I am the latest subject in the One Great Reader series published by Oakland CA’s Book/Shop.

In the interview by Wes Del Val I talk about the importance of books, particularly second-hand books, in my life.

Above is a selection of reading material mentioned in the chat plucked from the shelves, ranging from Myths & Legends given to me by an older sister when I was eight in the 1960s to Tabitha Lasley’s incredible Sea State published this year.

Read my One Great Reader chat with Wes here.

Tags: A Bit Off The Map, All The Devils Are Here, Angus Wilson, Anthony Burgess, Book/Shop, David Seabrook, FX Enderby, Hangover Square, Jane Bussman, Oakland, Once In A Lifetime, One Great Reader, Patrick Hamilton, Savage Pencil, Sea State, Tabitha Lasley, Wes Del Val

Tomorrow is Anthony Burgess’s centenary; would that I could, I’d be in Manchester, specifically at the Engine House, Chorlton Mill, 3 Cambridge Street, home to the International Anthony Burgess Foundation for its celebration of the great fellow with an “unforgettable evening of typewriters, music, rough cider and poison-pen letters”.

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Tags: Angela Carter, Anthony Burgess, Graham Greene, Hunter S. Thompson, International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Stanley Kubrick

I’m very excited by the news that artist Stephen Sutcliffe and director Graham Eatough are making a film based on the first and last chapters of the Enderby novels by my literary hero Anthony Burgess.

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Tags: Anthony Burgess, Dark Lady Or No End To Enderby, Going over, Graham Eatough, Inside Mr Enderby, International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Joseph Kell, Lux, Rob Tufnell, Sfumato Foundation, Stephen Sutcliffe, University Of Manchester, Whiteworth Gallery, Yorkshire Post

A recent conversation with artist John Frankland about the work of Mervyn Peake has brought me back to one of my most treasured possessions: the 1970 Penguin edition of Peake’s masterpiece Gormenghast.

Designed by Robert Hollingsworth, the three illustrated paperbacks Titus Groan (first published in 1946) Gormenghast (1950) and Titus Alone (1959) were housed in a case decorated with Peake drawings.

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Tags: Anthony Burgess, Barquentine, Belsen, Fuschia, Gormenghast, Irma Prunesquallor, John Coulthart, Langdon Jones, Maeve Gilmour, Mervyn Peake, Penguin, Robert Hollingsworth, Steerpike, Titus Alone, Titus Groan

Patti Smith is the focus of the latest Beatbooks sale, which is accompanied by a printed catalogue up to the usual high standards of the archive’s curator Andrew Sclanders.

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Tags: A Clockwork Orange, Al Hansen, Albert Camus, Andrew Sclanders, Anthony Burgess, BeatBooks, Charlotte Moorman & Nam June Paik, Gotham Book Mart, Harry Partch, Jim Carroll, John Cage, Jospeh Byrd, Karen Finley, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Larry Clark, Patti Smith, Richard hell, Richard Prince, Robert Mapplethorpe, Tod Dockstader, Vali Myers, Witt