Looking at government contracts here: with thanks to IT.

Declaration of interest: (i) I like the Beatles; (ii) I like and know Martin Phillips, having worked with him for many years including co-authoring a book, and appreciating how informed and engaging he can be as a writer, I had the highest expectations of this latest: with ‘Towards Abbey Road’, these have been totally fulfilled.

This is an autobiography – of sorts. That isn’t a caveat: it is of course at the book’s core autobiographical, the chronological release of Beatles albums mapping out the experiences and revelations in the life of a boy growing into a young man. But these observations are constantly informed by broader references to the UK and globally at this time, and all is further reflected through contemporary social, cultural, political and musical realities/events and how these mesh. In doing so there is an obvious appeal to readers who grew up in the same era where shared thoughts and feelings will therefore resonate.

It is through that breadth of illustration and illumination that the contents can and will engage beyond those having lived through it. I think the historical touchstones scattered throughout – quoted within the text and also elaborated a little in a useful appendix – give the anecdotes a footing in the universal. It is an anchoring that pushes the memories past any sense of self-indulgence, not that there is any ‘academic’ attempt to stabilise their individual reveries. I am in danger of complicating what is in essence the conversational integrity of this writing, but I do want to make claim to the book’s appeal as a remembrance that is wise as well as often humorous and consistently honest.

There is also a lyricism at times when Martin reflects on those more recent events and situations in his life which link back to their roots in the newest of their discoveries then, like making lifelong friends at school. When writing poignantly about attending the funeral of one of his closest, he reminds us how the past and the present are intertwined, and the ability to recall and frame this in both anecdote and affecting prose is of lasting value for both him and those who share in reading this book.

Get it here.

It’s Friday
and the ‘second day’ of

Black Friday at
Amazon: this is

how to make
$gazillions when your

days are longer than
others’

ones.

The first of three poems from my collection Where the Stone is Awake [found writing from poets on poetry] is up at Stride here today, and the next two. Thank you Rupert.

I

fry fun fur gab gad gag gal gam gao gap gar gas gay gee gel gem gen get gig gin … flit floc floe flog flop flor flow flub flue flun flux foal foam fobs foci foes fogs fogy … lima limb lime limn limo limp limy line ling link lino lint liny lion lips lira lire lisp … attar attic audio audit auger aught augur aulae aulas aunts aunty aurae aural

II

But let me just say, this completely caught me off guard. … estimate estivate estopped estoppel estovers estragon estrange … gasogene gasohols gasolene gasolier gasoline gassiest gassings … valuates valuator valvelet valvulae valvular valvules vambrace … bites bitsy bitts bitty bizes blabs black blade

III

appraise appraised appraisement appraiser appraisers appraises appraising … attested attester attesters attesting attestor attestors attests attic Attica atticism … blaring blarney blarneyed blarneying blarneys blase blasingame blaspheme … coastlines coasts coastward coastwards coastwise coat coated coatee coater

IV

Full activation regardless of painter/lanyard pull speed. For use with up to 400 bar test pressure cylinder. Available with internal or external overpressure venting.

V

… GASOLENE GASOLENES GASOLIER GASOLIERS GASOLINE GASOLINES GASOLINIC GASOMETER GASOMETERS GASP GASPED GASPER GASPERS …

VI

The only field testable and resettable explosion and pressure relief venting system. Fully code compliant and maintenance free, CS Explovent offers peace of mind …

VII

… posy shears murid lesioned pursed grisailles oribatid nummular gassy alleles scaurs … reconstructing baptising lips mag plagiarism sophistical postcrisis seisings … gromet peopling attic wintering biogeochemicals primrose stagging tubbiest … infeasibility estopped authentic sheen propellor pitiablenesses mudra vitrines …

foci blase public gasper!
module lipped gas valuer!
coatee fully estop attic!
bled gasper.
alb ape.
how module give pupa?
tandem baboo scamp ladder?
bounty brazil potion.
hubby sell fiber.
smelt shrink seer.
agile module.
nibble slam.
grouch gas potion chalk!
sniffy grouch attic.
graft smelt slam bounty!
gird fetid estop.
bay coatee.
shrink slam fully blase!
tare farad brazil public?
gasper module bingo give.
morgue novel tandem sell?
gypsa bled sell sniffy?
flood coatee tops glover.
scamp budge luting swathe!

[excavated at a villa in the outskirts of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii: Guardian here]

excavated from the
dark depths fled:

escaping Vesuvius
was no mean feat

though it might on
the soul of this master

running away with his
barefoot slave who is

petrified just the same,
fleeing stooped from

all those compressions
in his life then and now,

joined, though not by a
final comforting hand,

still under the other’s
feet, both alike dead