More Kavan pics and a review

In spite of my telling Jenny Sturm to hold on to her Kavan pics, that they'd make a great book some day, she's only gone and sent some more, Above is Kavan without her otherworldly hairnet. Below are some shots of Charles Fuller - who I believe was one of Kavan's disastrous beaus?. He is undoutedly a handsome swine.




There is another Alfred Douglas review from the remarkable Dovegreyreader. Given the volume of books she's currently getting sent we're amazed and very grateful that went through all 400 pages, going even further than the poetry and into the notes. Although doing so apparently gave her a piquante dinner story.

Wish you were here?

Kavan's featuring heavily on the blog these days but we're all of a flutter about her at the moment. This snap of Kavan in Bali was sent by the very learned Kavanophile Jenny Sturm (Who writes the foreword for Guilty) ALL THE WAY FROM NEW ZEALAND BY ELECTRONIC MAIL - not quite so impressive these days I know. I know. Much more impressive, and probably immensely wrenching, was Kavan's trip from New Zealand to uk in a freighter in 1942 accompanied by nobody but twelve paratroopers. A wrench not just because the high seas weren't exactly safe in 1942 but because she was leaving behind her partner, a conscientous objector under threat of prison. It's exactly these kinds of experiences that inform her powerful, lonely prose.

And wouldn't you know it. Advance copies of Guilty came in just now.

Anna Kavan Event

A very brief phone call from one of the most distinguished of contemporary British authors means that we can finally announce some exciting news:

On the third of July, to mark the publication of Guilty we are going to hold an Anna Kavan evening at the London Review Bookshop. Brain Aldiss, Doris Lessing Virginia Ironside and Christopher Priest will be holding a panel discussion about Kavan's life and work amidst a few brief readings - all will be very welcome.


http://www.peterowen.com/pages/fiction/Guilty.htm

http://www.lrbshop.co.uk/

The heartening thing about this event was how willing all these writers were to promote Kavan's work. It was just a case of a round of 'can you do this date, this one? etc.

Alfred Douglas Review

Saturday brought a piece by Jane Stevenson in the Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/05/10/bowin05.xml

It seems that she doesn't quite agree with Caspar's opinion of Bosie. Interestingly, it's not so much that she disagrees with the biographical evidence but with the interpretation of said evidence - Bosie's still on trial after all these years.

One thing that the Bookfair

brings home is that publishing is a small old world - however big the Transworld stand is. BNO1 did not quite was unaware quite how small until his hobby (Reading and translating contemporary Argentine literature - BNO1 needs some friends) suddenly came into contact with his work life. Having read the Spanish translation of The Enormity of the Tragedy he noticed that the translator was the author of one of the books he was currently reading ( Los Acuaticos, very much to be recommended by what's been read so far) so he sent out a speculative email and got this as a reply - a fascinating insight into a translator's job and also the standing of Quim Monzo on the continent:


'For many reasons, not least that Quim Monzo is a
dear friend of mine, it was a wonderful surprise to receive your message. But
first of all, please excuse my dreadful English. It wouldn't seem kind to me
to write you in Spanish, but I'm only a translator, that is to say that I
can read and translate reasonably well even William Burroughs --indeed I
have done it-- but my fluency is... well, you see.
I did the work maybe more than fifteen years ago, then I returned in Argentina --after
living 20 years in Barcelona-- and I have but a blurred memory of my
intentions and about how I thought then my work had to be done. I guess I can only
help you telling these things:
- As I say, Monzó and I were very close friends; in fact he
gave me lessons of Catalan.
- In very brief terms, he was the first postmodernist, as it
were, not only in Catalan but in Spanish narrative.
- Critics and inteligent readers use to say that, appart from his
subject and contemporary/semi surreal plots, one of the charms of
his books was that they were written in a wonderfully economic, very simple,
almost inmaculate but sparkling and ironic prose.
- I tried to keep those characteristics, but spare Spanish
needs to be a bit less spare than spara catalan if it doesn't want to look
awkward or inexpresive; so maybe I took some slight liberties.
- Quim himself told many times, even in public, that he felt
very well represented by my translations. But, you see, we were friends, so
maybe...
- True, I felt very comfortable translating his books. I
cannot assure you that I couldn't have felt too comfortable every now and then.
But, also true, as a rule I do my best to preserve the literal sense and the
general mood of the author's writing.
And if you have a momento when you finish, tell me how did you
like "Acuáticos".
[Sincronicity: just in this moment I am translating Hawthorne for
Acantilado, the independent publishing house that has Quaderns
Crema and publishes Monzó in catalan.]
Best wishes,
Marcelo Cohen.'

