The London Magazine’s July Staff Picks! Recommendations for the very best in arts, culture and literature from the staff at The London Magazine.

Steven O’Brien – Editor
Let’s All Kill Constance – Ray Bradbury

 

One of Ray Bradbury’s forgotten classics that I’m really enjoying at the moment.

 

 

 

 

Lucy Binnersley – Assistant Editor
Crudo – Olivia Laing 

The acclaimed British writer Olivia Laing returns with her debut work of fiction Crudo. Laing labels this a ‘love letter’ to the punk writer and counterculture provocateur Kathy Acker who is now re-imagined as her protagonist in the tumultuous summer of 2017. It is a sparring, experimental, visceral meshing of the personal and the political; jumping from Kathy arguing with her husband-to-be while watching wars unfold, Brexit painfully plod on and Trump’s Twitter tirades. Kathy anxiously teeters between hysterical, ironic observations to moments of bathos and contentment yet Laing’s mastery ensures that the novel steadily remains fresh, clever and authentic.

 

Emma Quick – Marketing and Research Executive
The Inheritance at The Young Vic Theatre 

The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez is an absolute masterpiece of a play, spanning almost seven hours of theatre but worth every minute and will leave you crying for even more. Whilst its run at The Young Vic is over, tickets are still available for the west-end transfer in September.

 

 

 

 

Eleanor Stern- Intern
Camilla Grudova – The Doll’s Alphabet 

My pick is “The Doll’s Alphabet.” It’s a short story collection by Camilla Grudova that came out in the winter, and it’s full of nightmarish fairytales and settings that could be set in futuristic dystopias or our own world, depending on the angle of approach.

 

 

 

Emma Deshpande – Intern
Minor Characters – Joyce Johnson

Johnson’s memoir of her relationships with Jack Kerouac, Elise Cowen, Allen Ginsberg, and other Beat writers in 1950s New York is as heartbreaking as it is fascinating. I recommend it to anyone who wants insight into the women of the Beat generation, and those who enjoyed Patti Smith’s ‘Just Kids,’ another tale of starving artists. Notably, it contains descriptions of Kerouac after the publishing of ‘On the Road’ which reveal the disconcerting demands of overnight success.

 

 

 

Want to get involved? Send your pick to info@thelondonmagazine.org for the chance to be featured!