Bowieland
Peter Carpenter
Monoray, £22, pp332
From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads, the much-missed David Bowie was a musician as defined by place as he was by any of his other influences. In this innovative and inventive slice of psychogeography, Bowie aficionado Peter Carpenter embarks upon a tour of places in southern England associated with the legend. He discovers new and often surprising connections everywhere from Hastings (the Ashes to Ashes video location) to, inevitably, Bowie’s birthplace in Brixton. Bowieland will make you want to take your very own pilgrimage, accompanied by the great man’s songs.
Deep Cuts
Holly Brickley
Borough Press, £16.99, pp288
Holly Brickley’s debut novel has already attracted considerable praise, as well as comparisons with David Nicholls and Taylor Jenkins Reid. Some of the hyperbole is not quite justified by this charming but slightly precious book, which proves that it is nigh-on impossible to convey the excitement of songwriting through prose. However, Brickley’s account of the relationship between Percy and Joe, who meet as students and weather the social upheaval of the 00s separately and together, will still engender a rush of recognition in music lovers of a certain age.
The Inalienable Right
Adam Macqueen
Eye, £9.99, pp414 (paperback)
The third in Adam Macqueen’s highly readable series of Tommy Wildeblood novels succeeds as a study of gay life in the 80s and as a page-turning thriller. Tommy may now have a boyfriend and a job as a teacher, but a repressive new law, Section 28, threatens to license homophobia on an institutional scale. Just as well, then, that Peter Morrison, one of its most ardent proponents, is also a former client of Tommy’s from his streetwalker days. The Inalienable Right starts slowly, but builds to a memorably stirring finale.
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