Andrew Oldham

ARCHIVE: Food Glorious Food Editorial

Over the coming months we will be reprinting Editorials written by Andrew. These tend to be themed. Do leave your comments.

FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD

It will soon be Christmas. I know that many of you will lift up your hands and huff that the jolly season is months away. Tell the high street this, go over to any bookshop cookery section and see all the new titles grabbing your attention for Christmas. Those feel good volumes that blend you into the ground because your life is grey. You know the ones, they start with personal recipes, that state, ‘my kids love these sumptious little parcels of cheese in bread, they literally wolf them down every Christmas morning before they run to open their presents, their faces glowing and their bellies full. Makes you feel like a real Mother’. Yes, they’ve sexed up cheese on toast and the fact that when their kids wake them up at five in the morning on Christmas Day their brains are incapable of cooking anything beyond toast. Yet food has become sexy in the last few years, be it to do with Nigella, whose new Nigella Express shows that formats have to move on from pouting at the camera and languidly stating that you can cook something in fifteen minutes if only you’d spend five hours shopping. Food has crept into Literature, thanks in part to the likes of Joanne Harris and the subsequent film Chocolat.

At last, we all screamed, it’s okay to revel in food and find it sexy. Let’s face facts, food and sex are the very reasons we are here, if we don’t eat, we die, if we don’t procreate, then there’s no hunters, no growers, no teenagers pushing trolleys at a supermarket.

So food is bloody well sexy but being fat isn’t, this is the paradox, eat and be merry, eat but don’t get fat and this is wrong. There are two types of people in this world, those that eat and those that pretend to eat. The latter sit in front of immaculately presented food and pick around the edges. The rest of us dream of sandwiches that would make Scooby Doo baulk. I must admit I fall into this category, I love food. So, when it was suggested that we do a food issue I was the first to shout out a plethora of people to interview. It would have been lazy to trot out the usual names, the ones that always seem to be on the front of magazines, smiling vacantly over their interpretation of a Sticky Toffee Pudding – does it annoy anyone else that traditional food is buggered up? A Sticky Toffee Pudding should come with lashings of custard not appear in the corner of a bowl too ashamed to say its own name.

Tags: Andrew Oldham, Christmas, Editorial, Food Glorious Food, Sexy

Merry Christmas

Just a quick message to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We hope you have a peaceful and wonderful season full of mince pies, egg nog, snowballs (throwing and drinking kind), turkey and beef, pies and left over sandwiches, roast spuds and gravy. Do remember though, and think of those who find this time of year incredibly difficult, these people need our support and sympathy at this time of year. Please adopt a vegetarian this Christmas and show them that meat is their friend.

Joking aside, there are those who are less fortunate and those who cannot be home this Christmas. Think of those who may need your support this year and give generously to those that have fallen by the wayside:

http://www.emmaus.org.uk/ and http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/

Christmas comes once a year but charity, sympathy, empathy and support can last a lifetime.

- Andrew Oldham, Lisa Barnes and David Waddington 19/12/2009

The Reformation

Any form of writing is a long and patient slog. The act of writing is easy, the process of rewriting is hard. Most writers spend months just rewriting what they have written (Henry James was notorious for rewriting 90% of his work). In 2009, I took place in NaNoWriMo and drafted the bare bones of The Reformation, back then it was a mere 50,000 words.

Over the last year I have stripped it to pieces, took it apart line by line, character by character and rewritten vast sections of the story. I often worked back from ideas I had towards the end of the story, killing off any characters that were redundant and creating identity within the story. The heart always remained the same, an SF love story. A tale that tackled the difference between living and survival. Today, I came to the end of the second draft (actually, it is the third re-write but I just tinkered in the first draft, made notes on names and characters – which are still packed away in a box after my move).

Now, I am leaving the novel until after Christmas, give it time to breathe and fester, for the bad and good to boil down into something that I can tackle. The next edit will see more go more crazy as I read it aloud and then, then comes the scary part, the publisher. That I will let you know about at a later date.

It’s a good day to finish as today I got a copy of Gargoyle 55 containing my short story, The Song of the Whale Boy.

- Andrew Oldham 15/12/2009

You can read my back blogs on the novel here: PART 1, PART 2, PART 3 and PART 4

Tags: Henry James, NaNoWriMo, Novel Writing, SF, The Reformation

ARCHIVE: Roar, Clare, Roar!

Andrew was brought up in Bolton like Clare Pollard, he was a natural choice to interview her in 2006. ‘I have a lot of time for Clare,’ says Andrew, ‘I think it is because we are around the same age and also have the same social/local references; early 80s in Bolton, the pasty shop, the elephants. I have read with Clare but this is actually the only interview I have done with her. It is hard to questioned a friend in such away and it was very difficult not to go off on tangents, which we did many times, none of which made it into the final interview…they were too embarrassing’.

