New members
Please excuse us, but we're in a period of transition. The wonderful
Julie Potts, who has looked after subscriptions, the 26 members' database and much more, has left us to return to the hard-hitting world of commerce. So it's good luck and effusive thanks for her sterling efforts and firm but fair way with recalcitrant members.
Richard O'Connor will be taking over the hot seat, and there will soon be a new PO Box to send correspondence and cheques. If your subs are due for renewal, please hang on for a month while we get our house in order. Hopefully, we'll have the long awaited web site up by then, and you’ll be able to do it online.
We'll publish the list of new members as usual in next month's newsletter.
Cyan Books Offer
This month Cyan would like to offer 26 members all their current books at a 30% discount, and if we spend £20 or more then we also get free postage and packing. There's the unmissable 'FAQs on Marketing' by Philip Kotler, David Kean's guide to winning pitches 'How Not to Come Second', plus many and varied books by 26 members including one which you absolutely must read if you haven't already, 'Search Me', by Neil Taylor. It's all about Google; if you thought there wasn't enough about Google to fill a book about then you haven't met our Neil.
To get a complete list of all the Cyan books, email sarah@littlemax.co.uk.
Our next events
Whitbread prize-winner
Ali Smith, as well as 26 stalwarts Stuart Delves, Jamie Jauncey and John Simmons will be taking the mike at the
Edinburgh Book Festival, talking about their contributions to 'Common Ground', the latest book from 26, on 20 August at 4pm. If you're up that way, why not pop in to support the cause?
There’s also a special launch of the book in London on 31 August starting at 6.30pm at
the Globe Theatre, all members of 26 are welcome, so please polish your best shoes make a note of the date in your diary. We’ll be sending out more details nearer the time and announcing our next book project, which has a distinctly Shakespearean flavour.
Read on to find out more about Common Ground...
Writers define places, places inspire writers. What would Dorset be without Thomas Hardy? Imagine the Scottish Highlands without Robert Louis Stevenson. And what was the effect of Hackney on Pinter, Kent on Dickens, or Laugharne on Dylan Thomas? Which writer captures the spirit of your area? How have the local landscape, people and stories influenced them? And what effect has this had on you?
We asked 30 of Britain's liveliest writers to consider those questions and write about the common ground they share with another writer. This book brings together their extraordinary responses, and provides a unique, informative and thoroughly entertaining tour of literary Britain.
Featuring pieces on... Paul Abbott Burnley. Rev. W Awdry Wiltshire. Julian Barnes Middlesex. Hilaire Belloc Sussex. John Burnside Fife. Mary Butts Dorset. Charles Dickens Kent. TS Eliot City of London. Jasper Fforde Swindon. Alan Garner Cheshire. Patrick Hamilton Earl’s Court. Thomas Hardy Dorset. David Lodge Birmingham. FW Lister Middlesbrough. Richard Long At large. George Mackay Brown Orkney. Hugh Miller Cromarty. John Milton Buckinghamshire. Stuart Murdoch Glasgow. Harold Pinter Hackney. Will Self M40. William Shakespeare Stratford. Giles Smith Colchester. Robert Louis Stevenson Scottish Highlands. Dylan Thomas Laugharne. Edward Thomas Cotswolds. Major H.W. 'Bill' Tilman Cornwall. Van Morrison Belfast. Keith Waterhouse Yorkshire. Virginia Woolf Sussex.
Photo finish
On 16 July, at least two 26 members took part in an around London photography quiz organised by
Shoot Experience and supported by the Mayor's Office. The winning photographs will be part of a week long exhibition at County Hall from 31 July. Our team, The Famous Four, were awarded the Shoot London Lite 'Best Overall Photograph' which can be seen, top right, at the
Shoot Experience Website.
The team plans to take part on the Shoot Clerkenwell event on 20th August. To take part you need a reasonably decent digital camera, a brain to solve the clues and the ability to spot a photo opportunity. To join in, go to
www.shootexperience.com. A highly recommended day out. (Note to non-Londoners: they do other places too.)
Sarah McCartney
26's Birthday Party at the London Design Festival
26's
London Design Festival event is on Wednesday 27 September at
Truman's Brewery, kicking off at 6.30pm.
