracy is supposed to work……
Labour are facing the biggest open goal in recent electoral history, yet their manifesto appears to be little more than, Vote For Us - We Won’t Make Two Shits Of Difference But At Least We’re Not The Other Lot. Not exactly inspiring, nor is Starmer’s complete inability to Read the Fucking Room with his relentless refusal to condemn a genocidal war, and his policy of sidelining dedicated public servants and bastions of integrity like Diane Abbot while welcoming Tory defectors with open arms. Terrific for mopping up moderate conservatives disillusioned with the Nazification of their party, but not much cop chasing that vote when you’ve alienated most of your traditional voter base in the process cos you’re shit-scared of pissing off the Murdoch papers…..
I wasn’t quite old enough to vote in 1997 but I stayed up watching it like everyone else, laughing my tits off as seat after seat fell and howling at Portillo’s ugly mug when his turn came. It genuinely felt like something good was happening then, like the old regime was being cleared all the way out and replaced with something different. I’m no fan of Blair - I can’t stand the cunt, actually - but at least his version of Labour had some decent policies in the beginning and they set up some great initiatives like Sure Start (which demonstrated conclusively that early intervention works, and the scrapping of which is one of the greatest scandals of the last fifteen years), they introduced the minimum wage, and the NHS and public services were in far better shape under them, whatever their faults may have been. But the wave of optimism that accompanied their coming to power is nowhere to be seen this time (not that I think a Labour victory is a given, despite what everyone else seems to think), which is profoundly depressing.
But let’s not dwell. Next time you hear from us, hopefully the bastards will be gone; whatever comes next, it cannot possibly be worse. And yes, I know I used this meme when I wrote about the book’s first anniversary, but it says it all.
A couple of shameless plugs before we move on…..
If anyone’s reading who doesn’t know Ghost Signs, it’s available in all good bookshops and the usual online outfits. If you’re a fan of ukbookshop.org, the link to buy from them is here. If you wanna sample the merchandise first, you can read extracts in this piece, commissioned and edited by Alan Rusbridger for Prospect Magazine to coincide with publication. While we’re on the subject, shout out and special thanks to Alan, Jo Murray and everyone else at the mag, who have fearlessly and relentlessly championed the book since day 1. So many of the exciting and interesting opportunities I’ve had to talk about and promote the book have come through them, and for that I’ll be forever grateful.
What else?
Speaking of Prospect Magazine, after some lengthy hold-ups that were completely out of my hands, you can finally read my review of Head North by Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram, in which the mayors of the Greater Manchester and Liverpool regions set out their case for rebuilding a political and electoral system that’s quite clearly fucked beyond redemption. Refreshing honest considering it was written by two politicians, and well worth a look if you’re of the mind (as anyone sane should be) that if so-called democracy in this country is to be of any use to anyone, we need to look outside the Westminster bubble and find a way of moving beyond the partisan binaries of tit-for-tat, playground politics that have turned political “debate” into a complete fucking farce.
Keep your eyes peeled for a couple more pieces from me in Prospect towards the back end of this year, more details when I have them.
Events
I’ve too much writing to do getting on with to be booking many events myself and I don’t get invited to many without an agent to hustle for me, but I’m absolutely delighted to have been invited by Steve Kirby of Industrial Coast Records to do another Monday Night In Middlesborough gig. Some of you may remember I did one of these last year and it was my favourite event out of all the many I’ve done since Ghost Signs came out. Ticket info TBA next week, but the gig will be on 15th July at Disgraceland and I’d love to see some of you there.
I’ll be performing (not reading) the opening of Keshed (so far this has only happened once before and I can’t wait for a re-run), plus a new experimental piece about the psychogeography of a place that northern readers will know, that’s so hot off the press it hasn’t even been published yet (details as soon as I have them). I’ll also read some (or all, depending on timings and whether or not folk are sick of us) of a short story called Shit Life Syndrome, that was praised as “a work of evident merit” by the literary editors of The New Yorker, although sadly it wasn’t QUITE their vibe so they turned it down. But for them to even acknowledge its existence and take the time to reply is really quite something. It’s now on sub somewhere else, so hoping to have news on that soon!
I’ve got a couple more events lined up later in the year too - one in late September to launch Maps Of Imaginary Towns by literary stalwart SJ Bradley, and another on my birthday, of all days, interviewing Angharad Hampshire, whose debut novel The Mare is publishing this autumn with the small but mighty Northodox Press. Booking details and ticket links coming for both events later in the year.
It’s been a hell of a week
With two late-night events at work as well as the usual, and I’m working like a motherfucker on getting the last set of excruciatingly detailed annotations for Disappear Here done before I go on holiday at the end of next week, so all being well I should be in a position to start properly drafting when I get back. I’ve been at the Northern Fiction Alliance indie publishers fair at Hyde Park Book Club this aft, a staple of Leeds Litfest, which is in its sixth year and has been brilliant as always. But with that in mind, I’m running out of steam a bit so I’ll bid you a fond farewell for now. I’ll be in touch again over the summer when there’s more to report.
Don’t forget to vote - use it wisely. And, if for some reason you’re planning on voting Tory? Kindly fuck off - your sort ain’t welcome round here.
Peace.
S x
1997 was my first vote, and I remember being so excited. As I recall, I watched an election comedy special (Armando Iannuci, David Schneider?) then thought 'what now? This is quite dull actually' and went to bed. To be fair I will have had a 9am lecture the next morning, but I've been kicking myself ever since - I remember my older brother gleefully describing the events of the night that I'd missed. Quite a contrast to *his* first vote, which was the election that saw Mrs T move in to No 10. You're right though, would be nice to feel like we were about to gain a useful govt rather than only losing a useless one.
Congratulations!