Good Morning!

Book 12 - Vladimir Nabokov "Speak Memory"

Vladimir Nabokov "Speak Memory: An Autobiography Revisited" (Penguin Modern Classics)






Even the name of this wonderfully lyrical autobiography is commanding. Speak! And speak it does. Of love, of loss, of finding a new life and being able to leap to safety to embrace it. But......Love....more than anything is what Vladimir Nabokov's partial autobiography resonates with. His enduring and all-encompassing love for his family.

He takes the reader on a journey of the senses, of the dim and yet luminous memories of childhood, through the eyes of a genius with unprecedented attention for detail. Nabokov does not walk us through every relationship, every transition, etc. Rather, he gathers and recollects the memories of colour, of feeling, and learning that are most important to him. There are remarkable passages in this text, including remarkably varied intellectual topics, i.e.: literature, politics, chess, mathematics, lepidoptery, etc.

It only covers 37 of his 77 years, but what 37 years it was! St. Petersburg to Cambridge, Berlin and Paris to America. The book ends with his sighting of the ship that will carry Nabokov and his little family to America and safety. The safety that so many were not able for so many terrible reasons to find themselves, including members of his own family.

Nabokov does not give a blow-by-blow account of his life, but in vignettes that 'speak' of his life and his family's life. He tells the story of his courageous father and the battles for a democratically styled Russia, the powerful personality of his beloved mother, his tragic brother....all is exposed, yet not. The story of his life with Véra, his other self, is given, but not displayed. The love he feels for his little son Dimitri is almost beyond words. All of this is served for the readers' enjoyment.

Bourne Bound

It is a sunny mild day. I am off to Sittingbourne to do four jobs, two for React, one for ESA Retail and one for Pro-Insight. This also includes a charity shop visit, a meal in a cafe, and a supermarket.

It was a good move not doing any of these yesterday. 

Sittingbourne Visit

Another productive day despite it being very windy.  For lunch, I had breakfast brunch again. It is quite filling

The other shops were all done and all the reports now finished.

Picked up some goodies from the charity shop, all books of course.



Also, the hardback that I was looking at arrived today - thanks bro for the nice pressie!



One to read before the literature festival in two weeks time along with the Viv Albertine book I have.

Faversham Literary Festival

These are the talks I will be attending in two weeks time - at the Second Faversham Literary Festival.



"Psychogeographer Iain Sinclair embarks on a series of expeditions through London, Marseilles, Mexico and the Outer Hebrides to explore the relationships between our health and the buildings that surround us, while taking many detours along the way. Walking is Sinclair's defensive magic against illness and, as he moves, he observes his surroundings: stacked tower blocks and behemoth estates, halogen-lit glasshouse offices and humming hospitals, the blackened hull of a Spitalfields church and the floating mass of Le Corbusier's radiant city. Hosted by festival director Amanda Dackombe.

Sinclair's recent work represents some of the most important in contemporary English letters – Will Self, New Statesman
Sinclair breathes wondrous life into monstrous, man-made landscapes – Times Literary Supplement"




"Punk pioneer Viv Albertine, the guitarist from The Slits, talks frankly and fearlessly about how anger has made her the person she is today. With brutal honesty and humour she talks about divorce and the death of her mother, loneliness and human dysfunctionality, the damage wrought by secrets and revelations – and how we can fall apart then rebuild ourselves and re-engage with the world. Shock, awe and a lot of laughs. Viv will be in conversation with writer and psychoanalyst Anouchka Grose.
To Throw Away Unopened follows Clothes Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys, which charts Viv's role as a woman in a male-dominated music scene. It was a Book of the Year in The Sunday Times, Mojo, Rough Trade and the NME and was shortlisted for the National Book Awards.!

Think I will give this a spin now -

Good Night