Things I have enjoyed this week

Includes rock gods and dungarees.

Aug 24, 2024

Things I have enjoyed this week.

It might be a little premature to talk about Elif Shafak’s book There Are Rivers In The Sky, as I’m not quite finished. But sometimes to be three quarters of the way through a book is to be at the point of peak love for it, and that’s where I am. To say this book is epic in scale does it an injustice – it’s both geographically and historically vast, but also can be boiled down to a single drop of water. Shafak is prolific and researches beautifully without whacking you over the head tediously with the depth of her research. Mostly I love her characters; I feel tender and protective towards King Arthur of the Sewers and Slums, who we watch as he grows from child to self-educated adult. It’s modern and old, big and small, political and personal, hopeful and sad all at once. A perfect summer read. And she's on here:

Music: Luck and Strange

On Tuesday night I was lucky enough to be invited to listen to David Gilmour’s forthcoming album, Luck and Strange, which he spoke about, and then we listened to, in a pitch-black room in the Soho Hotel in London. I was a fan of David the person before I really knew his music (his wife is a friend) and so I’m probably not the best judge of the kind of guitar music that I know makes many men go completely wobbly at the knees. But I do know artistry, and craft, and David’s status as a guitar legend speaks for itself.

There is something deliciously old-school about listening to an entire album in the dark. It’s something we rarely do any more. I listen to music in the car, while driving, or while chopping vegetables in the kitchen, or as a backdrop to writing. But it’s so rare to listen to something and give it your full attention. The album was played via Dolby Atmos Playback, an audio system that seems to isolate every instrument. By the end of the album, I realized I was weeping. It’s not a good look when you are seated in the midst of a bunch of hairy rock journalists, but when the lights came up it turned out some of them were too. It’s out on September 6 and I highly recommend, especially the lyrics by Polly Samson.

Hanif Kureishi’s Substack

Like many people, I was dimly aware that Hanif Kureishi, author of My Beautiful Laundrette and The Buddha of Suburbia, had suffered a random fall a couple of years ago. But it was only on meeting him this week that I discovered the full devastation wreaked by a such a chance accident. He has been left with spinal injuries and is unable to move his limbs. But a writer has to write, and he is on here, working with one of his sons, both on his Substack, The Kureishi Chronicles, which is beautifully conveyed, honest and thought-provoking, but also on his new book, Shattered, which tells the story of what happened to him. If you haven’t read his – and his son’s - newsletter yet, I suggest you give it a go.

And last – it’s not a cultural thing, but a couple of weeks ago I bought the first pair of dungarees I have owned since my tentative forays into the rave scene in the early 90s. They are from Free People, and they have a barrel-legged cut that should make me look like Andy Pandy, especially as I am NOT TALL. But I can honestly say I have barely stopped wearing them since I bought them and they get more compliments than almost anything I’ve bought this year. Plus – many pockets. I rest my case.