http://www.peterowen.com/pages/fiction/enormity.html

Loving Mephistopheles on The Book Depository

The Book Depository - undoubtedly one of the best conceived post-Amazon bookselling projects (It'll be a genre) has an excellent review of Loving Mephistopheles.
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/WEBSITE/WWW/WEBPAGES/viewarticle.php?type=review&id=75
Thank you to them and also to the always excellent DoveGreyReader.

A chance encounter with Doris Lessing at the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (A prize which we're pulling out all the stops for next year) last night means that avid Kavan fans won't have to wait too long for exciting news. Never has BNO1 felt more proud than when helping the great writer into a taxi.

Locus Magazine

http://www.peterowen.com/pages/nonfic/Peake.htm
A welcome envelope from the States in the post today - the eminent Locus magazine has done a review of Mervyn Peake: the Man and His Art:

'It's always interesting to glimpse the roots of an artist's vision, to see the first stirrings of inspiration and inclination. Mervyn Peake, known primarily as the author of the Gormenghast novels, was an artist first. His early work (at the age of ten) depicted the exotic environs of China, where he was born and lived with his British missionary parents before the family returned to England. An argument could be made that China provided the underpinnings of his unique artistic sensibility, and support for that view can be found in Mervyn Peake: The Man and His Art.
This new book by his son, Sebastian Peake, in collaboration with Alison Eldred, edited by G. Peter Winnington [A long winded list of credits, the result of much amicable discussion. P.O.P.] (author of an acclaimed Peake biography), functions as both a memoir and artistic retrospective. Its premise is that Peake was first and foremost an artist who created thousands of witty expresive drawings, sketches and paintings, and whose service as a war artist during WW2 not only provided a valuable record of the horrors of the concentration camps but personally affected him deeply and permanently. During his lifetime his artistic ability was widely acknowledged. However, after his death, Gormenghast became the lens through which Peake was viewed.
Mervyn Peake . . . should help correct that view. It's packed with artwork, offering a marvelous selection of early sketches, notebook pages, book illustrations, photographs letters, and paintings. Among the illustrations provided are samples for his workfor Treasure Island, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Bleak House and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
Even in Peake's earliest sketches, dating from his childhood in China, his skill with line is evident. At age 16 he illustrated a series of Walter De la Mare poems for his own pleasure. The sketches show just how confident and expressive his early work really was. This expressiveness would become a hallmark of his later artwork. In particular, his mature drawings and paintings reveal the artist's skill and humor, frequently verging on caricature and cartoon. In his own advice to young artists in The Craft of the Lead Pencil, Peake writes: 'Do not be afraid to exaggerate in order to convey the real intention of your drawing,'

Handsome, respectful and well organized, this book presents its complex subject in a forthright, affectionate manner, detailing Peake's childhood; his development as an artist, illustrator and writer; his domestic life; his service during WW2; the writing of many works, including the Gormenghast trilogy, followed by his tragic illness - later diagnosed as Parkinson's disease - and, after much suffering, his early death. Peake's unrestrained imagination has influenced a generation of writers. Perhaps with this book, his influence on artists will become equally profound.'

What a corking piece - and one can but share the final sentiment. For a start there's nothing in Children's book sections these days to touch Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor.