Common Ground: Rob Cowen on Edgeland Literature, Psychogeography & Nature Writing
WORDS: Gary Budden interviews Rob Cowen I recently spoke to Rob Cowen, author of the excellent Common Ground, about his new book, edgeland literature and psychogeography, the debates around what does and does not constitute ‘nature writing’ and the importance
The Walker and the Landscape
WORDS: Tina Richardson The solitary walker situated within the landscape is not a modern phenomenon, even if the term psychogeography is. The cover of Terry Eagleton’s The Ideology of the Aesthetic (1990) shows Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer (Wanderer Above
The Death of a Fish in Hackney’s Abandoned Filter Beds
LOCATION: London WORDS: Gareth E. Rees. In which I discover evidence of mythical battles in the abandoned Victorian filter beds by Hackney Marsh…. Extracted From Marshland: Dreams & Nightmares on the Edge of London (Influx Press, 2013). [“Layered London, black, funny, marshy,
The Transhistorical Folk Landscapes of Lutine
MUSIC: Lutine ~ White Flowers ~ a new album of haunting minmalist folk by Brighton-based duo, Heather Minor and Emma Morton, available to pre-order here LABEL: Front and Follow WORDS: Gareth E. Rees The debut album by Lutine emerges, shimmering, through a rift
The Drinker’s London & the Poems of Salena Godden
WORDS: Gareth E. Rees In 2001 I became a weekend DJ in Filthy McNasty’s, a pub in Islington, sadly no longer with us. I was paid in beer to put one song on after another, while the pub ebbed and
Requiem for a Village
(1975, dir. David Gladwell) LOCATION: Norfolk Words: Gareth E Rees This film from 1975 is as close to the spirit of my own book Marshland as I’ve come across in film or literature. It has the feel of a documentary,
On Walking… And Stalking Sebald
A review of On Walking, by Phil Smith [Triarchy Press, 2014] Words: Gareth E. Rees Location: East Anglia Phil Smith (aka Crab Man, Mytho, Anton Vagus, Spacetart) fuses walking with performance art. He describes his practice as mythogeography – a
Tales from the Black Meadow
By Chris Lambert “This is a beautiful, compelling book of folklore. What’s most haunting about this book is that the stories feel like they’ve been lingering at the back of your mind all your life. The sparse, propulsive prose gives
Connecting Nothing with Something
Influx Press Connecting Nothing with Something explores the conflicted and shifting landscape of the south east English coast. This anthology looks at art led regeneration, hidden history, the ghosts of youth culture, white cliffs, empty holidays and kisses under
Marshland: Dreams and Nightmares on the Edge of London
By Gareth E. Rees, illustrated by Ada Jusic [Influx Press, 2013] Marshland is a deep map of the east London marshes, a blend of local history, folklore and weird fiction, where nothing is quite as it seems…. “Layered London, black,
