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Chasing tales of sugarcane, rubber and gold, Song embarks upon a perilous voyage across the globe to the British colony of Guiana, but once there he discovers riches are not so easy to come by and he is forced into labouring as an indentured plantation worker.
At first glance, Jonathan Meades's 1993 masterpiece Pompey is a post-war family saga set in and around the city of Portsmouth. This doesn't come close to communicating the scabrous magnificence of Meades's vision.He writes like Martin Amis on acid, creating an obscene, suppurating vision of an England in terminal decline. The story begins with Guy Vallender, a fireworks manufacturer from Portsmouth (Pompey), who has four children by different four different women. There's Poor Eddie, a feeble geek with a gift for healing; 'Mad Bantu', the son of a black prostitute, who was hopelessly damaged in the womb by an attempted abortion; Bonnie, who is born beautiful but becomes a junkie and a porn star; and finally Jean-Marie, a leather-wearing gay gerontophiliac conceived on a one-night stand in Belgium. The narrator is 'Jonathan Meades', cousin to Poor Eddie and Bonnie, who tells the story of how their strange and poisonous destinies intersect. And although there is no richer stew of perversity, voyeurism, corruption, religious extremism and curdled celebrity in all of English literature, there is also an underlying compassion and a jet-black humour which makes Pompey an important and strangely satisfying work of art. Prepare to enter the English novel's darkest ride....
A gorgeously illustrated and extended version of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, by the Kate Greenaway Medal-winning co-author of The Lost Words
'I adore Meades's book . . . I want more of his rule-breaking irreverence in my kitchen' New York Times'The Plagiarist in the Kitchen is hilariously grumpy, muttering at us "e;Don't you bastards know anything?"e; You can read it purely for literary pleasure, but Jonathan Meades makes everything sound so delicious that the non-cook will be moved to cook and the bad cook will cook better' David Hare, GuardianThe Plagiarist in the Kitchen is an anti-cookbook. Best known as a provocative novelist, journalist and film-maker, Jonathan Meades has also been called 'the best amateur chef in the world' by Marco Pierre White. His contention here is that anyone who claims to have invented a dish is delusional, dishonestly contributing to the myth of culinary originality.Meades delivers a polemical but highly usable collection of 125 of his favourite recipes, each one an example of the fine art of culinary plagiarism. These are dishes and methods he has hijacked, adapted, improved upon and made his own. Without assuming any special knowledge or skill, the book is full of excellent advice. He tells us why the British never got the hang of garlic. That a purist would never dream of putting cheese in a Gratin Dauphinois. That cooking brains in brown butter cannot be improved upon. And why - despite the advice of Martin Scorsese's mother - he insists on frying his meatballs.Adorned with his own abstract monochrome images (none of which 'illustrate' the stolen recipes they accompany), The Plagiarist in the Kitchen is a stylish object, both useful and instructive. In a world dominated by health fads, food vloggers and over-priced kitchen gadgets, it is timely reminder that, when it comes to food, it's almost always better to borrow than to invent.
Jonathan Meades has an obsessive preoccupation with places. He has spent thirty years constructing sixty films, two novels and hundreds of pieces of journalism that explore an extraordinary range of them, from natural landscapes to man-made buildings and 'the gaps between them', drawing attention to what he calls 'the rich oddness of what we take for granted'. This book collects fifty-four pieces and six film scripts that dissolve the barriers between high and low culture, good and bad taste, deep seriousness and black comedy. Meades delivers what he calls 'heavy entertainment' - strong opinions backed up by an astonishing depth of knowledge. To read Meades on places, buildings, politics or cultural history is an exhilarating workout for the mind. He leaves you better informed, more alert, less gullible.
An interactive story from the hugely popular SICKOFWOLVES Twitter account assume the role of a wolf, disguised as a man, trying to hide your real identity while navigating the minutiae of modern life.
This searingly inventive novel conjures a kaleidoscope of individual lives that all touch a central mystery: the suicide of a choirboy in rural Victorian Dorset
Billy's desperate to escape middle England. He's working the ultimate dead-end job as a grave-digger, his grandad's engaged to a West Indian woman half his age, his xenophobic dad's obsessed with boxing; and his mum's certainly having an affair. Meeting Eva, though, changes everything.
Sanjeev's dog is missing in a brutal winter. This shock is dwarfed by events in The Met in New York as Sanjeev is catapulted to 6th century Byzantium, becoming an accomplice to murder. An evil force is after him and the answer may lie with Sara, who claims to be the First Hare.
In this instalment of the FUTURES series, comedian and activist Grace Campbell traverses the shifting landscape of contemporary masculinity, and speculates about how it might look in twenty years time
In this instalment of the FUTURES series, blockchain entrepreneur Vinay Gupta asks what kind of world will we live in when every item of property has a digital trace
In this instalment of the FUTURES series, cultural critic Mia Levitin explores the future of seduction, asking powerful and necessary questions about the relationships of tomorrow
In this instalment of the FUTURES series, journalist and broadcaster Bidisha uses her personal journey though books, TV and film to trace seismic changes in the way we engage with culture, and what we consider to be serious art
From post-colonial arrogance to climate disaster, Frankie Boyle takes a characteristically unsparing look at the key issues on our political horizon, in this instalment of the FUTURES series
The definitive collection of art by Jim Moir, aka Vic Reeves, with a foreword by Grayson Perry
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