Roar, Clare, Roar!: Clare Pollard Interview by Andrew Oldham

Clare Pollard was born in 1978. She survived a Bolton comprehensive and three years at Cambridge to end up in London, where she is now working on a novel. She published her first collection, The Heavy Petting Zoo with Bloodaxe in 1998; won an Eric Gregory Award in 2000; and took to the road in the First Lines young poets tour in 2001. Her first collection was followed up by Bedtime (Bloodaxe 2002). She has presented two TV documentaries, one for Channel Four with a verse commentary on the breakups and piss-ups of Bolton’s 16-year-olds. Her present collection is Look, Clare, Look! (Bloodaxe 2005) and deals with the story of a year, in which she set off on a six-month world trip, to write a long poem which engaged with what she saw and felt during her travels. On her return, she discovered that her father was seriously ill, he died shortly after. The collection reflects on her travels and her loss and is a thought provoking book which ushers in a new voice in her writing. We sent fellow Bolton survivor and writer, Andrew Oldham, to probe into Clare Pollard the woman, the poet, playwright, editor and television presenter.

Last year you were appointed the new editor of the Reactions anthologies, taking over from the poet, Esther Morgan. What has it been like to be an editor judging other poets? How has editing Reactions changed your views on poetry?

“It has been an absolute pleasure. I thoroughly enjoy both the thrill of finding a genuine new voice in the slush pile, and the adventure of seeking out exciting new writers through events, rumours and tip-offs. I’ve always had very strong opinions about the kinds of poetry that are undervalued or neglected, and to have free reign to exercise those opinions over an anthology is incredible fun. I was excited to include lots of poets under thirty in Reactions, as well as some like Cheryl B and Tim Turnbull who have been dismissed as ‘performance’ poets for too long when their language works incredibly well on the page. I did my BA in English lit, and have just completed an MRes on Anne Sexton, so have always felt comfortable as a critic, and feel able to get to grips with texts easily and see where they need redrafting. It was really satisfying to work with new writers and feel I was pushing some in the right direction. I wouldn’t say that editing Reactions has changed my views on poetry particularly though, other than increasing my love for it”.

Editors often come in for criticism rather than praise when selecting work for anthologies. How difficult was the process and how did you select the final poems for Reactions?

“Not actually that difficult. I decided from the start to set the bar very high, as we want Reactions to become a kind of textual equivalent of the Eric Gregory Awards – something that provides a genuine boost to the career of any new poet, and opens up both opportunities and a support network. We also want it to be the first place for readers to look to find out who’s ‘up-and-coming’. I cut the number of poets we published, and only accepted those who had a substantial quantity of good poems to showcase. And once you’re asking for more than four book quality poems, that really narrows down the contenders. In the end I actually sought quite a few of the poets out and commissioned them – Daljit Nagra, for instance, who had a huge buzz around him at the time, and who I hear has just had his first collection accepted. Or Meryl Pugh, who was recommended to me by a publisher, and was just shortlisted for the New Writing Ventures Prize. I imagine it’s much harder for editors who have to pick out individual poems, as almost any writer can have a moment of brilliance, but I had to look for poets who were ready to take the next step in their writing career, and on the ‘cusp’ of something big. With Rebecca O’Connor and Tim Turnbull publishing first collections this month as well, I think our hit rate has already been quite good”. 

In the past few years we have seen a rise in new presses and new voices. How do you feel Reactions fits into this new movement and tackles critics calls that British poetry is elitist, academic or lost?

“I don’t really think that accusations of British poetry being elitist and academic can be backed up. However, it is rather safe. I think it’s because of this that young talent gets neglected – there’s a sense that you should spend years and years chipping away at the magazines and letting your voice mature before you get published. The youngest writer in the recent so-called ‘Next Generation’ promotion was 29. I think that’s just absurd. Throughout literary history youth has produced some of the greatest poetry – from Keats and Rimbaud through to Kathleen Jamie or Zoom! – and I get a bit bored of the current insistence on careful, elegiac and mature voices. What about young writers being allowed to speak for and to their generation? I think that if the scene was more generous and celebratory about its young voices – as the worlds of drama and fiction are – it would make British poetry braver, cooler, less predictable and ultimately more popular. So I suppose I hope with Reactions we’re helping to clear that space”.

Look! Clare! Look! (Bloodaxe) compared to your prior work has a different resonance that tackles both the journey of the word and the heart. Can you take us through the physical and emotional journey you undertook during the writing of the collection?

