David Marson Writes Again

Following his fantastic series on matters political, David's following the new East London Line from Dalston to Croydon.

Like Amy Sackville, I met David during the course of my MA at Goldsmiths. I recall from his first workshop story that his character took a long walk across South East London, from Wollowich to Hilly Fields, recalling his long life in the area and all the places that had been important to him, just like David does here.It's something he does really well.

It was David who suggested I start this blog, and it occurs to me that I am trying to do something similar with books to what David is doing with place. I don't want this to be a review site, and despite the occasional links posts or one-liners, I think the reason I started this was to try and pick away at how books shape and colonise us, how they occupy parts of our lives.I can feel more of this coming on as I probe the back catalogue of 2000AD - probably the most important reading from my childhood, for various reasons - as if I'm picking at the old wounds to uncover the secrets books have left in me. "A book is a mirror," I tell people. It never shows you itself, and it only shows you what  you bring to it.

But enough about me! David's journey begins with him lost and stranded in Shoreditch. From there, he's wandering south, uncovering history both national and personal. He's good company, you ought to walk with him.

The photo at the top of this post is by flickr user kaka pugh and used under the terms of the creative commons license.