“… Climate, crisis and Oulipan strategies”

Shackleton’s Man Goes South, square thumbnail‘Shackleton’s Man Goes South: Climate crisis and Oulipan strategies,’ is the title of an introductory talk I’m giving at King’s College, London on 9 October, to kick off my residency in the French department there. It is primarily an opportunity — I think — to meet staff and students, most of whom for the first time. So, to make things simpler, my talk is scheduled as part of the research seminar series that runs through the term on Wednesday evenings. Here is the blurb, for my talk at least:

Author Tony White has recently been appointed Visiting Research Fellow and Creative Entrepreneur in Residence at King’s College London. In this introductory talk he will discuss his work, in particular the 2013 novel Shackleton’s Man Goes South — the first novel ever published by the Science Museum — and Dicky Star and the Garden Rule a novella that was specially commissioned to reflect upon the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Both books deploy literary strategies associated with the Ouvroir de littérature potentielle. He will also briefly introduce the collaboration with KCL’s Dr Sanja Perovic and the artist Stuart Brisley that is the subject of his residency.

There are more events relating to the novel Shackleton’s Man Goes South coming up through October (more info on my events page), and the novel is still available free and DRM-free on the Science Museum website.

What there wasn’t room to say in the blurb for King’s College, London, above, is that Dicky Star and the Garden Rule was written to accompany a series of works entitled Atomgrad (Nature Abhors a Vacuum), also reflecting on the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, by the artists Jane and Louise Wilson. Readers in London may be interested to know that some of Jane and Louise’s Chernobyl works are currently on show in their exhibition at Paradise Row gallery, which runs until 26 October.

Here is a short video of my reading from Dicky Star and the Garden Rule, shot by publishers Forma at the novella’s launch at London’s Free Word Centre last year. The novella’s short afterword, also published on this blog, traces some of these connections with Jane and Louise’s work and with the Oulipo. There are plans for publication of a commercial ebook edition of Dicky Star and the Garden Rule, alongside the existing print edition, later this year. More info soon.

Tony White reads from Dicky Star and the garden rule at the Free Word Centre, London, 26 April 2012. From Forma Arts & Media on Vimeo.

The Ice Man — Trinidadian street cries preserved in song

Screen Shot 2013-08-29 at 16.26.09A warm welcome to the many visitors from Trinidad and Tobago who find their way to this page to hear this incredible song! Greetings to you from London.

This ice man is not Sir Ernest Shackleton or George Clarke Simpson, but an ultra-rare calypso 7″ by Lord Melody, that preserves some of the Trini street cries of the day. ‘Street cry in the city really does amuse me!’ he begins:

‘Plantain to boil and fry! Plantain to boil and fry!’

And, ‘Bottles! Bottles! Bottles! Lady any bottles today!’

But the nicest cry of them all, is when I hear the ice man bawl:

‘Ice! Ice! Cold ice! Hard ice! All kind a ice!’

The song — recorded in ‘Feb 60’ — is written by Pat Castagne who also wrote the national anthem of Trinidad and Tobago. Vocal harmonies are provided by The March of Dimes, and the whole arrangement is by Cyril Diaz and his Orchestra.

The record belonged to a good friend of mine, a bit older than me, named Dave Blair in Leeds, UK. He’d bought it one sunny day at Portobello Market in London in the mid-1960s, along with a job lot of ska singles on the Blue Beat and Island labels by Jackie Edwards, the Blues Busters, Stranger Cole, Theophilus Beckford and many more. He also a bought a couple of pounds of cheap tomatoes. Then he went to the pub…

To cut a long story short, it was a mistake on such a hot day for Dave to have put all those tomatoes in the same bag as the records and then forget about them. The whole squashed mess got put in a cupboard and forgotten about, until the subject came up in conversation a couple of decades later in the mid-1980s.

I wasn’t alive when this record was recorded, but I was and remain a massive fan of Jamaican music as well as what a Jamaican friend of mine once called ‘small island music’, and I was particularly hungry for some new and rare ska tunes. So I volunteered to clean Dave’s singles up so we could listen to them. It wasn’t easy getting that decades-old and rock-hard tomato pulp off the wax. I had to soak them overnight, then wash each disc very carefully in warm water and washing up liquid. It took ages, but once they were cleaned up, we made a tape.

I looked for many years, but never did find a copy of ‘THE ICEMAN’ on vinyl, though the screen grab of the label reproduced here came from a copy that I sadly missed on ebay a few years back. This MP3 is extracted – to preserve it – from my rather battered cassette, which was recorded off the record in the mid-1980s, so the quality is not great, but what a song!

All together now: ‘Ice! Ice! Cold ice! Hard ice! All kind a ice!’

As ever, feel free to extract the file from the WordPress player if you want to listen on your own device.

