Manafonistas

Please take care at all times, ten corpses every year are more than enough
Do not venture onto the steep eastern side of the mountain
Avoid the steep cliffs and rocky shore
Do not venture into the sea to swim anywhere around the island
Wear suitable clothing and footwear, and keep to the marked paths
Close gates and do not walk on the walls
Do not disturb the wildlife, watch seals from the grassy area and keep your distance from nesting birds
Respect the privacy of the people living and staying on the island
Please take your rubbish home with you

James Joyce is not exactly a publisher’s dream on the copy-editing front. A click on the photo, then you’ll see. Got this message from one of my favourite English writers, Rupert Thomson. A writer of books that are all totally different from one another: mystery, historic novels, autobiography (!), thrillers. Genre-crossing, so to speak. „The Five Gates of Hell“ is one of my favourite books of his. In the old century, we changed mails about our love for certain kinds of music, he described en detail a hot summer where the first album of Massive Attack had soundtracked his nights (and the subtropical London of that year), and he fell in love with an album I sent to him by Stina Nordenstam, the weirdest collection of cover versions ever: „People Are Strange“. Remember this horribly tasteful cover versions of Tom Waits songs by this Norwegian jazz singer on Act Records? Stina gave her interpretations of originals by Jim Morrison, Leonard Cohen and others a truely ghostlike vibe: falling apart is the way things go on this nearly forgotten album.