I just got my copy of this week's Camden New Journal - always a fine publication - to find that there's a full-page review/feature on Things Can Only Get Bitter. Many thanks to Dan Carrier for such splendid treatment.
I'm slightly surprised to be described as an 'Islington author', though, since I live in Camden and I'm not sure I entirely approve of Islington. But apart from that, it's grand stuff.
I also bought today a copy of The Spectator with Lloyd Evans's hysterical attack on the same essay. Apart from decrying my 'wrist-slashing pessimism', his main complaint seems to be that this e-book business is a rip-off, since the recommended price is £2.99 for a 72-page essay.
It is, however, available from Amazon for only £1.64, which I think is pretty fair. Certainly when compared to, say, a 64-page magazine that retails at £3.50 and isn't available anywhere at a discounted price.
Showing posts with label Lloyd Evans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lloyd Evans. Show all posts
Saturday, 21 April 2012
Thursday, 19 April 2012
The Spectator Speaks
Having never had a review in The Spectator before, I'm tremendously excited by Lloyd Evans giving Things Can Only Get Bitter a very thorough kicking. I can't really do his piece justice here, but these are some of the highlights:
'It’s a pity he can’t write terribly well, although it helps to explain the book’s extreme brevity.'
'Turner, a lifelong gloom addict, approaches even the most innocent and joyful developments in a mood of sulky intellectualism.'
'[The publishers] asked a lazy editor to commission a lazy author to propose a lazy idea and turn it into a lazy book.'
'The flimsiest and most banal 72-page tome in history.'
That's terrific stuff. If I'm reading this correctly, he doesn't like the essay very much.
I regret to say that, not being a regular reader of The Spectator, I'm unfamiliar with Lloyd Evans's work. I only knew him previously from Just Boris, Sonia Purnell's excellent biography of Boris Johnson, as an investigative journalist conducting 'an inquiry into Swedish lavatorial habits'.
But he's clearly a man of some taste and discernment, and I thank him for his kind words.
'It’s a pity he can’t write terribly well, although it helps to explain the book’s extreme brevity.'
'Turner, a lifelong gloom addict, approaches even the most innocent and joyful developments in a mood of sulky intellectualism.'
'[The publishers] asked a lazy editor to commission a lazy author to propose a lazy idea and turn it into a lazy book.'
'The flimsiest and most banal 72-page tome in history.'
That's terrific stuff. If I'm reading this correctly, he doesn't like the essay very much.
I regret to say that, not being a regular reader of The Spectator, I'm unfamiliar with Lloyd Evans's work. I only knew him previously from Just Boris, Sonia Purnell's excellent biography of Boris Johnson, as an investigative journalist conducting 'an inquiry into Swedish lavatorial habits'.
But he's clearly a man of some taste and discernment, and I thank him for his kind words.
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