“The book is chronological, and was literally written over one year. I received an Society of Authors travel grant, so when I set off with my round-the-world plane ticket in the new year in 2003, I decided to keep a kind of poetic diary of my travels called ‘The Journey’. I was particularly interested in looking at a lot of the big issues that trouble my generation, but which are not really being explored by many poets – ideas of globalisation, western consumption, the damage we are doing to our environment – and as our journey developed and both SARS and the Iraq War began to dominate the news, the poem really came together. I suppose it has a real debt to the confessional movement, because I like the brutality of their honesty. They don’t just tell anecdotes, they worm their way to a truth, however ugly. I think I’m very hard on myself in that poem. It’s not a comfortable read. There I am in my big long-haul plane, flying from ethnic trek to beach party whilst the world burns… When I got back, I had no particular plan for the next part of the collection, but then very quickly I discovered my father had terminal cancer. I began to write incessantly – I think it really confirmed for me that I am, in my bones, a poet, as it was the only way I could deal with the horror of those months. Somehow by putting things into poetry I could gain some measure of control over them, or transform them into something I was able to look at straight. As I had started to study Anne Sexton for my MRes, the confessional spirit really continued through the poems, which I hope are a very honest depiction of what it’s like to lose someone you love, and how fucked up and messy it is. There are other poems in there too though – about the chain pub I worked in around then, and getting engaged (I’m now married). My father died just before Christmas and was buried on New Year’s Eve. Even the day after my father died we stopped on the motorway for coffee and a poem – ‘Cordelia at the Service Stop’ – appeared fully formed in my head. Monstrous, really. I haven’t really written any poetry since then. I’m exhausted by it”.

What were the highlights and low points of your six-month trip that influenced this collection?

“The high point was China. It’s absolutely terrifying but so genuinely other that overturned all my assumptions, and felt like a real adventure in the way so much travelling fails to do now. The low point was losing my handbag with all our money in it in Bangkok, due to a Thai-whisky binge. I was puking on the steps of the police station when we went in to report it. A complete disgrace”.

You grew up in Bolton and made the move to London a few years back. How much did your upbringing and environment affect your way of writing? And, how did the move away from this to London change your writing?

“I was never really a regional writer. Except I swear quite a lot, and I’m not afraid to tell the truth – both possibly Boltonian characteristics! I like the anonymity of London – the huge diversity of places and people, and how you can move around like a ghost, unobserved, taking it all in. I feel very alert to the voices of adverts, the cry “buy! buy!” on every inch of the city, so I suppose that has affected my work. I feel obliged to wrestle with that language”.

Poetry is often marginalised in British education, with teachers concentrating on dead poets rather than bringing contemporary poets into the classroom. What was your own experience of poetry at school and how did your classmates treat you when they discovered you wrote poetry?

“Poetry was definitely a marginal part of the curriculum, but I had a couple of very good teachers who introduced me to writers that still influence me. One of our set texts at A-level was Plath’s Selected Poems, and this had a profound impact on my desire to be a poet – when I wrote my first book, The Heavy-Petting Zoo, my main aim was to capture something of her intensity of emotion – her ability to write rage, or move you to tears in the space of a few lines, which seemed to me close to miraculous. Having seen my work, one teacher suggested I write an essay on Gerald Manly Hopkins, and I think his density and musicality has marked my poetry. And then of course, Shakespeare, who I constantly go back to – I recall having to perform Lady Macbeth’s ‘I have given suck’ speech in one class, and being completely overawed by it. Given that I was a bit of a loner and ‘swot’ at school, I don’t think anyone was particularly surprised to discover I went home and furiously scribbled verse. In fact, the response was good – there was a kind of novelty in seeing their own experiences of clubs and fumbled kisses put into poetic language”.

You appeared in a series of TV programmes dissecting poems for secondary school children. How important do you feel Lit Criticism is and how do you feel that it helps readers understand poems?

“I think lit criticism teaches us a closer, more intense way of reading, and a fuller engagement with the text. So many people let words float past without really thinking about them. I know there’s the argument that criticism takes fun away from reading – and a little does go a long way – but sometimes complex texts give us the richest pleasure, and just a few simple pointers in the right direction can unlock them for us. There are millions of people out there who say: ‘I don’t understand poetry’, and I think the TV series Arrows of Desire is a really important because it says yes you do, and leads you though famous poems in a really clear way. People get really intimidated by metaphors, for example, and I think that metaphorical thinking is something you can learn really easily”.

If you could change British poetry in anyway what would you do?

“I would like it to open its doors more to young writers, but I’ve probably banged on about that enough. I’d like people to start buying more. That would be nice”. You were named as one The Independent’s top writers under 30. How much do you think this has helped your career and what was it like to see yourself in a national newspaper?

