Showing posts with label Malcolm Lowry: From the Mersey to the World. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Malcolm Lowry: From the Mersey to the World. Show all posts

Friday, 31 December 2010

Miguel Mota's Review of Malcolm Lowry: From the Mersey to the World in Oxford Journals


Helen Tookey has just posted me Miguel Mota's review of the book she edited with Bryan Biggs - Malcolm Lowry: From the Mersey to the World which included my own essay on Lowry's Wirral:

This is a compelling and beautiful book, both to read and to look at. Published in conjunction with the festival and exhibition held at the Bluecoat in Liverpool in the fall of 2009 to celebrate the centenary of Lowry’s birth, Malcolm Lowry: From the Mersey to the World is a suggestively hybrid collection of personal reminiscences, scholarly pieces, fiction and photographic reproductions of visual works. As Bryan Biggs and Helen Tookey point out in their editors’ introduction, the volume addresses the geographical, psychological and creative ‘voyaging’ undertaken by Lowry throughout his life, from his notorious first voyage out to sea in 1927 as a young, middle-class Liverpool schoolboy looking for adventure, to the reluctant return to East Sussex from the squatter’s beachfront paradise he left behind in Dollarton, British Columbia, in 1954, now as the famous author of Under the Volcano. Throughout, the focus is on place and on journeys—not only Lowry’s, but also often the contributors’ own, inspired in each case by illuminating, occasionally life-changing, encounters with Lowry and his writing. Read full article on Oxford Journals

Saturday, 26 September 2009

Malcolm Lowry: From the Mersey to the World Book Launch 24/9/09


The new book on Malc was launched last Thursday night at the Bluecoat in Liverpool. The launch was a prelude to the opening of Malc's Centenary Festival in Liverpool over the next 2 months.

Several contributors to the book attended the launch including Ailsa Cox, Mark Goodall and Rob Sheppard above. Rob was just passing me another bottle of the Malcolm Lowry Golden Ale which has been brewed for the festival!

After the book launch, we had an opportunity to view the exhibition which accompanies the festival. I will be posting more details on the exhibition in the next few posts.

Wednesday, 29 July 2009

Raisin' The Roof Last Night @ The Bluecoat


No - we didn't go that mad celebrating Lowry's birthday at The Bluecoat last night! However, it was an enjoyable evening with the Bluecoat's Artistic Director Bryan Biggs making us most welcome.

Bryan opened the evening with a short briefing on the forthcoming festival to celebrate Lowry's Centenary. Bryan was followed by Helen Tookey, who is co-editing the new book on Lowry with Bryan called Malcolm Lowry: From the Mersey to the world. Helen then invited me to give the guests a quick tour around the 19th Hole blog to give people chance to see what I have posted and where I am going with the blog.

We then toasted Malc's 100th followed by an evening of listening to Malc's jazz heroes while we chatted and drank.

The above track features one of Lowry's primary jazz heroes Frankie Trumbauer on the track Raisin' The Roof with: Bix Beiderbecke, Andy Secrest, c / Bill Rank, tb / Chester Hazlett, as / Irving "Izzy" Friedman, cl, ts / Min Leibrook, bsx / Matty Malneck, vn / Lennie Hayton, p / Snoozer Quinn, g / Stan King, d. New York, March 9, 1929.

Malcolm Lowry From the Mersey to the World


Last night at the birthday bash for Malc, Helen Tookey one of the editors of the above new book, told everyone gathered that the book had gone to the printers and was on course for publication in September 2009.

