Looking at the World Differently
We met a chap this week, a chap we have known for many years, although he didn’t know us. We know him well because we love what he does and we love his books. Although he mostly creates picture books, the assumption might be that his work is only aimed at younger readers, but although the style might appear to be juvenile, the stories are as applicable to grown-ups as they are to kids. Originally from Belfast, he now lives in Brooklyn, New York where he writes and illustrates his books as well as creating fine art. What was striking about meeting this chap we knew so well for the first time was how little we knew about this chap, but it soon became clear – he has that unique gift of looking at the world differently (a little like Malcolm Gladwell who I mentioned a few weeks ago) and asks questions of us and our role in that world. He is clearly a chap driven by curiosity and the answers he seeks are often to the questions we should all be asking. When curiosity is stifled, or even worse outlawed, bad things happen as we are seeing on our TV screens every day. The answers may not always be obvious, but we should never stop asking the questions. The chap we met is called Oliver Jeffers, through his work he encourages you to ask questions.
This Is An Incitement by Chris Riddell
Don’t settle into inertia
As the ash falls on your head and shoulders
Soft and ankle deep at your feet
Take up your pens and brushes
And make Art.
The ancient dragon of greed
Coiled tight around their hoards
Don’t understand Art.
But the snake oil minions
Who whisper in their ears as they sleep,
They fear it.
Art can capture the souls
They bought and paid for.
If you want to slay dragons,
Make Art.
The former England Rugby player Steve Thompson’s memoir is not just the story of a life, but of a mind and the fragile grip it has on memory; the latest novel from bestselling American author Jennifer Egan is also about memory and how it becomes a commodity; Jennifer Saint weaves ancient history into the tale of ‘Elektra’; the complexities of a family provide a challenge in Candice Carty-Williams’ ‘People Person’; while the path laid by Stuart MacBride in ‘No Less The Devil’ is bound to have twists and turns and Douglas Murray is asking all the questions in ‘The War on the West’.
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