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Showing posts from January, 2011

Anna Calvi

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For me, Anna Calvi is the first performer in a long time to have an onstage persona so distanced from her natural self as to be almost unrecognisable. In interviews she’s quiet, thoughtful, always hiding behind a thick mane of blonde curls. Onstage she’s ferocious, snarling, and seemingly on a revenge mission that no number of flamenco scorched blues numbers will absolve. She reminds me of this lady – I first fell for her work, after watching a performance of her on the French TV channel Arete. Where bands like Arcade Fire portray the current state of affairs, performers like Anna Calvi offer a means of escape to somewhere more glamorous, which in grim times seems very important. She’s currently fuelling late night writing binges as I try to start my second book. In an age of reality tv ‘stars’ and whitewash landfill indie Anna Calvi is certainly worth cherishing.

Some advance notices for The Intimates

‘A huge accomplishment. With expert prose Mankowski draws the reader into a world where layers of secrets are slowly and skilfully stripped away. Lyrical and yet accessible, with character dynamics to die for…’ Gary Murning, author of ‘If I Never’ ‘Guy Mankowski's debut novel, The Intimates, manages that all too rare feat of being a deeply psychological character study whilst at the same time playing out as a bonafide page-turner. Excellently paced, insightfully created, and with moments of genuine genius, The Intimates is an opulently written, high concept piece which explores the psychology of human relationships, and especially the dynamics of groups. Here we meet characters of genuine depth. Through them, Mankowski explores themes such as the darker side of intimacy and friendship; scadenfreude, jealousy, petty rivalries - but the characters are more than mere ciphers for psychological analysis. They are living, breathing people, whose mutual understanding, whose deep bonds a