Category: Literature

Folk Horror, Landscape, Literature

Rurality In Folk Horror And The Films of David Gladwell.

This paper was originally given at The Alchemical Landscape conference at Girton College Cambridge, 07/07/2016. Though more well known for work as a film editor associated with the Free Cinema Movement of the late 1950s, and for cutting work on several films by Lindsay Anderson including If…. (1968) and O’ Lucky Man! (1973), David Gladwell is a director in his own right; a cinematic outsider … Continue reading Rurality In Folk Horror And The Films of David Gladwell.

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Landscape, Literature, Psychogeography

Wanders: Ian Nairn’s Pimlico (London).

I’ve always had a slight relationship with Victoria and Pimlico in London.  As central London areas go, it has always represented two things to me: the awful feeling of leaving the city and the sense of dread at having to wander around somewhere largely built of private buildings, houses and hotels (not the ideal place to burn an hour in wait for a coach or … Continue reading Wanders: Ian Nairn’s Pimlico (London).

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Art, Landscape, Literature, Psychogeography

Responses: Jeremy Millar’s A Firework For Sebald (2005).

The strongest moment in Grant Gee’s documentary on W.G. Sebald, Patience (After Sebald) (2012), is courtesy of a photographic work by the artist, Jeremy Millar. Towards the end of film, the inevitable addressing of the tragedy of Sebald’s life being cut short in a car crash in 2001 comes to be addressed and uses one photo from a series of works by Millar titled A Firework … Continue reading Responses: Jeremy Millar’s A Firework For Sebald (2005).

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Film, Landscape, Literature

Place and Youth in Margaret Tait’s A Portrait Of Ga (1952)

“My mother lives in the windy Orkney Islands.  It’s certainly a wonderful place to be brought up in.” In making a short film about her mother, Scottish experimental filmmaker Margaret Tait also explored the interesting relationship between place and youth. In A Portrait of Ga (1952), a 4 minute short film shot on 16mm with a voice-over by the filmmaker, a fragment of biography becomes … Continue reading Place and Youth in Margaret Tait’s A Portrait Of Ga (1952)

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Landscape, Literature, Psychogeography

A Last Glimpse of the Land

“The contours of the Sizewell power plant, its Magnox block a glowering mausoleum, begin to loom upon an island far out in the pallid waters where one believes the Dogger Bank to be, where once shoals of herring spawned and earlier still, a long, long time ago, the delta of the Rhine flowed out into the sea and where green forests grew from silting sands.” … Continue reading A Last Glimpse of the Land

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Literature, Psychogeography, Short Film

Short Film – A Walk By Waiting (Harold Pinter, Iain Sinclair).

My walk around Harold Pinter’s old haunts in the east end of London has produced a number of written accounts now that, with the film that sparked of the whole venture being finally public, I’m not quite sure what else to say about it.  The idea for the walk came about when I saw the, since frustratingly taken down, Harold Pinter Arena documentary which spent a … Continue reading Short Film – A Walk By Waiting (Harold Pinter, Iain Sinclair).

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Literature, Psychogeography

Wanders: Thomas De Quincey’s Soho.

London, with its eternal agitations, the ceaseless ebb and flow of its “mighty heart” – De Quincey (1823). After one of the most hectic days of the year so far, I had some hours to kill in London before meeting a friend for an exhibition at the Royal Academy.  The day had been frantic, with large amounts of strangely powerful coffees being downed around New … Continue reading Wanders: Thomas De Quincey’s Soho.

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Landscape, Literature, Psychogeography, Short Film

Trailer – A Walk By Waiting (Pinter/Sinclair).

Above is the trailer for a very short fragment of film made in collaboration with the writer, Iain Sinclair.  Though I had been thinking about doing something with the poems of Harold Pinter for the some time, I had left it to stew away rather than properly organise it as with other, simpler films.  With initially failing to get in touch with Iain, I had … Continue reading Trailer – A Walk By Waiting (Pinter/Sinclair).

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Film, Folk Horror, Landscape, Literature, Psychogeography

“Wyrd” Wirral – Spirits Of Place (02/04/2016)

This is an edited version of the paper given at Spirits Of Place in Calderstones Park, Liverpool 02/04/2016.  My thanks to John Reppion and Leah Moore for organising the event and for to the other excellent speakers (Gill Hoffs, David Southwell, Gary Budden, Kenneth Brophy, Richard Macdonald, Ian “Cat” Vincent and Ramsey Campbell).  Here’s to the next one. There is strange landmass on the opposite … Continue reading “Wyrd” Wirral – Spirits Of Place (02/04/2016)

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Literature, Psychogeography

Walking On and On with Harold Pinter

Dear Joe, I’d like to walk with you From Clapton Pond to Stamford Hill And on…  – Harold Pinter Harold Pinter liked walking around London. It is easily forgotten how vital walking around the capital was for him when considering how claustrophobic much of his theatre work is. Yet there is still a sense of place in his work, often highlighting many of his characters’ … Continue reading Walking On and On with Harold Pinter

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