Steve_Bamlett_blog

BOOKER SHORTLIST: ‘If all she was was funny, and none of this is funny, where did that leave her’.[1] A reflection on no one is talking about this by Patricia Lockwood (2021), London, Oxford, New York etc., Bloomsbury Circus. Of course dedicated to @TriciaLockwood with apologies for errors. I have put off reading this novel … More BOOKER SHORTLIST: ‘If all she was was funny, and none of this is funny, where did that leave her’.[1] A reflection on ‘no one is talking about this’ by Patricia Lockwood (2021).

BOOKER LONGLIST: ‘The unfolding continued, and he was stretched thin by it, so thin and formless that he might at any moment be taken up by the wind, removed’.[1] A reflection on An Island by Karen Jennings (2021), Newbury, Berkshire, Holland House Books. Reviews of this brief and brutal novel have tirelessly repeated that it … More BOOKER LONGLIST: ‘The unfolding continued, and he was stretched thin by it, so thin and formless that he might at any moment be taken up by the wind, removed’. A reflection on ‘An Island’ by Karen Jennings (2021).

‘She might hope for more but had long ago learned to live with whatever came to pass. Yet sometimes – just sometimes – hope was enough’.[2] Is hope and political liberalism enough in the novel in a world where Black Lives Really Matter? A reflection on Nathan Harris (2021) The Sweetness of Water London, Tinder … More BOOKER LONGLIST: ‘She might hope for more but had long ago learned to live with whatever came to pass’. Is hope and political liberalism enough in the novel in a world where Black Lives Really Matter? A reflection on Nathan Harris (2021) ‘The Sweetness of Water’.

‘What  had been like since the end of the war, physically located in a world that was shorn of the people she loved and unable therefore to participate in it, her mode of existence more akin to that of ghosts than humans, even if she’d existed in a body that possessed weight and could move … More BOOKER SHORTLIST: A ‘mode of existence more akin to that of ghosts than humans’: Tamils in Sri Lanka after the civil war and the ghostly but epic life of a nation that never existed: being a reflection on the philosophy of epic underlying Anuk Arudpragasam 2021 ‘A Passage North’

A definition of an Ootlin by Jessie Kesson: “queer folk who were out and never had any desire to be in”. The novelist, poet and dramatist Jenni Fagan speaks of her upcoming memoir called Outling and the origin of that word in the writer Jessie Kesson at a reading performance of her adaptation of Kesson’s … More A definition of an Ootlin by Jessie Kesson: “queer folk who were out and never had any desire to be in”. The novelist, poet and dramatist Jenni Fagan speaks of her upcoming memoir called ‘Ootlin’ and the origin of that word in the writer Jessie Kesson at a reading performance of her adaptation of Kesson’s BBC Radio Play ‘You Never Slept At Mine’.

The complex gendering of men and nets: a fantasy reflection on a recent exhibition at the City Art Gallery Edinburgh seen on 1th August 2021 with the assistance of Dealbhan le Eileanach’s (2019) Donald Smith: The Paintings of an Islander Stornaway, Isle of Lewis, Acair Books. There is a brilliant virtual tour of the exhibition … More The complex gendering of men and nets: a fantasy reflection on a recent exhibition at the City Art Gallery Edinburgh seen on 1th August 2021 with the assistance of Dealbhan le Eileanach’s (2019) ‘Donald Smith: The Paintings of an Islander’.

‘Most of your sculptures are site-specific. The one you’re producing in Frankfurt is for the Schirn Rotunda, which is a special yet difficult space’.[1] The new extension to the old Fruitmarket, Edinburgh is ‘a special yet difficult space’. How does Karla Black make site-specific interventions here? Exhibition 7th July to 24th October 2021 Karla Black … More ‘Most of your sculptures are site-specific. The one you’re producing in Frankfurt is for the Schirn Rotunda, which is a special yet difficult space’. The new extension to the old Fruitmarket, Edinburgh is ‘a special yet difficult space’. How does Karla Black make site-specific interventions here? Exhibition 7th July to 24th October 2021 ‘Karla Black sculptures (2001-2021) details for a retrospective’.

‘Any graveyard is full of stories’.[1] Attending an event and reading James Robertson News of the Dead Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House. Two very unequal experiences. MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS, and it matters in this book. Attending literary events can be a delight or it can be a trial. I felt this one to be the … More ‘Any graveyard is full of stories’. Attending an event and reading James Robertson ‘News of the Dead’

‘“But again, the text MIGHT be taken seriously. And yet again, the boats are so dignified that the total effect cannot be neo-dada … perhaps the whole thing is really a poem about fishing boats, in a kind of triple wrapping of semi-transparent disguise”’.[1] Reflecting on the City art Gallery, Edinburgh’s mounting of an innovative … More ‘“But again, the text MIGHT be taken seriously. And yet again, the boats are so dignified that the total effect cannot be neo-dada … perhaps the whole thing is really a poem about fishing boats, in a kind of triple wrapping of semi-transparent disguise”’. Reflecting on the City art Gallery, Edinburgh’s mounting of an innovative exhibition of the work of Ian Hamilton Finlay. How seriously should we take it?

‘… his art passed out of fashion and into that dark hinterland of obscurity’.[1] Reflecting on an attempt by the City art Gallery, Edinburgh to revalue some of the lost traditions which help us to see why Charles H. Mackie should be seen as a great Scottish painter. With reference to, amongst other things, Pat … More ‘… his art passed out of fashion and into that dark hinterland of obscurity’. Reflecting on an attempt by the City art Gallery, Edinburgh to revalue some of the lost traditions which help us to see why Charles H. Mackie should be seen as a great Scottish painter. With reference to, amongst other things, Pat Clark (2016) ‘People, Places & Piazzas: The Life & Art of Charles H. Mackie’

Old Men in Love: Shakespeare’s Sonnet 34 Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day, And make me travel forth without my cloak, To let base clouds o’ertake me in my way, Hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke? ‘Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break, To dry the rain on my storm-beaten … More Old Men in Love: Shakespeare’s Sonnet 34

‘Eventually, I landed on Frantz Fanon. … In my disavowing I forgot who I was in the white frame of reference. The truth was that the Soli of 2003 was black’. [1]  Getting implicated in a complicated story of intersectional oppressions: a reflection on Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali (2019) Angry Queer Somali Boy: A Complicated Memoir, … More ‘Eventually, I landed on Frantz Fanon. … In my disavowing I forgot who I was in the white frame of reference. The truth was that the Soli of 2003 was black’.  Getting implicated in a complicated story of intersectional oppressions: a reflection on Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali (2019) ‘Angry Queer Somali Boy: A Complicated Memoir’.