There’s a lot going on at the moment, so I’m going to do my best to present a coherent rundown. Wish me luck and let’s see what I forget…
LYNCHIAN
The big news is that my new book, LYNCHIAN: THE SPELL OF DAVID LYNCH, will be out on 13 November. I’m recording the audiobook for this next week.
It’s a book about why the films of David Lynch affect us in a way that no other films do. It’s about his experience of the world and the lengths he goes to to share that with us. This will be quite a short book - it’s 30,000 words, which is roughly twice as long as William Blake Now or half the length of The KLF - and it was written over a very intense period during this summer. I hope you get as much out of it as I got from writing it.
It is available for pre-order, should you be so kind - you can find it on my Bookshop.org page here, on Amazon, or your local bookstore will be pleased to order it for you.
In my next newsletter I’ll have details about the events being planned around launch, and into next year. One thing I can mention now is that I’ll be in Whitby on 6 November, as part of the Whitby Literary Festival. Details of that are here.
BLAKE
I’m travelling to America (I know…) at the end of October, for an event at Yale University where I’ll be in conversation with Timothy Young, the curator of rare books and manuscripts at the Yale Center for British Art. This is part of the celebrations around Yale’s William Blake: Burning Bright exhibition. For those who can’t be there, there will be a free livestream which you can find here.
There’s been wonderful news from the Blake Cottage Trust. Thanks to a successful quarter of a million pound bid with the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the cottage is now receiving the essential repairs it has needed for so long. Here it is receiving its new roof
The physical building is now safe but the next step is to raise the funds needed to make it open for visitors everywhere - if you can offer any support, the Blake Cottage Trust will be happy to hear from you.
DOCTOR WHO
I’ll be in Liverpool on Saturday 18 October to talk about Doctor Who at the Liverpool Literary Festival at the University. I think the event is in the same building that I had exams in back in 1990s, so if I start having palpitations you’ll know why. Details and tickets are here.
If you have a liking for gaming culture then take a look at the latest issue of Wyrd Science - it includes an interview with me about Doctor Who (which, I was delighted to see, sits between articles on Castle Rat and Nigel Kneale).
I also went back on the TARDIS Rubbish podcast to look back at the last Gatwa season - a series which knew that, if it was to capture a young audience, it had to compete more with Skibidi Toilet than it did Andor… You can find that episode here.
And if you’re attending the Who on the Wirral convention this Saturday - I’ll see you there!
THE KLF
If you are after a signed copy of the new edition of The KLF, then you’re in luck. I’ve been down to Resident Records in Brighton and signed a load - you can find them here.
And also - this happened…
Becoming a question on The Chase, I can report, is a very strange experience which causes a not unpleasant state of mental disassociation. But it is cool when Graham from Doctor Who says your name.
MISC
If you’ve read Memorial Device or any of the other luminous books by David Keenan you should know that he now has a Substack - which you can find here. Dig deep!
The new season of the East Sussex Psychedelic Film Club starts in Lewes on Thursday 2 October, where we’ll be proudly showing Ebony & Ivory, the genuinely insane new film from The Greasy Strangler’s Jim Hosking. It’s the story of two musical geniuses, Paul and Stevie, meeting at the Mull of Kintyre in 1981, sort of.
I’m especially looking forward to this because I’ll be interviewing director Jim Hosking afterwards. The screening is nearly sold out but if you’re quick, the last few tickets are here.
And also in Sussex - on Saturday 4 October I’m part of a ‘Meet The Writers’ event in Shoreham, where me and a big gang of local writers will see if anyone wants to talk to us. I’m being interviewed as part of all this at 2:30pm, and if you fancy coming along and saying hello, the details are here.
THE OVERALL GENERAL STATE OF THINGS
A newsletter like this isn’t really set up to tackle things as big as the overwhelming horror of the age (I might rejig things in the new year, we shall see.) But if it is any help, I find that this is a good time to rewatch Charlie Chaplin’s speech from The Great Dictator
Until next time!
jhx
Tempted to fly to Connecticut for the Yale think, but my arms would be tired. So I'll settle for the livestream. Looking forward to that! At first I thought the subtitle question on the game show was a joke! Higgs being assimilated--things are gettin' weird all over. And Congratulations on everything! -Dan Joy
Got me order in. Big fan of all things Lynchian. 🐘☕️🪵👂
Met Michael Elphick once at the boozer he had outside of Brum - nice chap - wish I’d asked him about working on Elephant Man but didn’t want to hassle him at the time so never did.