Best new books of the month
- Text by Shelley Jones
Lots of memoirs this month. Dig into this selection of wild characters and adventurous lives.
Anger is an Energy: My Life Uncensored by John Lydon
The second memoir from former frontman of punk pioneers The Sex Pistols, Anger… is a no-holds-barred account of Lydon’s harsh upbringing in London and the working-class values that informed his later approach to music. Poverty, fame, scandal and honesty abound.
Narcisa Our Lady Of Ashes by Jonathan Shaw
A drunk encounter with Charles Bukowski in LA in the mid-’70s inspired then writer and punk bum Jonathan Shaw to hitchhike to and around central and south America. When he returned to New York he found work as a tattooist and established an iconic style that saw fans like Johnny Depp quick to sign up. This new work of fiction – about a passionate and doomed romance – exhibits his flair and finesse as a storyteller, taking inspiration from the things he has seen and people he has met along his travels.
Under Major Domo Minor by
Patrick Dewitt
Patrick Dewitt’s last novel Sisters Brothers was a Man Booker-nominated romp through Gold Rush California and the thieves, hit men, drunks and darlings that populate its wild landscape. His new novel Under Major Domo Minor is a gothic romantic black comedy set in a castle where things are not quite what they seem.
Dress Rehearsal Brags by
Graham Bendel
Writer and punk filmmaker Graham Bendel’s ‘Diary of a Nobody’ has been described as “Catcher in the Rye had the lead character been into Killing Joke and had accidentally dry-humped Tanita Tikaram at a Desmond Dekker gig”. Hilarious, sad, insightful and smart, Dress Rehearsal… is an A-Z of the underground, seen slightly from side of stage.
Latest on Huck
Maverick Sabre: “When times get grittier, sounds get grittier”
The Irish singer songwriter sits down to talk about his latest album, Burn The Right Things Down – a yearning, existential journey that is fit for the times.
Written by: Isaac Muk
Kola Bokinni: “With dementia, you grieve for the person before they die”
For the latest in our Daddy Issues column, Robert Kazandjian sits down with the Ted Lasso star to talk about grief, building a relationship with his dad and losing him slowly to dementia.
Written by: Robert Kazandjian
The party putting accessibility and politics centre stage
From streaming DJ sets in their kitchen during lockdown to the stage at Wembley arena Queer House Party have taken the world by storm whilst always staying true to who they are.
Written by: Ben Smoke
Redefining street photography in the 21st Century
A new exhibition celebrates the transformative art of street photography.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Exploring the impact of colonialism on Australia’s Indigenous communities
New exhibition, ‘Under a Southern Star: Identity and Environment in Australian Photography’ interrogates the use of photography as a tool of objectification and subjugation.
Written by: Miss Rosen
My sister disappeared when we were children. Years later, I retraced her footsteps
After a car crash that saw Magnum photographer Lindokuhle Sobekwa hospitalised, his sister ran away from their home in South Africa. His new photobook, I Carry Her Photo With Me, documents his journey in search of her.
Written by: Lindokuhle Sobekwa