“It might have sold a few books, but if anything, my appearances in national newspapers have probably harmed my poetic career. Poetry’s a small world, and when it’s felt that the ‘wrong’ people are getting press attention, there’s usually a mixture of jealousy and annoyance. My mum likes it when I’m in the papers though”.

There is often the argument that what the poet means isn’t always found by the reader, and that the reader interprets the poem the way they want. How important do you feel this is? And has anyone ever got the core message of your poems wrong and how did that feel?

“I think my work’s quite explicit. I’ve never really been greatly misinterpreted, apart from the fact that occasionally people don’t pick up on my very black sense of humour. I did all that ‘death of the author’ thing at university, but ultimately, I think literature is about communication. I don’t read to see my own self reflected back – I want to know about other people, other lives, other opinions than my own”.

If you could talk with any living or dead poets, who would they be and what would you like to talk to them about?

“I actually have a poem ‘Fantasy Dinner Party’ that features Sylvia Plath. But I think I’d rather have a few cocktails with Anne Sexton, just to hear her wonderful husky voice and find out if Diane-Brook Middleton’s scandalous biography is all true. I think Frank O’Hara would be interesting on the subject of globalisation – there’s this queasiness about consumption in his poems. And Shakespeare, of course, to see if he’s actually Shakespeare”.

You presented The Sixteenth Summer for Channel 4, how did you find the process of writing for television and going back to Bolton to chronicle the break-ups and piss-ups of 16-year-olds? What did you learn from the process?

“Documentary is a very funny medium. I felt pretty guilty most of the time, because these kids were sixteen and didn’t really know how they were going to appear on camera. It felt intrusive, even though I think it was a very sensitive film in the end. There was one amazing sequence, where these sixteen year-olds were having an Anne Summers party, and all sucking chocolate cocks until they oozed out between their teeth, which was horrifying but an amazing image of girls on that edge between womanhood and innocence. We decided it was too exploitative in the final cut though. I’m quite good at writing quickly, to order, and it was interesting writing around the edit, and then dubbing my poetry over the top of footage straight away. And it was a very weird experience when it got screened at the Manchester Cornerhouse – my face 10ft high was an alarming spectacle!”

What do you think makes a poet?

“A love of language, a love of reading, the urgent sense that you have something to say. Attention to the detail – whether that’s the placing of a comma or remembering the precise scent of your ex-lover’s clothes”.

You have held a series of jobs to support your work, managing editor of The Idler and assistant director of the Clerkenwell Literary Festival but what has been your worst and best job and why? What did you learn from these jobs?

“The worst was in a chain-pub opposite Liverpool Street Station. My poem ‘The Chain’ is a kind of torrent of bitterness against all the patronising bastards who abuse and insult barmaids. Plus the place was so expensive I felt the urge to apologise before I served a drink, and the staff so badly paid that all apart from me were squatters. The only good thing about it was that it inspired a poem. The best has been working at The Idler. They’re really inspirational people, throw great parties, and are flexible to the point of ridiculousness (e.g.: “I’m not coming in today, I feel like sunbathing” is a completely valid excuse.) I’ve also learnt a lot about editing from them that I’ve applied to Reactions.” 

Your play The Weather (Faber, 2004) was performed at The Royal Court last year, can you take us through the process of how the play came about? And, what have you learnt that you are taking forward to your next play?

“I did a course with the Young Writer’s Programme at the Royal Court a few years back, which I think is the best writing course in the country, bar none. I was taught by the completely inspirational playwright Simon Stephens one night a week, saw lots of plays for free, and spent hours in the bar debating the state of modern drama. That was when I first started writing seriously for the theatre. The Weather was written very quickly, in about a fortnight, when my dad was ill. It was fuelled by a lot of rage. It’s set in the near future, with the weather getting dramatically worse, terrorists blowing up shopping centres, and the end of the world in sight. I wanted to explore the visual side of theatre, so decided to put a poltergeist in the house, which becomes a metaphor for the outside world finally catching up with this privileged family and wreaking its revenge on them – although it’s also linked to the daughter’s anger. It was a real thrill having a play on. It can be quite lonely being a writer, and it was fun to work with lots of other people, although a wrench giving up total control of my work. I think in future I need to let go more. My new play under commission for the Royal Court is called The Zoo-Keeper’s Wife, after the Plath poem. She has a breakdown and the monkeys start talking to her. I don’t think I can go wrong with talking monkeys…”

Returning to Look! Clare! Look! can you take us through how you edited the collection and how that differed from your work with Reactions?

“As I’ve got older my editing has become very much gut instinct. If something feels wrong or dull, even if I can’t quite explain why, I’ll just cut it. I’m ruthless. There wasn’t really much more editing to do on Look, Clare! Look! once I’d cut out the weak links, as the chronology was dictated by the subject matter”.

