What to read by Beryl Bainbridge and Basil Bunting

[foma]

So, one of Mark's messages from the song 'Beryl' was to brought even more attention to those brilliant writers. He did.
I can read in English very well, my writing is not so good, but what you native English-speakers would recommend?

[goon525]

Perhaps try 'An awfully big adventure'. Can't help you with Bunting, I'm afraid to admit his name doesn't mean much to me. But Bainbridge was a very famous British novelist.

[LoveExpresso]

Not sure if this has been posted on AMIT already. To me, the lines about a "teenage copy boy" are new. I found this on the (infamous) uDiscover site:
http://www.udiscovermusic.com/mark-knopfler-announces-tracker-exclusive-quotes-pre-order

"Subject matter on the record is drawn from characters and situations, both real life and imagined, in Knopfler

[foma]

Thank you LE! Also I found this very, very interesting:

Still, it

[Lestroid]

I've not read any of Bainbridge's novels, but I might take a look at An Awefully Big Adventure myself.  It seems that novel was made into a movie in 1995 starring Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman.  Beryl Bainbridge is credited as a writer of the movie, but the credit in IMDB shows (novel), so perhaps that just means she wrote the source material and not the movie screenplay.

[rosco]

To be honest I've never heard of either and I wouldn't describe them as very famous. Maybe famous in literature circles but not very well known outside that group.

I wish MK would start going out on long walks (daily) in places like The Spanish City, Newcastle, London, New York and Glasgow.
Instead of getting his inspiration from books these days.

[Rail King]

As far as Bunting is concerned, I'd recommend to listen to him rather than read him. He was all about that, the sound of his poems. There's a couple of good recordings on YouTube.

[foma]

As far as Bunting is concerned, I'd recommend to listen to him rather than read him. He was all about that, the sound of his poems. There's a couple of good recordings on YouTube.

This is precisely a kind of information what I was looking for. Thank you a million!

[Marijo58]

As a reader I became interested in what Beryl Bainbridge wrote about when I found out that MK composed the song in her memory so I've ordered on Amazon UK " The Girl in The Polka Dot". Will get my book next saturday!! Will see if she's easy to understand or not!! I didn't want to read her work in french because I like to practise my english!!

[geordie_60]

Mark Knopfler was indeed a copy boy at the Newcastle Evening Chronicle, as it was.....he encountered Newcastle born modernist poet Basil Bunting who was then a journalist. As i write this i am sat in the same Chronicle Office, as i am a photographer on the Chronicle and its sister paper The Journal.

[Marijo58]

Just finished to read The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress, the last novel Beryl Bainbridge wrote and it was a nice book to start with. As English isn't my mother tongue, I have found it rather easy to follow. Just had to check a few words in the dictionnary!! I can understand now why MK likes her work!! Obviously she seemed to have the same interest in the USA and its history, anyway in this book!!

[twm]

I agree with the earlier comment about hearing Basil Bunting speask his verse before reading it [and, indeed, often find poets who can speak their words well those I like most].

I have dug out my old copy of BRIGGFLATS by Basil Bunting. It is the December 1966 edition, though I got it in a library sale a year or two later, which probably indicates that it was not much borrowed by the local people in London, even though it was one of the more "literate areas" in the city.

While in London, I had several flatmates from the North East, mainly from Northumbria [and, through them, first visited the North East in July 1966] and was well used to the accent, vocabulary and word usage. I still found Bunting hard-going. I was at an age when, if I read that something was a significant work, I had the patience to work at it.  Even so, I can't say I ever really "got" Bunting.

Therefore, I suspect that a non-native English speaker will not find the word on the page an easy  read .... but that's just my view and no reason not to try.

[allen]

Mark Knopfler was indeed a copy boy at the Newcastle Evening Chronicle, as it was.....he encountered Newcastle born modernist poet Basil Bunting who was then a journalist. As i write this i am sat in the same Chronicle Office, as i am a photographer on the Chronicle and its sister paper The Journal.

Thanks for your confirmation.  I'd love to know what a copy boy exactly did in those days.  And do you come across to take photos of Basil or Mark then?

Wishes
Allen

[dmg]

I agree with the earlier comment about hearing Basil Bunting speask his verse before reading it [and, indeed, often find poets who can speak their words well those I like most].

I have dug out my old copy of BRIGGFLATS by Basil Bunting. It is the December 1966 edition, though I got it in a library sale a year or two later, which probably indicates that it was not much borrowed by the local people in London, even though it was one of the more "literate areas" in the city.

While in London, I had several flatmates from the North East, mainly from Northumbria [and, through them, first visited the North East in July 1966] and was well used to the accent, vocabulary and word usage. I still found Bunting hard-going. I was at an age when, if I read that something was a significant work, I had the patience to work at it.  Even so, I can't say I ever really "got" Bunting.

Therefore, I suspect that a non-native English speaker will not find the word on the page an easy  read .... but that's just my view and no reason not to try.

I posted a YT clip of Bunting receipting Briggflats in the Basil thread.