Fall in a Hole

[threemonkeys]

I have finished John Peel's autobiography Margrave of the Marshes and it gave me a huge sense of incompleteness. Incomplete in the way that the world is incomplete now John Peel is no longer there to be the best DJ in the world. Incomplete in the way that I wished I had been able to hear more of his show. Incomplete in that less than half of the book was written by John before he died - the rest was (very well) written by his wife Sheila. The final incompleteness is that not enough people will read this book. If you have ever admired this man and his ethos of "I play what I want to play" then you should read this book. It is incomplete, but it is funny and enlightening and revealing and sad and just plain good.

Comments

[russellk.livejournal.com]

John Peel was an inspirational person. I have a bootleg of Orbital's Maida Vale concert from 2004 - their last ever, and broadcast over his programme - and he said some complimentary things about them. Purchasing a 'Peel Sessions' disc was a guarantee of quality. I intend to get hold of the tribute album and read the book.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

On an unrelated note, I was in Dymocks Wellington today and they had your books back on the shelves. The comment was made by the buyer I was talking to "we have to support our local writers".

[russellk.livejournal.com]

That's excellent news. Thanks, sir. It seems that all the independents and every chain except the one beginning with 'W' have that view, and it's nice to hear. If only 'W' didn't comprise over 50% of the market ...