I knew I would buy it, of course. I just didn’t necessarily know I would buy it today. But I popped into Waterstone’s at lunchtime, and had a look at Margrave of the Marshes, John Peel’s autobiography. It was posthumously completed by his wife, Sheila (once better known as “The Pig”, fact fans) and their (grown-up) kids.
Even reading the acknowledgements was curiously moving, listing as it did the likes of Billy Bragg, Andy Kershaw and Tom Robinson. So I read the introduction, which was written by the four kids. I found myself laughing and my eyes filling with tears just from those three or four pages. So obviously I had to buy it.
I’m now thoroughly looking forward to tomorrow’s Home Truths, which is a special edition featuring Sheila.
I also seem to have bought Singularity Sky, but I’ve been meaning to get that for ages.
John Peel
Oooh, please do continue to report back on that! I would like to buy a biography of John Peel but I don’t want to buy a cash-in rip-off one. This one sounds like the one to go for.
Re: John Peel
Yeah, there were two cash-ins out before Christmas last year. Bastards. Though when I was looking for links for the above, I saw something that seemed to be saying that one of them had been pulped because of libel fears (threat of action from a third party, I think it said).
Re: John Peel
That’s good news.
BTW, your Home Truths link isn’t working.
Re: John Peel
Thanks. It looks like I had pasted the URL twice. Fixed now.