Quentin Blake

As you might have guessed by now I kind of like sketching. Near the top of that heap of admiration and likeness would be the work of caricaturists and satirists, in particular the work of Quentin Blake, Gerald Scarfe and the lesser known Fritz Wegner.

Wegner illustrated my favourirte kids book The Fattypuffs and The Thinifers by Andre Maurois, which  if you’ve not read it is the fantastic story of two brothers, one thin, one fat, who travel to an imaginary world separated into the fat, pleasant and generous Fattypuffs and the thin, energetic and mean spirited Thinifers.

Quentin Blake is probably most famous for his illustrations of Roald Dahl’s books, most notably Charlie and the Chocolate factory, The BFG and Matilda… and I can’t imagine anyone else being more perfectly suited to the task than Blake whose  anarchic and unruly illustrations perfectly capture the comical, semi-surreal world’s created by Dahl…. Gerald Scarfe is a political satirist and cartoonist who has also worked as a theatre designer. His work is biting and vicious and at the same time funny, poignant and irreverent. What’s more incredible is that these guy’s have all been at it for more than fifty years apiece and are all still working as we speak. So I guess you can expect some satirically inspired sketches here soon…..

Pulp Fiction

I read a lot and normally when I start a book I HAVE to finish it. But I currently have three books by my bedside which remain, as yet, unfinished. So in desperation I recently turned to some pulp fiction to help me get through this difficult period or at least what I consider pulp fiction;  easy to read, entertaining and not too taxing on the intellect. The book, The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness is the first in a trilogy, aimed at teenagers, (that’s me then) and in the fantasy horror genre, which I have to say is also not my first choice when it comes to subject. It follows the frantic flight of a young boy living on another planet where everyone can read everyone else’s thoughts, except that is for women who can’t be read, (no change there then). It also features a cool and funny talking dog, who’s main preoccupations center around poo and squirrels, or alien squirrels, as we’re on another planet!. The book recently won the Guardian children’s fiction prize. Another pulp fiction novel I read in the same genre, which I could recommend is Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games. Also set in an alien world and also part of a trilogy and similarly fast paced, it is darker and more morally complex than The knife but without its wry humour. This is reality TV taken to the extremes and follows the adventures of Katniss Everdeen a sixteen year old girl, who is forced to appear in a live event called….The Hunger Games, which start with 12 children in a live televized event and ends when there is only one! And while we are on the subject of horror and fantasy I will give you a recommendation for a third fantasy novel though this time I wouldn’t consider it pulp fiction. If I’d read the synopsis first I guess I wouldn’t have read this book but it came recommended to me and although I’m really not a vampire enthusiast this one really is in another league and takes a completely new twist on the genre. Justin Cronin’s The Passage is superb and an extremely dark and unrelenting story set in a post-apocalyptic world, where humans fight for their very existence against a legion of vampires which spread like a virus. If you have never read a horror novel before this would definitely be a good place to start!

Alan Burke Hooligan Trees

I came across this excerpt by Muhammad Ali, which reminded me of a book of poetry I have by the late Alan Burke.

I done wrassled with and alligator.
I done tussled with a whale,
Handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail.
Only last week I murdered a rock,
injured a stone, hopitalized a brick.
I’m so mean I make medicine sick.
Muhammad Ali 1974

I wonder how much if any, this had an influence on Alan Burkes”Pieta”. It certainly has a very similar rhythm and swagger. Actually poetry is the one form of art I find most challenging but Alan Burke’s Hooligan trees struck a nerve with me immediately. It is a small but extremely strong collection of poems by a young man who died of a brain tumour. He was aware that this was terminal when writing Hooligan Trees which makes it all the more poignant and powerful. This is the last poem in the book.

Carving a Pieta from an Atom

Throw heaven and earth into a sack
And carry it always on your back.
Go up to Gods black eye, spit in his face, say goodbye,
Take the devil by his balls and bounce him off hells slimy walls!
Roll death on your palm, touch it, stroke it, without alarm.
Ride your life the buckshot horse,
Whipping it always to stay on course.
Do in a second an hours job-
From time you must begin to rob.
Stand on stacked up years to touch eternity.
Your home in all certainty.
Scale Everest with a smile,
Scaling mountains is no great trial!
Carve a pieta from an atom…
Alan Burke