| Me:
Adventures and big conversations, geometry - curves and angles,
table-tennis, backsides, a bit of chub in the cheek, the sun, music,
history, free, independent-minded, kind people.
Some writers I like (as people): Ali Smith, Monica
Ali (old next door neighbours in university days, 'til my music
upset her!), Chimamanda Adichie, Nick Barlay, Nick Hornby, Linton
Kwesi-Johnson, Kodwo Eshun, Norman Mailer, Harold Pinter, Patrick
Neate, Paul Gilroy, Melvyn Bragg, China Mieville, Charlie Dark,
Paul Beatty, Greg Tate, Norman Lebrecht, Zadie Smith, Adam Zameenzad,
Rupert Thompson, Nick Blincoe, Ben Okri, Biyi Bandele, Kwame Kwei
Armah, Sukhdev Sandhu, Lemn Sissay, Jackie Kay, Jean Binta-Breeze,
Sophie Woolley, Jake Arnott, Jack Mapanje, Beverley Naidoo, Toby
Litt, Sarah Waters, Andrea Levy, Mike Phillips, Blake Morrison,
Jane Rogers, Bernadine Evaristo, John Burnside, Fred D'Aguiar, Caryl
Phillips, Hari Kunzru, Terry Tempest-Williams, Ian McEwan, John
Lanchester, Matthew Hollis, Steven Thompson, Alex Wheatle, Leone
Ross, Jill Dawson, Kate Pullinger, William Fiennes, Percival Everett,
AL Kennedy, Glenn Patterson, Louise Doughty, Gideon Haigh, Elliot
Perlman, Buchi Emecheta, Patience Agbabi, Roy Williams, Romesh Gunesekera
Some books that smoked (i.e, for any vernacularly challenged,
some faves): Lisa Jones - 'Bulletproof Diva', Joseph
Conrad - 'Victory', Langston Hughes’ - ‘The Ways of
White Folk’, Adam Zameenzad - 'My Friend Matt and Hena the
Whore', Albert Camus - 'The Myth of Sisyphus', Greg Tate - ‘Flyboy
in the Buttermilk’, Zora Neale Hurston - 'Their Eyes Were
Watching God' , James Baldwin -'The Fire Next Time', Michel Houellebecq
- 'Atomised', Nietzche - Twilight of the Idols', Ishmael Reed -
'Mumbo Jumbo', Soren Kierkegaard - 'Papers and Journals', PG Wodehouse
- 'The Inimitable Jeeves'. Kahlil Gibran - 'The Prophet', JD Salinger
- ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, Shakespeare - 'Hamlet',
'Troilus and Cressida', John Webster - 'The White Devil', Mike Marqusee
- 'Anyone but England', Hunter S. Thompson - 'The Great Shark Hunt',
Samuel Beckett's 'Molloy' (first half) and 'Malone Dies', Nick Barlay
- 'Curvy Lovebox', King Solomon - 'Ecclesiastes', Kodwo Eshun -
'More Brilliant than the Sun', Chinua Achebe - 'Things Fall Apart',
John Fante - 'Ask the Dust'.
favourite short story
Probably Donald Barthelme's 'The Great Hug'. Funny, bizarre, and
a bit sad. Pure Barthelme. His 'The King of Jazz' is great too.
Ah - so many by him.
Some writers I seriously rate (bit of a track
record needed here): Ayi Kwei-Armah, Donald Barthelme,
Toni Morrison, Saul Bellow (though, like so many white scribes,
your respect tends to drop as soon as a black character enters the
frame), Nietzche, PG Wodehouse, Samuel Beckett, Celine, Ishmael
Reed, Will Shakespeare.
Up and coming literary dons/ donettes (sounds of the underground):
Gemma Weekes, Sophie Woolley, Blessing Musariri (Zimbabwe).
Some musicians: Fela Kuti, Charlie Mingus,
Stevie Wonder, The Velvet Underground, 'Stone Love' sound system,
Donnie Hathaway, Carroll Thompson (family),The Wu Tang Clan, Ali
Farka Toure, Ennio Morricone, Kate Bush, Johnny Marr ('The Smiths'),
Led Zeppelin, The Kinks, Burt Bacharach, and a whole heap of mainly
soul singers who scaled the peaks on a track.
Some Sounds: Bossa Nova, Lovers Rock/Soul,
reggae (especially 'Roots' + early 'Ragga'), hip and trip-hop, '60s
guitar, late 80s/ 90s Britsoul, Grime, AfroBeat, Mali/ Senegal,
western Classical (not so much beyond 'Greatest Hits', but I'm on
the case).
Some others: Paul Robeson, cricketers
Gordon Greenidge (childhood hero), Carl Hooper (pure elegance with
a bat in his hand).
My Sports Teams: West Indies Cricket. Tottenham Hotspur
(football). The French rugby union team. Nigeria (in all sports).
Holland, Brazil football teams, especially the Dutch team of the
mid-seventies.
Bar Nigeria (who I support for obvious reasons), all these teams
stole my heart at a young age, before I was seven in each case,
because of the way they played. All panache-ful, classy, adventurous
teams. As the Spurs motto says: Audere est Facere. To dare is to
do...
(Spurs, I should remind various Johnny-Come-Lately-Arsenal brothas
out there, was the original immigrant-friendly team in London, whilst
the Gooners were still deep in their darling of the British establishment
'let's hike you into Division One' ways.)
That'll do 4 now. I'll be adding to these, de temps en temps. |
