Around eight years ago, I made my first “fake trailer”. Partly in response to Ben Wheatley’s (and Amy Jump’s) adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise, which I felt somewhat missed the mark, I edited together a “what if” trailer for the book if it had been adapted for BBC television in 1975. The responses to it, along with those to a follow up trailer (looking at … Continue reading Trailer – J.G. Ballard’s Crash (Thames Television 1974)
When Georges Perec was 11, he decided to wander. In fact, escape is perhaps a better description; a jailbreak from his aunt’s house on Rue de l’Assomption. He wandered Paris with who knows what planned. It was such a defining experience for the writer that he later composed a text surrounding the feeling of release and the places he encountered on this lost meander called … Continue reading Georges Perec Escapes
Not long before I had my VIVA exam for my PhD, I went for a wander around Deptford, making the most of my time in the area since I was rarely there for things besides supervisor meetings. I’ve walked around Deptford quite a bit in spite of this, not least because its market is still one of the best I’ve found in London and which, … Continue reading Wanders: Marlowe in Deptford
Throughout 2017, I have continued with the responses form of article to works of art and other miscellanea. Like last year, I found that a more interesting way to assess a piece of work was to not simply write an essay but to pair it with a poem; condensing the essence of the reading down into a basic selection of key notes, reactions and atmospheres. … Continue reading Responses: Poems On Landscape And Melancholy (Volume 2)
I’ve been going to Soho for a number of years now. For various reasons it has always appealed; it’s filled with character, its cinema and bookshops are still staggeringly good, and it has without question the best pubs in London. Now living in London, it seems that my previous visits from the north had spaced out my perception of an increasing disintegration of the area … Continue reading Short Film: The Economy of the Dead
‘The notion that one day the red dawn will indeed break over Clapham,’ wrote Angela Carter in a letter to Lorna Sage, ‘is the one thing that keeps me going.’ From having read several of Carter’s works over the years, all of which have had a variety of profound effects upon my own writing, her relationship to London has since intrigued me. When first on the train down … Continue reading Wanders: Angela Carter’s House
Above is Greenteeth, my film adaptation of the short story by Gary Budden which can be read in his upcoming volume of short stories. It is currently up for a fantasy award and follows the pressures on a young woman in a struggling part of north London whose social worries begin manifest in more folkloric ways through the legend of Jenny Greenteeth. The film came … Continue reading Short Film – Greenteeth
Above is the trailer for my only narrative film this year, Green Teeth. There has been a huge gap in my film projects recently, caused by writing a second book and having a huge chunk of time taken up with a project that fell through late last year. Green Teeth as a project came along quite by chance when adventuring on several walks with the … Continue reading Trailer – Green Teeth
For some time now, I’ve been wandering around Notting Hill attempting to get under its skin. For many years, even before I moved to London, there was something that struck me about both the level of contrasts in the area and how such contrasts were reflected in film history and locations. Even recently, I have been engaged on a film project set around both Ladbroke … Continue reading Wanders: Two Notting Hills
“Witness, for instance, the establishment of settled ‘alternative’ or ‘independent’ cultural zones, which endlessly repeat older gestures of rebellion and contestation as if for the first time.” – Mark Fisher The Longplayer walk ghosts a route to be taken on the 21st of June for a day long walked festival of arts in celebration of Jem Finer’s work. Information on the Longplayer event, featuring an … Continue reading Wanders: Longplayer (New Cross to Trinity Buoy Wharf)
Celluloid Wicker Man 