What does this collection mean to Clare Pollard the poet and Clare Pollard the person?

“I think it’s my best book by quite a long way. I love the whole package, from the photo on the front – a snapshot of my eye taken on the night I got engaged – to the map my husband drew of our journey that prefaces the poetry. I also think that I’m dealing with really important things in it, not just looking round for a suitable poetic topic – these are poems I felt impelled to write, which is something I can’t quite say about my previous work. So as a poet, I’m proud of it. And as a person, I suppose I think of it in a way as a tribute to my father, and a kind of love letter to him. It was very important to me that I commemorated him somehow, and words are how I do it best”.

If you could give any advice to people who are thinking of trying to make a career as a poet, what would it be?

“I know everyone always says read a lot, but it’s true. If you don’t read contemporary poetry books, why would you expect anyone to read yours? Apart from that, the only real way to break into poetry is to build up a reputation in the magazines – Poetry Review, The Rialto, Magma and Poetry London are all very good places to be spotted. Be true to your own vision, rather than writing what you think is ‘publishable.’ And the sign Sexton had pinned above her desk is a good rule of thumb: ‘WHATEVER YOU DO DON’T BE BORING’”.

Finally, What are you working on at the moment? And what have been the successes and the problems?

“I’m working on The Zoo-Keeper’s Wife for the Royal Court, and a movie script for the production company Celador. It’s a rom-com. I’ve never 10 really written comedy before, but I keep chuckling to myself at my desk, so things must be going okay”.

Tags: 2006, Andrew Oldham, Anne Sexton, Bloodaxe, Bolton, Clare Pollard, Eric Gregory Award, Reactions, The Heavy Petting Zoo

Last Minute Christmas Buy For Writers

Recently, the kind people at The Scribble House sent me a notebook (see image). Now, writers love notebooks, I mean we’re fanatical about finding the right notebook to write in. We are sniffy about notebooks. The Scribble House is that rare thing, a family run business who love, who are devoted to quality notebooks. Quality always comes at a price, their notebooks start at a reasonable £12 and rise to a wopping £72 BUT remember, a notebook can last a writer a year or two years. That means the most expensive notebook wouldn’t even be a penny a week!

Now, how many of you buy those awful cheap notebooks from high street retailers only to find when you open them after several uses that every page flies away? Or worst still, several years later you dig out that old notebook to find every page flaking and turned to a fine nicotine yellow? The Scribble House notebooks won’t do this because every page is bound to the leather. They are built to last years and writers need notebooks that are built to last. This is a notebook that could last on any continent, in any weather, at any height or depth.

How did a I get this? The Scribble House were kind enough to give me one, as a Christmas gift. The notebook arrived beautifully packaged in a beautiful box, a notebook in a box not just whacked in a plastic bag! Quality speaks volumes!  As soon as I opened it I knew I was facing something of beauty, the smell alone, that sweet smell mixed with the musk of paper and leather.

Another thing writers love, you can see them in libraries smelling old books, it’s the smell of quality – missing in the online experience.

It is the tiny touches with The Scribble House that sets them apart from their competitors. This soft bound leather notebook oozes class from the quality of its binding, to the helpful stitched in book mark and the gold edges on the paper.

The only gripe I would have is that I prefer plain pages rather than lined but this is a personal preference and I know many writers who clamour for a decent lined notebook. Well, you’ve found it at The Scribble House. This is a notebook that will last you a lifetime. Reward yourself with quality this Christmas.

Tags: Last Minute Christmas Buy For Writers, The Scribble House

ARCHIVE: Changing Ideology – An Interview with Mat Fraser

Andrew interview Mat Fraser in 2005 via email. Andrew says of the interview, ‘Mat is one of the nicest and most professional actors/writers I have ever interviewed, nothing was too much for him. We have since become e-buddies and I have been happy to look at his work in progress and give feedback. I appreciate an individual who is honest and wants to hear honest feedback. I think this was the spirit of this interview when we sat down at our mutual computers in Autumn of 2005′.

Changing Ideology: An Interview with Mat Fraser by Andrew Oldham

Musician, actor and presenter Mat Fraser was born in England in 1962 with a physical impairment caused by in utero exposure to the Thalidomide drug. His acting career has also encompassed a certain amount of political activism around disability issues. His theatre career included roles in Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw for Graeae Theatre Company, the Group K production of Marisol and the title role in Johnny Sol at the Croydon Warehouse. His first major television role was in the three-part World War II drama series Unknown Soldier (ITV, 1998). He featured in Metrosexuality(Channel 4, 2001), in which his disability is not the main focus of the character but merely an incidental aspect – the kind of role, Fraser admits, that disabled actors long for but are rarely offered. His one-man stage show Sealboy: Freak, based on the true story of ‘Sealo’ (real name Stanley Berent), who travelled with American freak shows from the 1930s to the 1970s, toured the country. Fraser also presented a Channel 4 documentary about Sealo, Born Freak (2002) and Happy Birthday: Thalidomide. His recent touring show was Sealboy: Freak and he appeared in the one off BBC drama Every Time You Look At Me. He plans to bring Thalidomide! A Musical to the UK in 2005.

