Bought from Oxfam Books in Nottingham during the BCUK Unconvention, as if I didn't already have enough to read!

I've tried to read this twice. Got further on the second attempt but still didn't find Drummond engaging enough to continue past page 86.

AVL for now.

Given to LyzzyBee

Oops, I forgot to catch this at the time!

A sort of patchy autobiography, possibly work of fiction and dabbling in psychogeography, looking at life from the age of 45, this is hilarious, irreverent and self-undermining, an excellent read, although I'm wondering if it's best read in large chunks, as I've done, to catch all the references and re-references.

In effect, it's a series of shortish pieces going all over the place physically and temporally and covering many of Drummond's art and music works either directly or obliquely. At various points, he creates a set of fake bands and a record label to promote them; recalls going to Iceland aged 17 with his sister and hitching around the island while reading the sagas; walks and colours in pages of the A to Z to spell his name across the map; travels by bus in Finland; considers changing his name after an error in a music reference book; meets one of his heroes while realising the German translation of his own book is not as it should be; remembers a trip to Serbia and fails to draw a connection between the Balkans and Take That; and creates a theme tune for democracy demonstrations. As you do.

I loved his piece, "My modern life", detailing a day in his writing life, including all the signs he sees on his way, and loved his description of partner in crime Jimmy's project to paint some weird, horrific canvases: "Then he destroyed the lot by sanding the paint off the canvases, carefully sweeping up the dust and keeping it in a series of jam jars. One jam jar for each painting. Why? Best not to ask We  all deal with our moments of doubt in different ways".

Funny, human, and surprisingly readable, however real or fictionalised the individual episodes were.

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