Damian Barr on reading for the Big Scottish Book Club, his love of Jackie Kay’s latest poetry and being inspired by James Baldwin.
The first book I remember reading:
The answer to this shifts – like so many memories. Beyond Peter and Jane…it would be a memory of being read to. At primary school, if we all finished our work early, our teacher would read aloud to us until the bell. I remember helping others finish their work so that I could find out what happened next in the Witches by Roald Dahl.
A book I recommend to everyone:
Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin. It takes us from 1970s San Francisco to now and follows a cast of wild characters from all walks of life and each with a secret that is explored over the series. The first book was published in a series of newspapers so has a bracing pace. We meet square Mary-Ann Singleton who falls in love with San Francisco and moves into the iconic 28 Barbary Lane with the mysterious landlady Mrs Madrigal and other tenants including gloriously gay Michael ‘Mouse’ Tolliver and hippy Mona. I never want the series to end. Armistead is a pioneer.
The best book I have read in this year:
I read a lot, for Big Scottish Book Club and just for my own joy. Right now I am knee-deep in research for my new novel, which starts in 1933 so I am reading a lot of prewar and wartime fiction and poetry as well as nonfiction. I thought, after writing You Will Be Safe Here, that I wouldn’t do another historical deep-dive but I thought wrong. I can’t choose a favourite novel but I can conjure favourite poetry – May Day by Jackie Kay. It’s a love letter to her parents and the power of protest and raising your voice – she grieves for them but who she brings then to life in this vivid and moving collection which is great to read aloud.
The book I am most looking forward to:
Volume Two of Some Men in London by Peter Parker. The first volume tells the story of ‘queer men’ in the UK from 1945-1959. It is an amazing work of research including extracts from diaries, legal reports, newspapers and letters. It is as lively as a novel. It is a truly vital thing in a world where so many stories have been erased or criminalised. The second volume goes up to the Wolfenden Report and I can’t wait for it.
A book I didn’t finish:
I give every book fifty pages and bear this rule in mind for my own writing. For me, I am often admiring of prose and will recommend a book for that but will only re-read it if it moves me. That is more about me than the writer, I think.
An author that has inspired me:
So many. James Baldwin, whose voice is as urgent now as it ever was (his centenary is this year). Black and gay and proud he takes no prisoners on or off the page but is also full of sensitivity and compassion. Richard Holloway’s peerless blend of religion, philosophy and literature make me think I can be a better person and our world can be a better place. Janice Galloway’s memoirs encourage me to find my own Scottish voice and to believe my working class experiences were worth sharing—I couldn’t have written Maggie & Me without her example.
The book I am reading now:
I’m rereading the Naked Civil Servant for research purposes – a friend got me a signed copy, not long before Quentin Crisp died. It’s a treasure. I am also looking forward to Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell because I just want to escape into another world.
Damian Barr is an award-winning writer, broadcaster and host. The author of Maggie & Me and You Will Be Safe Here, he also presents the BBC’s Big Scottish Book. www.damianbarr.com
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