In Happy Birthday: Thalidomide on C4 you dealt with how Thalidomide has been and was still being used in the world today. This journey was both a public and private revelation, how did you deal with some of the issues and

individuals in this documentary? Has there been an aftermath in the creation of your own work?

“Yes, many of them…for myself an encouragement to continue expressing what is after all (as I’m a disabled voice, free and autonomous from the constraints of mainstream physical perfection values) a new voice, and in an increasingly professional way, also I’ve developed a new audience of inclusive, subversive, not stupid, people, which is the biggest thrill for me, to get audiences hitherto unused to being together, to enjoy work

together, albeit from a vaguely different perspective. Initially though there was some reactionary criticism from many who were angered that I didn’t 100% subscribe to their politicised (though I think I am) disability rights based beliefs…. but I do! I just don’t think any kind of censorship is good for progessivitiy, and I wanted to talk about freak shows, etc, schadenfruede, objectification of the disabled performer etc etc….”

There is a great desire to pigeon hole people in the west, to create effectively what is a form of ‘ostracisation’. How much do you feel that your disability has affected your acting career?

“West of where exactly? What about the east, don’t you think there is just as much desire to pigeonhole too? I don’t know, but I don’t think it can just be a preserve of the West…anyway, of course my disability has completely prevented the mainstream possibilities of my acting career, but it has also given me opportunities I would not have got if I were not disabled…. however, the ratio is probably 70% negative in this respect. My disability both creates and prevents acting work and career possibilities”.

In the BBC drama Every Time You Look At Me there was an attempt to look beyond the disability and at the person, to blow apart the preconceptions and the pigeonhole, how do you feel the drama worked for you as (a) an actor and, (b) as a writer?

“A) Ok, but I got all the brooding reaction shots whilst Lisa my co actor got all the good lines, proactivity and movement of plot…but it was great as a disabled actor to have a lead role in a big budgeted BBC drama, so of course it helped blow away preconceptions that disabled actors can’t “carry” a plot etc…B) Ok again, but I felt there was maybe too much about disability still, especially with the degenerative disease we discover near the end. As a film drama, 90 minutes long though, I thought it was well constructed and gave a good story to a very mainstream audience”.

Mat Fraser seems more of a Renaissance man than an individual caught in twenty first century ideals, where do you feel this kind of organic approach to your work, which spans page, screen and stage, came about?

“I really don’t know, but I get bored doing just one thing, and I love most things to do with entertainment:…my parents were actors, so story telling, theatre, film and acting lifestyles have always been familiar to me, but I love music equally, and so have been a professional musician for 15 years before acting…that never goes away, once a muso always a muso etc….then, I love good stories…many of them to do with disability are written by people utterly ignorant of the reality for many disabled people so one starts to want to see it done at least with realism, so you have a go yourself. Then there is all the cabaret and subterranean subversion I delight in…that I can’t explain except maybe to say that as a reject of all things mainstream, I enjoy courting those that would welcome me without judgement of inferiority, and so found myself in those environments……it’s hard to gauge myself, but I think all, of these are contributing factors”.

In your recent tours you’ve looked at Sealboy: Freak and are about to launch Thalidomide! A Musical, how did this work come about?

“See above: my dissatisfaction with other previous, largely non disabled attempts at looking at these subjects, coupled with a lack of acting offers, coupled with a desire to do my own show, and a fascination with old time freak shows. When I saw a picture of Stanley Berent, AKA Sealo the Sealboy, I knew I’d found a subject that I could write a one man play about, and play him with an authority no one could argue with, let alone recast….the Thalidomide musical came about as a need to have fun with a subject that I’ve been working with for the last two years, and of course I want to follow in the tradition of sicko musicals such as Springtime for Hitler, Elephant the musical etc…I don’t see why the non-disabled should have the non-pc prerogative, and if done from a place of love, offensive material can be great fun!”.

Do you feel audiences are changing their pre-conceptions on disability?

“In theatre they are, as more unconceived by non disabled people theatre that includes disabled people is out there and shown…new companies making inclusive work, disabled actors trying to get on…it’s all slowly changing yes, too fucking slowly, but it is changing. ON screen I think its changing MUCH more slowly…and at times it seems as if it hasn’t at all….but even if the casting of Inside I’m Dancing was non disabled shit, at least the subject matter is being approached now by various writers…most of its still crap, but its a start…and so very slowly those audiences are inevitably changing their hideously inaccurate preconceptions”.

