Reading.....

     I'm re-reading 'Get Carter', or to give the novel it's original title: 'Jack's Return Home.' It's to say the least 'gritty'. Written at a time when censorship was loosening in Britain there is an almost 'throw-eveything-you-have-at-it' quality. It is incredibly brutal - does any character have an reasonably functional relationship with any other? What you may not know is that the novel is set in Scunthorpe, the industrial town in the top north-west of Lincolnshire, and all the other action happens in the north of the county. (The film was set on Tyneside) Knowing how disliked D H Lawrence is in Bestwood, I wonder what the good people of Scunthorpe think to Ted Lewis? Ted was a sort of local boy, in that he grew on the south bank of the Humber in Barton-upon-Humber, and went to art college in Hull, taking the ferry from New Holland every day. (A friend of mine was a contemporary of Ted's in Hull)

     Have also started 'Hackney, that rose red empire' by Ian Sinclair. More of that later. As I'm tired and haven't slept well for days....tiredness certainly spoilt my day in London on Tuesday.