#Paperbackbookday

Strange Horizons just ran a very positive short review by Niall Harrison of Shackleton’s Man Goes South, which concludes that ‘it’s certainly the most distinctive and formally creative novel I’ve read this year.’

Harrison then deadpans a favourable comparison (and grouping) of Shackleton’s Man Goes South with ‘the year’s second museum exhibition science-fictional tie-in literary experiment’, Hari Kunzru’s very well received Memory Palace novella and exhibition currently at the V&A.

Shackleton's Man Goes South, paperback in display case (showing Jake Tilson’s logotype on the cover), Atmosphere Gallery. Image: Science Museum

Shackleton’s Man Goes South, paperback in display case. Image: Science Museum

Book Cover Prize for Missorts Volume II

The brilliant Situations, who produced Missorts, my permanent soundwork for Bristol that launched at the end of last year, are holding a book cover design competition for a forthcoming paperback edition of my novella Missorts Volume II, which was first published as a free ebook last year to accompany the soundwork.

Cover_template

I’m really excited about the competition. Missorts Volume II means a lot to me, and so I am very excited to see how designers might respond to the novella.

Here’s what Situations say on their website:

The 2013 Book Cover Design Prize is a one-off open call for artists, designers and illustrators based in the South West, UK

We are seeking an intriguing and eye-catching cover design for the first printed edition of a Bristol-based novella Missorts Volume II by author Tony White.

Published in November 2013 in a limited edition of 250, this will be the first print version of the novella, which was published by Situations as a free e-book in November 2012, to accompany Tony White’s permanent public sound work, Missorts.

Situations is a Bristol-based visual arts organisation. We are committed to providing sustained support in talent development and are launching an open call to artists and creatives from the  South West to conceive a cover design that will capture the intrigue, personal stories and Bristolian context of the novella. Entrants will have their work reviewed by a panel of leading experts including Emily King, design historian and former editor of Frieze magazine, and Fraser Muggeridge, award-winning graphic designer and educator.

What you will win:
– £350 prize
– 10 complimentary signed copies of the limited edition novella
– A national PR campaign including Bristol and London launches of the book

Deadline is Monday 2 September 2013 at 12pm

A designers toolbox, including guidelines and FAQs, logos, a complete text of Missorts Vol.II and design templates can be found here

For anything else: missorts@situations.org.uk
0117 930 4282
or use @Situationsuk or #missorts to talk to us on twitter

Further information about the Missorts public artwork can be found at www.missorts.com

Asian Eastenders flyer

Click here to open the Asian Eastenders flyer (opens as PDF) for the event that I’m doing at the Idea Store Whitechapel on Saturday 20 July. I’m delighted and honoured to have been invited to read from my novel Foxy-T as part of Asian Eastenders for the Cockney Heritage Festival on the 10th anniversary of the novel’s publication by Faber and Faber.  Booking is recommended! Click-through this Googlemaps Streetview photo for the eventbrite page.Screen Shot 2013-07-16 at 11.54.08

A Tweet in the Lines

I’ve been enjoying people’s tweets and photos as they receive their copies of the Piece of Paper Press edition of ‘A Twist in the Lines’ by Michael Moorcock. Here is a selection. My favourite has to be @badaude’s ‘doll-sized’ photo, featuring Olive Oyle.

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Foxy-T event

This month marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of my novel Foxy-T by Faber and Faber — in July 2003 —  so I am delighted and honoured to have been invited by Whitechapel Idea Store to give readings and a talk at Asian East Enders: Urban Identity and Culture on Saturday 20 July, as part of the Cockney Heritage Festival. The festival celebrates Cockney history and culture and is organised by Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives and The Cockney Heritage Trust. The event is free but booking is recommended. Click-through the poster or here for bookings.

click-through for booking
Do come along! You can find out more about Foxy-T elsewhere on this site: articles here and here. Foxy-T also now has an official Facebook Page. It is a great thrill to me that Foxy-T has continued to have been written about in the years following publication. There are some press quotes in the sidebar on the left of this page, and more in the Press section.

Foxy-T on Facebook

As the tenth anniversary of the publication of my novel Foxy-T approaches, and encouraged by some positive responses to this news, I created an official page for the novel on Facebook. There was no such thing as Facebook when Foxy-T came out. In fact 2003 feels like a pre-digital age; lost on the other side of some social media event horizon. If you visit the page you will see that it links to a selection of the amazing reviews and write-ups that Foxy-T has continued to receive in the years since publication.

If you enjoyed Foxy-T, and you are on Facebook, then do please consider ‘liking’ the page, linking to it or tweeting about it! If you haven’t read Foxy-T you can buy it from the Book Depository, or order one from your local independent bookshop! The Foxy-T Facebook page