With the recent global political changes, if you had the chance to change something on a global and personal stage what would those changes be?

“Killing the Bush empire dead…and the Empirical fascist ideology that is the USA these days. Also, I would limit all families in the world to just one child each, for a period of at least 25 years. There are too many of us on the rock”.

There is an argument in the arts concerning the DDA, about who defines disability vs impairment, do you feel the DDA is discriminatory to the very individuals it serves to work in favour for?

“I don’t know enough about it to comment. I will say that although I agree and adhere to the social model of disability myself, there is still a physical aspect that needs to be acknowledged”.

On a personal level what defines you as an actor and writer? And what defines you on a public stage?

“Well, my disability is what mostly defines me as a writer…I can’t talk for others, but I imagine it has some baring on my performances too….and that coupled with stage stuff, I have combined my own take on life and everything within it, to include a disability aware persona that is fully mainstream in its technical and public aspirations and capability (I hope!), and I’d like to think, found my own niche…so in public, I hope that it is the package that is the full me. Obviously talent has to pay a role in that, and I would hope that no disabled actors are getting parts if they just can’t act. I hope I can. You tell me”.

Do you feel that in the UK today disabled actors are defined by their disability rather than their talent, and why do you think this is?

“Yes of course they/we are: because the stupid reactionary scared to change stuck in their religiously handed down power broking mainstream reactions to us, do nothing to change, we have to bully them into it, as all historical minorities have had to do. As each milestone of change occurs, the attitudes change, and it is gratifying to be told by members of the public that you are a good actor, it vindicates your insistence to go against what you are told”.

Do you have any advice for people out there who want to become actors?

“To be taken seriously you must have talent, skills, knowledge and a realistic expectation…..then, with all these things, you MAY get some work…it is more uphill for us even than most other actors, and you have to understand that this wrong is the way it is. Without a willingness to do these things, please don’t bother cluttering up the pool with your misguided naivety and arrogance. To assume you don’t need to be trained and skilled but can just wheel into a part is the very worst thing the business needs right now. It needs professionally attituded disabled actors with skills who then have the right to demand equal treatment”.

Tags: Andrew Oldham, Happy Birthday: Thalidomide, Mat Fraser, Seal Boy, Sealo

Gargoyle: Issue 55

Andrew features in the latest issue of Gargoyle: Issue 55. The magazine publishes the short story, The Song of the Whale Boy,  a fantasy story about a mutated whale, a hunter, a daughter and an abandoned wife. The magic tale takes place in the streets and sewers of Paris. A home away from home for the writer.

Gargoyle is a great magazine, Issue 55 features some great poetry, fiction and non-fiction and is more like a book than a magazine. It looks good on anyone’s shelf. Gargoyle covers are always bold and simple and the latest cover features the lovely Aoife Mannix (photo by Andy Rumball). Buy the magazine today!

Let us know what you think of Andrew’s story.

ARCHIVE: Joolz Denby Interview

Andrew interviewed Joolz Denby in 2005, the year she was nominated for the Orange Prize for the book Billie Morgan. Andrew has known Joolz for over 15 years, and has interviewed her many times. He says of this interview, ‘This is one of my favourite interviews with Joolz. It gets to the point and I like that in an interview. The first time I interviewed Joolz was in the 90s, I was doing a spate of performance poetry interviews with the likes of Say So, Rosie Lugosi, John Helgley and the late Dike, for such magazines as Flux and The Big Issue. They weren’t great interviews, as I was young and inexperienced. Though no interview is great, this interview does cut to the crux of what Joolz Denby does, great writing’.

Joolz Denby Interview by Andrew Oldham

Joolz Denby is an internationally acclaimed, internationally award-winning author, poet, spoken-word artist, illustrative artist, broadcaster and photographer. She has worked for the last 25 years with the legendary cult band New Model Army and currently manages upcoming young band New York Alcoholic Anxiety Attack. She curates Arts Council funded exhibitions on topics such as elective body-modification and the artwork of New Model Army for which she is responsible. She is considered the UK’s premier woman spoken word performer. She has never been afraid to push boundaries within her work, and is well documented in her political views. In recent years, she wrote the award winning and critically acclaimed Stone Baby followed by Corazon, both published by HarperCollins. Her most recent novel, Billie Morgan, published by Serpent’s Tail, was short listed for The Orange Prize for literature in 2005 and the CWA Dagger In The Library Award. Aesthetica has been a fan of Joolz for many years and we are delighted to talk about her latest ventures.

You work in a wide range of mediums such as television, radio, public commissions, but what gives you the most pleasure?

