There is humour, humanism, sorrow, melancholy, loneliness. Talent, definitely, but also the struggles of an introvert. There is a lot in this book: love, for sure, but also heartbreak. Warm, real, intense, uplifting without even trying. As you keep reading, you will be hearing his music playing somewhere in the background. I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen written by the renowned music journalist Sylvie Simmons is a terrific book and I would recommend it especially in these strange, unsettling times. ![]() These days I find myself reading biographies (and autobiographies) more than ever before. Elif ShafakĪuthor of Three Daughters of Eve and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World The Great English Seaside Holiday in its heyday, and the beautiful dignity to be found in everyday living, have rarely been captured more delicately. He respects them for all the right reasons – for their instinctive decency towards one another and to those they encounter, and for the unselfconscious – perhaps unconscious – way they function as a happy family, despite their individual insecurities and frustrations. Sherriff never patronises, nor does he attempt to exalt these people beyond what they are. At one level totally undramatic, Sherriff magically re-calibrates our norms of what is and isn’t wonderfully exciting till we become utterly tuned into the rise and fall of this family’s emotions. Published in 1931, this is an exquisitely subtle account of an ordinary lower-middle class family from south London, preparing for, travelling to, then enjoying their modest summer holiday in Bognor Regis. The Fortnight in September by RC Sherriff is just about the most uplifting, life-affirming novel I can think of right now. Evie WyldĪuthor of All The Birds Singing and The Bass Rock If this really is the season where the best you can do for others is care for yourself, then House of X is the urgent love letter that arrived just in time. Bleak for some maybe, but as I look at my Black Lives Matter T-shirt, I know exactly what it means when you realise there’s no justice, just us. Mutants, having finally lost faith in humanity ever doing the right thing, have decided to rely only on themselves. Ironic, then, that a book that still fills me with such hope kicks off with the loss of it. I drifted from comics several years ago, but Jonathan Hickman’s House of X brought me roaring back. And yet, those 22 pages every month were all that saved me from harming myself. Feared and hated by the world they’ve sworn to protect? Feared and hated by the cool kids whose homework I kept doing for free? At 14 I didn’t see much difference. ![]() ![]() Back in the stone age when I was a teenager, reading X-Men and being in the X-Men felt like the same thing.
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