ESCAPING INTO WORDS ...
Some writers, and I have to admit I'm one of them, tend not to read as much as they should. We get scared that we'll absorb too many influences, perhaps find ourselves plagiarising phrases and ideas without even realising it. But I've made an effort this past year to get to grips with serious reading. Of course, the Stories of Ray Bradbury and the works of Herman Melville, notably Moby-Dick, are permanently at my bedside, as are works by the Dalai Lama, Neruda, Dylan Thomas and Woody Allen. But in general, I tend to by-pass fiction, and go for true stories and biographies. When I read modern fiction, it leaves me feeling inadequate and sometimes puzzled; why can't I write like that? Or, how the hell did this get commissioned? It must be age, and coming from a much older generation, once you've absorbed Dickens, Vonnegut, Hemingway, Steinbeck et al, you're always expecting something to match them.
So, during 2013, I took some books from the shelf which I'd been meaning to read. The first was Bill Bryson's biography of Shakespeare. I'd always been concerned that some pretty serious actors, such as Mark Rylance and Derek Jacobi, are among those peculiar folk who seem to go with the moth-eaten opinion that Shakespeare, being a provincial, lower-middle class lad could never have written the plays and sonnets because he lacked the cultural experience and background to do so. This, to me, is utter class snobbery. And when you read Bryson's chapter on this bizarre literary conundrum, you begin to realise that it has little, if any, solid foundation. To dump the efforts of the lowly son of a Stratford glove-maker and assume his works could only have been those of some jumped-up, over privileged titled rascal is tantamount to saying only 'posh' people can write fine words. So I'm with you, Will. The greatest writer ever, and as far as I can see, it was all your own work.Having always spent time every day trying to play the guitar properly,
I've developed a true passion over the years for Flamenco. So finding Jason Webster's thrilling, true page-turner, Duende, has taught me more about Spain's great musical tradition than any guitar tutor book ever could. Webster, setting out with just a guitar and no musical knowledge at first (he couldn't play!) goes off penniless to Spain to pursue his dream of learning this music, which can truly be called 'the Blues of Europe'. By the end of the book, he's good enough to join a band of Andalucian gypsies. Duendeis the special feeling, the 'buzz' which you get when hearing true Flamenco, and as a lack-lustre amateur guitar man, I've had more inspiration from this fine book than any other musical work. Talking of music - and poetry - I'm indebted to my wonderful wife Wendy for buying me Sylvie Simmons's massive, readable biography of Leonard Cohen, I'm Your Man. For decades I had no time for Cohen. He always reminded me of 1960s bedsit angst, teenage wastrels bent of slashing their wrists, general immature dopiness. Yet about five years ago, I watched his massive concert at the 02 Arena in London. Suddenly I discovered that I'd got it all wrong, and shamefully, belatedly, realised that he was a truly great poet and a charismatic musician. Now I can listen to him and watch him any time and be moved, and this book sets out his richly textured life with style and grace.Jon Ronson is the kind of writer I would always have liked to have been. He's brave,
Finally, For Christmas Wendy bought me a book about sport. I am to any sport what Orson Welles was to hang-gliding, but Daniel James Brown's The Boys in The Boat is a wonderful work, richly written with passion and superb research. It's the kind of book any writer would be proud of; and an epic story.
Cast aside by his family at an early age,
Thus my adventures in reading continue apace. I'm getting better at absorbing all this inspirational talent, and I'm only sad at the fact that I left it all a bit late. I should have listened to good advice in the past. Good writers read. And if I need to be a better writer, then reading is now as much an important part of the craft as writing each day. It also comforts us to discover that, in a dumbed-down world where Katie Price, Kerry Katona or Wayne Rooney can get massive advances for their ghosted 'creativity', that the true writers are those out there who write because that's what they were born to do - they fulfil a vocation. It's not always about the money; it's about the passion, and what you leave behind.