‘Writing, closely followed by drawing, the photography. I get quite a lot of fun out of stuff like embroidery and knitting, too. I like the public commissions because on the whole, they’re quite difficult and as I’m lazy, it makes me work so I get good results. I expect this question contains the unspoken follow-up question; which medium do I like least? The answer would be working in television as it is at best an uneasy medium and at worst a destroyer of societies. American First Nations call it the ‘dead-eye’ for good reason’.

How do you feel you differ as a poet compared to the Joolz performance artist of ten years ago?

‘I was never just a performance artist. I always believed very strongly the work had to be as good on the page as it was on the stage. Because I have a certain facility for drama and the presentation of that work, many people automatically dismissed the written texts as being of no value as the English distrust anyone who’s good at more than one thing. However, though it’s true a good actor can emote the phone book, a bad poem is a bad poem no matter what you do with it. I couldn’t have got the reactions I did and do if I had written crap. These days, I am better at everything I do, because I have dedicated my life (and still do) to learning how to improve’.

How do you feel the world of poetry has changed since you first started?

‘It’s got worse and worse. The final blows came when the government offered grants to persons calling themselves poets who satisfied criteria which had nothing to do with the great force of poetry itself and the proliferation of sub-standard ‘creative writing’ classes. Those good young poets – such as Toby Martinez de las Rivas from the North East – must struggle even harder now since so many people are put off poetry, and especially poetry readings, by terrible work read by people with no talent for reading aloud and no desire to learn how to improve in either field’.

Why did you turn to crime writing? What intrigued or inspired you first when you started?

‘I’ve always written about other people’s lives and often those lives which have become involved in what is termed ‘crime’. I don’t write police procedural novels or forensic thrillers but rather stories of how you can be in the wrong place at the wrong time and your life just gets shredded by circumstance. Or fate. Call it what you like. Characters fascinate me, the plots are fairly simple in themselves’.

What effect did being short listed for The Orange Prize for literature have on you, your work, and your connection with your readers?

‘On me – it was very stressful, personally. On my work – no effect at all. On sales – they went up a 1000% and more. On my connection with my readers – I just get even more correspondence than I did before. All in all, it was a fascinating experience, but not in a literary sense’.

Billie Morgan differs from your earlier novels in tone; your heroine is hard talking, abused but unstoppable on the streets of Bradford. Where did this gruelling tone come from, and where did this anti-hero come from?

‘I don’t recognise the novel I wrote in this description. I don’t think the tone is gruelling at all, though of course the events in the story are often described as dark they are no more than happens in any city anywhere; and Billie is often very funny though she does speak as she finds, as they say in Bradford. I suppose I write as I find, in that case. There are plenty of ‘Billies’ out there, women who have suffered, made mistakes, aren’t rich or well-connected but who are brave, enduring and full of love’.

Your novels still contain a lyrical language. How hard is it for you to differentiate between your poetic tastes and your prose needs?

‘Not at all difficult. I don’t make a lot of difference between poetry and prose, it’s all story-telling and the pleasure of using language well and beautifully’.

How important do you feel politics is in writing and music, and what kind of message do you really want your readers to take away with them?

‘I don’t want my readers (or the viewers of my visual work) to take any message away. I don’t care to preach because I don’t care to be preached at. My politics are so interwoven with my life and art that it isn’t necessary to labour points or write polemic. I can’t imagine why anyone with half a brain thinks politics are separate from art or music, or anything. Everything, everyday, every possible way, everyone’s life is entwined with politics whether they like it or not. How can anyone not be interested? Only a fool abdicates from understanding their life and the structures and progression of the society they live in. Apathy means powerlessness and to be powerless willingly because you think being interested in politics is ‘uncool’ is simply idiotic’.

How much of your own personal history do you draw on?

‘In Billie Morgan I used my early life and experiences in the biker gangs of the 1970’s as material, but on the whole, I tend to keep myself out of my work. Maybe 25% of my written work is about myself, less in the visual work. I don’t find myself that fascinating to be honest. I’m much more interested in other people. And animals’.

Finally, what do you have planned in the future?

‘True North – a photographic exhibition and installation at Bradford University in June 2006, The Body Carnival an exhibition of elective body-modification practices, the new novel, Borrowed Light, the novel I’m writing. Wild Thing, prison work, more poetry and short stories, an album with my words set to music by Justin Sullivan and Ty Unwin, touring with New York Alcoholic Anxiety Attack, taking One Family – One Tribe; an Exhibition of the Art and Artefacts of New Model Army, working with the Illuminate Festival, performances in the UK and abroad, working with my students. Knitting scarves for Xmas presents’.

Tags: Billie Morgan, Dike, Flux, John Helgley, Joolz Denby, Rosie Lugosi, Say So, The Big Issue