SPIKE MAGAZINE

Reviewed by Ben Granger 1. The purpose of politics is to inspire art. The only useful thing it has ever achieved When Marshall Brennan argued “The Manifesto is remarkable for its imaginative power… It is the first great modernist work of art”, he

An authentic literary sensibility in pop music is rare but according to Ben Granger The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy has more than enough to share Pop music and literature are two separate miracles, the silent shout and the screamed secret, two wonders

Published a few years before the works that made him a posthumous literary superstar, Roberto Bolaño’s Nazi Literature in the Americas is an evasive, hybrid beast. Ben Granger gets to grips with it This arcane curiosity of a book – first published

“Everything that follows is based on recent, real-life experience that has been proven to work” — James Shepherd-Baron First off — the title. Shepherd-Baron was clearly aiming for the hard-bitten no nonsense “Dettol-does-what-it-says-on—the-tin”

The only game in town, and a rigged one at that. In what is swiftly becoming ‘living memory’, capitalism is now the only economic, social and political system deemed possible, the logic of its late incarnation invading every aspect of life,

Ben Granger First published in 1914, Wyndham Lewis’ Blast has just been republished by Thames And Hudson. For centuries, when the Great British reading public scanned the covers of their journals, from Blackwoods through to the Edinburgh Review

Ben Granger Mention the name Michael Foot and listen out for the automatic sneer. A rolling of eyes at a “disastrous leader”, accompanied no doubt with devilishly cutting asides about donkey jackets, walking sticks or Worzel Gummidge, delete

Ben Granger Borges is that rare writer, one who can truly change your outlook forever. To read Labyrinths or Ficciones is to experience the universe anew, to find a poetry in mathematics, a mysticism in reason. In tales like “Funes the Memorious”,

Ben Granger The “coming-of-age” teenage novel is now a well-weathered archetype, every bit as established in the literary pantheon as the state of the nation diorama, or the star-crossed romantic tragedy. A teenage narrator has the potential

A Clockwork Apple represents a stunning debut by Manchester born author Belinda Webb. Ben Granger caught up with her in the bar of Manchester’s Cornerhouse cinema for a quick chat about her inspirations; Burgess and Moss Side both… Many people

Ben Granger As you may guess from the title of this first novel by Belinda Webb, she isn’t shy in acknowledging its chief influence. This iApple/i shares with Burgess’ iOrange/i more than merely its title. Once again we have a teenage gang

Ben Granger Monsignor Quixote – Graham Greene See all books by Graham Greene at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com Whenever there was a chance to have a shot at Catholicism in his writing, George Orwell could always be relied on to take aim and

Ben Granger The Age of Consent – George Monbiot See all books by George Monbiot at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com Monbiot, best known to the reading public for his campaigns against global warming, was aiming far beyond “green issues”

Ben Granger It’s Mawdsley – David Baker See all books by David Baker at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com “19 year old thug, Craig Mawdsley has robbed your home, smashed your car and mugged your grandmother. Now he attempts his greatest

Stephen Dorril’s “Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism” is an exhaustive re-examination of the man who, far from being a Hitler admiring crank, was inextricably bound up with British politics and upper class attitudes, writes

“…This whole book is of course, a “mistake”, and a very extreme one too. But every progression of language develops from mishearing, from distortion. While undoubtedly funny, the undulating incongruity of the language is enough

“…very much into the bellowing apparently- random- words- as- associational- poetry mode. “Cheese-sticks!” “Goldfish bowl!” “No Newsnight for you Baby!”…” Ben Granger Reformation Post TLC

“…Saunders manages to amuse, entertain, and shake out thought on a great variety of subjects, and does so in a subtle, sideways style which could so easily be annoying but isn’t…” Ben Granger The Brief and Frightening

“…with this far less feted CD, the Long Blondes definitely made the best album of that year, on every level…” Ben Granger Someone To Drive You Home – The Long Blondes See all albums by The Long Blondes at Amazon.co.uk

Ben Granger Simpatico – The Charlatans See all albums by The Charlatans at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com A childish and vapid point, but some bands make it really easy for childish and vapid reviewers

Ben Granger The Weeping Women Hotel – Alexei Sayle See all books by Alexei Sayle at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com It is wise to greet novels by comedians with trepidation. It should go without saying the qualities needed for performing comedy

Ben Granger on Jack London’s neglected dystopian novel that rivals 1984 and Brave New World in its prophetic vision of the future When it comes to accolades for the most lauded prophetic dystopian satirical novels of the early twentieth century,

Ben Granger Ringleader Of The Tormentors – Morrissey See all albums by Morrissey at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com Morrissey, for so long adrift in the incongruous lanes of Los Angeles, seems on this album to have finally

Ben Granger Lunar Park – Bret Easton Ellis See all books by Bret Easton Ellis at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com Lunar Park presents itself as the straightforward first-person narrative of “Bret Easton Ellis”, spoiled, self-obsessed,

Ben Granger Fall Heads Roll – The Fall See all music by The Fall at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com It’s time again for the Seer of Salford to blast forth his enchanted bombast. With more albums now than anyone can count,