Steve_Bamlett_blog

When Kathryn Hughes reviewed Ralf Webb’s (2024) Strange Relations: Masculinity, Sexuality and Art in Mid-Century America, London, Hodder & Stoughton in an otherwise highly positive review she picks out the necessary negative, in order to prove her credentials as a critic. She says that Webb ‘feels obliged to include chunks of plot summary’ (of the … More I think a lot can be learned by just ‘relating’ stories. This is is a short blog on Ralf Webb (2024) ‘Strange Relations: Masculinity, Sexuality and Art in Mid-Century America’

In a poem called There’s a Problem in the Arts, the voice of a lyric says of literature that, ‘it’s an industry / for cunts! / Where’s the fucking poetry in it?’ [1]. What is that problem? This is a blog on Jenni Fagan (2024) A Swan’s Neck On The Butcher’s Block Edinburgh, Polygon. It … More In her new volume Jenni Fagan has a poem called ‘There’s a Problem in the Arts’. What is that problem? This is a blog on Fagan’s (2024) ‘A Swan’s Neck On The Butcher’s Block’.

It isn’t all that ‘crazy’ to experience a ‘time warp’ in a structure ‘shaped by time’. A novelist ‘obsessed by time as a structure’.[1] This is a blog on a beautiful, readable comedy of a transatlantic impossible meeting of ‘two sides of a single. A-side and B-side’.[2] Benjamin Myers (2024) Rare Singles London & Dublin, … More It isn’t all that ‘crazy’ to experience a ‘time warp’ in a structure ‘shaped by time’. A novelist ‘obsessed by time as a structure’. Benjamin Myers (2024) ‘Rare Singles’.

The second of 2 days at the Edinburgh Festival: A blog covering events on 23rd August 2024. This diary blog covers the things I did at Edinburgh on the 23rd August after staying over from the 22nd August at Novotel Central Edinburgh. There is a record of other times at Edinburgh at these links: 14th … More The second of 2 days at the Edinburgh Festival: A blog covering events on 23rd August 2024.

Amy Liptrot’s ‘The Outrun’ performed by the Lyceum Theatre Company for the Edinburgh Festival at Church Hill Theatre on Thursday 22nd August 2024, 8.00 p.m. I might as well start with publicity images from the space because in truth, getting there to the actual space on time, where I might have taken my own was a … More Amy Liptrot’s ‘The Outrun’ performed by the Lyceum Theatre Company for the Edinburgh Festival at Church Hill Theatre on Thursday 22nd August 2024, 8.00 p.m.

‘The edge is where I’m from. It’s my home’.[1] From an autobiographical account of recovery containing encounters with representations of worlds considered as both real and only liminally so to the making of performance-oriented art forms. Preparing to see a performed adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s ‘The Outrun’ by reading the book. Sometimes a memoir’s significance hangs … More ‘The edge is where I’m from. It’s my home’. Preparing to see a performed adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s ‘The Outrun’ by reading the book.

Gifted with this picture, Joanne, that laughterBonding mother’s cheer with daughter hereafter. Acrostic! you silly thing!So let concrete verse take wing Joanne, let my caring love, see you safe Over bridges where danger flows beneathAnd praise those careful steps across the heathNo person treads without storms, skin will chafeNow and thin in inclement weather, But … More An acrostic and a concrete verse with wings, for dear friend, Joanne, and daughter (as promised in a foolish moment).

Parody, pastiche, play and fun are probably enough. But Ferdia Lennon’s (2024) Glorious Exploits has more; a haunting desire to find fixed identities of sex/gender, sexuality, family and nationhood wanting. My blog states the case for liking this novel differently. Anna Bonet, the Senior Writer at the i newspaper argues that if ‘novels that re-imagine … More Parody, pastiche, play and fun are probably enough. But Ferdia Lennon’s (2024) ‘Glorious Exploits’ has more. My blog states the case for liking this novel differently.

A reflection on the Lavery On Location exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art, Scotland in Edinburgh, visited on Wednesday 14th August 2024 using reference to its catalogue: Brendan Rooney [2023] (Ed.) Lavery On Location Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland. This is a sequel to a record of the day in general which can be … More A reflection on the ‘Lavery On Location’ exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art, Scotland in Edinburgh, visited on Wednesday 14th August 2024.