26 members recommend for April

26 is now an official Amazon affiliate. That means if you order a recommended book or CD by following the links to Amazon, 10% of what you pay will end up in 26’s coffers, helping us to put on more events and recommend more books. A virtuous circle, if you like.

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‘Ringleader Of The Tormentors’ by Morrissey (Attack, £8.49 on Amazon)
I know the estimable Roger Horberry disagrees. But I think Morrissey is a true pop genius, with the wry observation of an Alan Bennett and the turn of phrase of a Noel Coward. How can you resist a line like “Beware I bear more grudges than lonely high court judges”? For me, each new release is a nerve jangler; I’m so desperate for it to be great, that I can hardly bear to listen. The good news is that ‘Ringleader Of The Tormentors’ is utterly wonderful. Every track a winner. Bursting with the passion, wit and eccentricity that so many of us know and love. And those lines you wish you’d thought of yourself: “As I live and breathe, you have killed me”; “I will lie down and be counted” ( a reference to his extremely tardy sexual awakening). JD

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‘Will And Me: How Shakespeare Took Over My Life’ by Dominic Dromgoole (Allen Lane £17.99 list, or £10.78 on Amazon)
You can’t get away from that bard-boy at the moment. Questionable likenesses at the National Portrait Gallery (see below); every single one of his plays being performed at Stratford during the course of the year; a new 146-mile path walk from Stratford-upon-Avon to the Globe Theatre on Bankside in London. And now a personal, and refreshingly unacademic take on the main man from the artistic director of the Globe. Actually, this book is probably more about Dromgoole than Shakespeare, but it’s a rambling, scurrilous and sometimes touching account of his lifelong obsession with the great Swan of Stratford. JD

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‘Lullaby’ by Chuck Palahniuk (Vintage, £7.50 list or £6 on Amazon)
Brilliantly original and idea-packed story from the nice man who brought you ‘Fight Club’. Superb prose style - muscular and effective, but with enough embellishments to avoid charges of minimalism. An uncomfortable read in places but well worth it. It ain’t chick lit. RH

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‘How To Be A Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul’, by Adrian Shaughnessy (Laurence King, £17.95 list, or £11.84 on Amazon)
OK, this is aimed at the felt tip fairies out there but much of what he says is 100% relevant to us writers. Books that tell it like it is and hand out practical tips that actually work are rare as hens’ teeth - if you’re a freelancer or otherwise self employed this one is well worth a look. RH

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‘District And Circle’ by Seamus Heaney (Faber and Faber, List price £12.99 or £6.49 on Amazon)
Anyone familiar with 26’s last book, ‘From Here To Here’, will no doubt have been struck by Simon Armitage’s opening poem, which eerily foreshadowed the London bombings. This new collection from Seamus Heaney is an interesting counterpoint – full of post-July-seventh unease and paranoia. A few lines from the title poem gives a sense of the mood: “Again the growl / Of shutting doors, the jolt and one-off treble / Of iron on iron, then a long centrifugal / Haulage of speed through every dragging socket.” Maybe not one to read on the Tube. NA

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‘Extra Virgin: Amongst The Olive Groves Of Liguria’ by Annie Hawes (Penguin, £7.99 list or £4.79 on Amazon)
First, I have to admit a connection: I’ve just stayed in Annie’s house, which is central to this book. But if you’re looking for a read to get you in the mood for that tantalisingly close summer holiday you really should try this. Annie finds herself buying a wreck of a hillside house way up in the hillside olive groves of Liguria, and then the adventures begin... There’s plenty of sun, landscape and delicious food in here to help you escape grey British skies, but this is also an unromantic and keenly observed description of real Ligurian life, all spiced with terrific anecdotes and wry wit. TR

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‘Phaidon Design Classics’ (list price £100 or £66 on Amazon)
Extremely weighty three-volume tome just out from Phaidon, bringing together 999 of the greatest industrially manufactured objects – from the paperclip to the Apollo moon lander. All beautifully designed by Alan Fletcher and full of interesting background detail. Endlessly fascinating, but you’ll need a reinforced coffee table to hold it. NA

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‘Worried Noodles (The Empty Sleeve)’ by David Shrigley, £18 from Amazon
Comes packaged like a classic gatefold LP, but instead of a record, it contains more of Shrigley’s deeply disturbing doodlings – mostly in the form of weird song lyrics. ‘Baby Dawg’ is a fine example. “Baby dawg / I wanna play with you / Baby dawg / I wanna give you a bone / Baby dawg / I wanna take you home / Say how much is that baby dawg / How much? / That’s too much / I don’t want that baby dawg”. Someone should put it to music. NA

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‘The Ballad of Peckham Rye’ by Muriel Spark (Penguin £8.99 list or £7.19 on Amazon) and ‘The Accidental’ by Ali Smith (Penguin, £7.99 list or £6.39 on Amazon)
Muriel Spark died last week. Coincidentally I’ve just finished reading her novel ‘The Ballad Of Peckham Rye’. Put it with her ‘The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie’ and ‘Memento Mori’ as great short novels of the 20th century. No one writes as economically; she crams in story, character, wit and sheer sparkiness. There’s a stranger, Dougal Douglas, who proves a catalyst for honest and sometimes disastrous self-analysis in the community. I wondered where else I’d read something recently that had a similar unsettling humour and realised it was Ali Smith’s prize-winning ‘The Accidental’. Try reading them one after the other – both brilliant. JS

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‘Happiness: Lessons From A New Science’ by Richard Layard (Penguin, £8.99 or £5.39 on Amazon)
Be unafraid that this book might not be for you. The clue here is in the subtitle. This is no airy-fairy self-help tome; instead a rigorous analysis of why, despite ever-increasing levels of wealth, people are not feeling happier. Layard, founder of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, uses insights and tools from psychology, philosophy, public policy and economics to show why increasing national happiness should be as important increasing national income. His thinking is provocative and optimistic, his writing spry and persuasive. He has plotted a way to revive the common good, and perhaps, laid the foundations for a new progressive politics. And he’s even relegated all the equations to the endnotes. Read it; and then make your MP read it. RD

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Web 2.0
Everyone’s talking about it, and without getting techie, it means the Internet has never been more useful. Add your thoughts to the feature on copywriting in Wikipedia (it could use some work) wikipedia.org/wiki/copywriting, work collaboratively across the web using Writely, store a backup of your work online at www.box.net, blog your business with one of the tools from Six Apart or break away from Microsoft with the free Open Office. MB

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A game of ‘Guess The Real Shakespeare’ at the National Portrait Gallery
Part of me can’t help feeling we’d be better off writing something new (or at least going to see a Christopher Marlowe play) than continually trying to work out if Shakespeare and Elizabeth I were in fact the same person. The exhibition is on until 29 May. See www.npg.org.uk. MB

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This month’s plugs by Jim Davies, Rishi Dastidar, Roger Horberry, John Simmons, Nick Asbury and Matthew Blackbourn. These are not necessarily the views of 26, but we hope they’re not far off the mark. Any contributions gratefully received.

posted by jim @ 7:38 PM