Helen also distributed a flyer detailing the contents:

Contents

Introduction
"The voyage that never ends": Malcolm Lowry - from the Mersey to the world

Bryan Biggs and Helen Tookey

Malcolm Lowry: who he was and who I was and who I am
Ian McMillan (poet and broadcaster)

Lowry's Wirral
Colin Dilnot (Wirral-based artist/writer)

Elliptical journeys: Malcolm Lowry, exile and return
Cian Quayle (Manx artist/writer)

Lunatic city: Lowry's Lunar Caustic and New York
Michele Gemelos (University of Cambridge)

It is not Mexico of course, but in the heart.."
Alberto Rebollo (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)

"Lowrytrek": towards a psychogeography of Malcolm Lowry's Wirral
Mark Goodall (University of Bradford)

No se puede vivir sin amar
Ailsa Cox (short-story writer/Edge Hill University)

"Eridanus, Liverpool": echoes and transformations at the edge of eternity
Annick Drösdal-Levillain (Strasbourg University)

Uxorius prose: Malcolm Lowry's October Ferry To Gabriola
Nicholas Murray (Liverpool-born writer)

The Malcolm Lowry Room
Michael Turner (Vancouver-based writer)

Malcolm Lowry's land
Robert Sheppard (poet and writer/Edge Hill University)

Malcolm Lowry: neglected genius
Gordon Bowker (literary biographer; author of Pursued by Furies: A Life of Malcolm Lowry).

You can order an advance copy from Liverpool University Press.

I am very pleased to be involved with the book and I must thank again Helen and Bryan for inviting me to contribute.

In my essay Lowry's Wirral, I have taken 3 aspects of Lowry's Wirral as examples of my on-going research into Lowry's Wirral. The 3 aspects are a detailed analysis of his birthplace 13 North Drive New Brighton, Lowry's first school Braeside in West Kirby and 103 Meols Drive, West Kirby, the former home of the Furniss family who Lowry based the Taskersons upon who feature in Under The Volcano.

I will also be delivering a lecture called Lowry's Merseyside as part of the Lowry Centenary Festival later this year at The Bluecoat, Liverpool. I will post more details of the festival events in the near future.

Wednesday, 1 July 2009

Malcolm Lowry: From the Mersey to the World


Malcolm Lowry: From the Mersey to the World Biggs, Bryan & Tookey, Helen (eds) Synopsis

Malcolm Lowry described Liverpool as ‘that terrible city whose main street is the ocean’. Born on the Wirral side of the river Mersey, Lowry’s relationship to the Merseyside of his youth informs all of his writing and Liverpool itself continued to hold tremendous significance for him, even though he never returned. Published in conjunction with a festival and exhibition at Liverpool’s Bluecoat arts centre celebrating Lowry’s centenary, this beautifully produced book showcases a variety of creative and critical approaches to Lowry and his work, and includes twelve specially commissioned pieces of new writing. There is a particular focus on place and on journeys; contributors write from the UK, Europe, Canada and Mexico, and reflect both on Lowry’s ‘voyage that never ends’ and on their own journeys with and through Lowry’s work. The book also demonstrates the richness of Lowry’s influence on contemporary visual artists and includes full-colour illustrations throughout. It will be an indispensable companion for anyone interested in the creative legacy of Malcolm Lowry’s life and work.

Texts by:

Ian McMillan (poet and broadcaster); Colin Dilnot (Wirral-based artist/writer); Cian Quayle (Manx artist/writer); Michele Gemelos (University of Cambridge); Alberto Rebollo (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México); Mark Goodall (University of Bradford); Ailsa Cox (short-story writer/Edge Hill University); Annick Drösdal-Levillain (Strasbourg University); Nicholas Murray (Liverpool-born writer); Michael Turner (Vancouver-based writer); Robert Sheppard (poet and writer/Edge Hill University); Gordon Bowker (literary biographer; author of Pursued by Furies: A Life of Malcolm Lowry).

Artworks by:

Ross Birrell and David Harding; Julian Cooper; Pete Flowers; Adrian Henri; Cisco Jiménez; Ray Lowry; Brian O’Toole; Paul Rooney.

128pp, 40 colour illustrations, 250 x 175mm, paperback

Published September 2009


You can order the book in advance from Liverpool University Press