Books that made me / David Peace / ‘My comfort read? Old Labour party manifestos’

David Peace: ‘To paraphrase William Tyndale, Lord open the people of England’s eyes.’ 
Photograph: Ulf Andersen

Books

that 

made me

David Peace: ‘My comfort read? Old Labour party manifestos’

This article is more than 3 years old

The novelist on the brilliance of Bulgakov, the Japanese short story that changed him, and wanting to live in Pogles’ Wood

David Peace

30 July 2021

The book I am currently reading
I am trying to write a novel about Harold Wilson and so almost all of my current reading is in pursuit of that goal. Today, it’s Point of No Return, an account of the Ulster Workers’ Council strike of 1974, by the late, great, and much missed Robert Fisk.

The book that changed my life
I read to learn and with the hope of being changed and transformed, and so I would hope that every book I read changes me to some degree. But obviously some do more than others, and of those the works of Oscar Wilde, Lu Xun, Nâzim Hikmet, Christopher Hill, Albert Camus, Eileen Chang, Paul Celan, James Baldwin, Frantz Fanon, Ingeborg Bachmann, Heiner Müller and Jean-Patrick Manchette have been seismic.

The book I wish I’d written
Every day I wish I could write books that even approach the brilliance of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita or Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber or James Ellroy’s White Jazz and many, many more. But most recently, I was filled with awe and more than a touch of envy when I read The Treatment by Michael Nath, and it remains a mystery to me how that book did not win every prize going and top the bestseller list for a year.

The book that had the greatest influence on my writing
There have been many, and I hope there will be many more, but the most enduring is probably the short story “In a Grove” by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. It’s one of the great, but still neglected modernist texts, and changed my way of seeing and thus of writing.

The book I think is most underrrated
Anything by Eoin McNamee, but particularly The Blue Tango and The Ultras. Eoin’s prose remains some of the very finest in the English language. I’m also heartened to see Bad Penny Blues by Cathi Unsworth back in print.

The last book that made me cry
Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle with Coronavirus by Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott. To paraphrase William Tyndale, Lord open the people of England’s eyes.

The last book that made me laugh

I am reluctant to admit Four Crowded Years: The Diaries of Auberon Waugh, 1972-1976. Bron was laugh-out-loud funny, I’ll give him that.

The book I’m ashamed not to have read

I’m constantly aware of how many books I have not read, particularly from other continents and cultures, and of how little time there is to read all that I would wish. However, the shame comes when I then find myself rereading Wuthering Heights, Bleak House, The Quiet American or Tinker Tailor for the umpteenth time. And knowing it won’t be the last time, either.

The book I give as a gift
One of my own, to be honest, though I struggle to even give them away. So if anyone fancies a Norwegian edition of Rød eller Død, please do get in touch, thank you.

My earliest reading memory
Pippin, the comic; I aspired to live in Pogles’ Wood and on many days still do.

My comfort read
The 2017 and 2019 Labour party manifestos; never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never.

 David Peace’s Tokyo Redux is published by Faber (£16.99).

THE GUARDIAN

Reporter and poet … Gordon Burn.

My hero: Gordon Burn by David Peace

Gordon saw and he felt. He empathised, animated and illuminated people. He is a writer other writers read

David Peace

Saturday 7 September 2013

Reality without imagination is only half of reality, argued  Buñuel. And it is this argument between reality and imagination that runs through every sentence Gordon Burn ever wrote, equally in his non-fiction and in his fiction. A reporter and a poet, Gordon saw and Gordon felt. And he empathised. And animated and illuminated people as elusive and familiar, as real and imagined as Steve Davis and Peter Sutcliffe, Damien Hirst and Duncan Edwards, George Best and Rosemary West, Alma Cogan and Madeline McCann, Gilbert and George and Tony and Gordon. All our obsessions are here: sport and crime, art and politics, celebrity and fame, sex and violence, death and silence, the surfaces and the depths. And like BS Johnson or WG Sebald, Derek Raymond or Eoin McNamee, Gordon is a writer other writers read. And learn from and are inspired by. Particularly the first and the last novels, Alma Cogan and Born Yesterday, which show the opportunity and potential for a truly modern novel. And there is no greater testimony to Gordon's continued influence and relevance than the inaugural shortlist for the prize founded in his memory: How I Killed Margaret Thatcher by Anthony Cartwright, The Footballer Who Could Fly by Duncan Hamilton, People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry, Pig Iron by Benjamin Myers and Myra, Beyond Saddleworth by Jean Rafferty. Fictions and non-fictions. In all their glories and in all their deceits. Everything real, everything imagined. In the cross-hairs, asking for truth. And so I hope Gordon would have approved. Because it is an honour to be one of the judges for this prize and it was a privilege to have been his friend.

 David Peace's Red or Dead is published by Faber. The winner of the inaugural Gordon Burn Prize will be announced on 19 October in Durham Town Hall at a special event during the Durham book festival.

THE GUARDIAN