On display we'll have the results of this year's collaboration between 26 and the London Design Festival, 26 Sayings, all designed and produced by Pentagram's
Domenic Lippa, bless him. This is not just an exhibition; this is 26/London Design Festival exhibition with a massive get-together to celebrate 26's third birthday and to meet some 26-ers you've never met before.
We know what it's like; we all come to an event then drift towards people we already know to update the stuff we chatted about last time. We've had a couple of emails from people who feel that they are not really in the thick of things at 26, even when they've had a chapter or two published in our books and been to a couple of events. This is going to be as thick as it gets, so please do your best to get here; we're going to organise a small entertainment and a bit of networking so you can meet another stack of 26-ers to drift towards at the next few events.
Please bring your friends; we want to turn 26 into movement and to do that we need more members.
You’ll find the Old Truman Brewery at 91 Brick Lane, London, E1 6QL.
Basic yoga for creative types
A quick reminder about our summer special:
Sarah McCartney, qualified in
Mr. Iyengar's method of teaching yoga, will take two 90-minute classes this August to teach some basic
asanas (yoga postures) and relaxation to help you to stay lively but focused as deadlines approach.
If you have questions or injuries that Sarah should know about in advance, please contact her. The usual back, neck and knee problems which come from sitting at a desk aren't an issue. Inflexible people are welcome (as long as its only their bodies which suffer).
Dates and times: Thursdays 10 and 24 August at 6.30pm
Venue: Elmwood: 8-9 Carlisle Street, W1
Price: Free to 26 members, £10 for guests
Contact: sarah@yogateds.co.uk
26 members recommend for July
'The Golden Gate' by Vikram Seth (Faber & Faber, RRP £5.99 or
£4.79 on Amazon)
A word to the quick in this faltering stanza;
In the space of the lines left here
Let me attempt to convince you of a bonanza
To be found in sheaves not so dear.
A novel in verse, startling and bold
First written in 1986, and yet not old
A meditation on what makes life pleasurable and true
At first appearance flighty, and yet you do
Soon discern the depths within
Characters well drawn, rounded
Musing on art, love and sin
In tetrameter well-crafted, not hounded
Into life by Vikram Seth, 'The Golden Gate' is to be praised
Buy it, and enjoyment will be raised.
RD......................................
'Words Fail Me' by Teresa Monachino (Phaidon, RRP £7.95 or
£6.36 on Amazon)
This is a delightful look at some of the exasperating quirks of English. Monachino has collected some of those oddities that can baffle a non-native grappling with the language: why is abbreviation such a long word? Why does monosyllabic have so many syllables? There are things that will make you chuckle out loud, and the book is set beautifully, a delight to look at.
RD......................................
Shakespeare's Sonnets and Kandinsky's paintingsBoth have a feeling of abstraction, though the Sonnets are about and addressed to real people. Kandinsky puts marks, colours, outlines in his paintings that suggest reality. In fact they suggest a number of possible interpretations. That line there could be a horse, a hill or a human. Or all three. In the same way, Shakespeare suggests multiple possibilities in every line. You have to work at the meaning but in the end you stand back, look at the overall picture, and simply admire it without understanding every nuance or layer of meaning. You can see 'Kandinsky: The Path To Abstraction' at Tate Modern until 1 October. You can read Shakespeare's Sonnets any time. JS......................................
Howies jeansPardon? I just bought a pair in their summer sale. They're made from organic cotton and washed with an 'eco ball' to go easy on the world's dwindling supply of pummice. One of the back pockets is stitched to reveal the coastline of Cardigan Bay in Wales, where Howies is based. Inside the waistband it says (in large) "Life is sweet", and underneath (in small) "terms and conditions apply". A long white label on the inside is printed with a detailed and disturbing story about cotton production headlined "100% cotton. 73% true". It explains that the avearge 100% cotton T-shirt contains 73% cotton – the rest is chemicals. That cotton is the world's most sprayed crop, accounting for quarter of the world's pesticides. That's why they use the organic stuff. I love the way Howies use every opportunity to express their point of view, to connect, to create a dialogue. Their words are always well put – well said and well placed.
JD......................................
The Stories of English by David Crystal (Penguin,
£6.49 Amazon).
