Obscenity is Whatever Gives a Judge an Erection
Gavin Everall, co-editor of the series rounded up the talks by thanking the authors and the enigmatic (and possibly fictional) Maree Gold who inadvertently provided extra publicity for Home’s book, at no extra cost. A self-confessed ‘militant’ feminist, ‘she’ has recently appeared on Facebook and Twitter, campaigning against the publication of Home’s ‘obscene’ book (on her Facebook page, she states that Home’s book is ‘explicitly pornographic, aggressive and obscene, deeply misogynistic’, but not, bizarrely, those of Kobek or Palmer, whose books also contain ‘explicit’ material), and even started petition calling for Home’s arrest and for his book to be banned. She was, alas, apparently not in attendance to receive this recognition.
Charlotte Young reviews the Semina book launch.
Sohoitis
London Calling is a comprehensive history of those places within the city that exert the siren call: the Soho of dandy writers and woozy poets, of rackety drinking clubs and jazz basements. The Ladbroke Grove of radical politics, Pop Art and Performance. The King’s Road fashion youthquake from Mary Quant to McLaren and Westwood. The East End that housed both Throbbing Gristle’s Death Factory and Derek Jarman’s waterside warehouse paradises.
Cathi Unsworth responds to the siren call of Barry Miles‘ history of the post-war counterculture.
Three Caithness writers
Ewan Morrison, whose continuing Tales from the Mall series you can follow here, reads alongside George Gunn and Kevin Williamson this Thursday. More details there. Central Library, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, Thursday 24 June 2010, 6.30pm Free, but booking essential readerdevelopment [@] edinburgh.gov.uk / 0131 242 8100