If you're a very vigilant reader of these recommendations, you'll know that this is the second time this has had a mention. However, I make no apologies about this. It’s an amazing, compendious survey of the development of our language from its earliest influences through to its current international diaspora. And just in case you’re daunted by a 600 page, closely typed book on language, the title is accurate. It’s a compelling set of narratives, a story in its own right. Finally, I can say no more for it than that I’ve been left with an even greater respect and love of English than I had before, and I’ve got a store of insights and quirky facts that will serve me well for the years ahead.
ML......................................
The Snack Thief by Andrea Camilleri (Picador, £6.99, or
£3.99 on Amazon).
Camilleri's irascible, emotionally stunted and enormously likeable Inspector Montalbano returns to solve two interwoven murders in Sicily. His misanthropy provides black humour and wry insight while he goes about dealing with Tunisian gangsters, the Italian Secret Service and – worst of the bunch - the victims' families and neighbours. The deliciously spare prose is spiced with heaps of Sicilian food and police banter, but haunted by a slow-burning loneliness.
TR......................................
'The English: A Portrait Of A People' by Jeremy Paxman (
£7.19 on Amazon).
OK, it's been around for a good six years and in some places it's showing it's age, but on the whole this book is an excellent, entertaining and engrossing analysis of who the English are and how we came to be as we are (I'm speaking for myself here). Some chapters are better than others, but his point about how Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries destroyed a whole tradition of medieval art but simultaneously opened the way for a culture built on words is masterful.
RH......................................'The Ship: The Art of Climate Change'Timely exhibition based on the experiences of a group of international artists and writers who, over the past five years, have travelled to the Arctic as part of the Cape Farewell project. The aim was to bring the realities of climate change to life in a way that even the most alarming statistics often fail to do. The results are fascinating, beautiful and often deeply worrying. Food for thought as the temperatures keep rising. Natural History Museum, 3 June - 3 September 2006.
NA......................................
'The Brand Gap' by Marty Neumeier (New Riders, RRP £13.95,
£9.20 on Amazon).
One of the clearest and most entertaining books on branding around. It sets out all the fundamentals of what a brand is and how you go about bridging the gap between logic (the strategic stuff) and magic (the creative stuff). Begins with one of the most sensible definitions of the word ‘brand’ I’ve come across: "A brand is a person's gut feeling about a product, service, or company. It's not what you say it is. It's what they say it is."
NA......................................The Friday ThingThe Friday Thing is the scurrilous weekly email newsletter that recently eviscerated Noel Edmonds over his 'cosmic ordering' obsession. It will keep you up to date with news items such as a piece on the Lebanon that "aims to offend everyone", the latest on the Church of the SubGenius, and what to do in hot weather - "Wait until it cools down in the evening before you hold that dog fight".
www.thefridayproject.co.uk FT......................................Bad Design AmnestyAs part of the London Design Festival,
Purpose Design are inviting submissions for a 'Bad Design Amnesty'. This is an exhibition (and, later, a book) of the most hated pieces of design – graphic, product, architectural or whatever. A fun project and a great excuse for some well-worded rants. For more, go to
www.purpose.co.uk.
MR......................................WordCount™Warning! WordCount™ can be addictive. This brilliant web site is an artistic experiment in the way we use language, showing the 86,800 most frequently used English words. 'The' is at no.1, with ‘conquistador’ at no. 86,800. 'Love' is in the 300s, while 'hate' is in the 3000s – surely something to celebrate? Check out your ‘name neighbours’ (e.g. ‘honestly julie campaigns’) and invent new slogans like 'Resurrect denizens northbound!'. Or indulge in covert swearing. 'Khmer calorie' anyone?
www.wordcount.org FT
......................................
The Cloudspotter's Guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney (
£7.79 on Amazon).
Hands up everyone who knows their cumulus from their altocumulus. Or their
stratus from their nimbostratus. Well, quite. This enjoyable little book
from one of the chaps who brought us 'The Idler' magazine is as light as
its subject matter but don't let that put you off. Surprisingly interesting
once you get into it. Honest.
RH......................................This month’s plugs by Jim Davies, Roger Horberry, Nick Asbury, John Simmons, Rishi Dastidar, Martin Lee, Fiona Thompson, Mike Reed and Tim Rich. These are not necessarily the views of 26, but we hope they’re not far off the mark. Any contributions gratefully received.
