kevin davey
@kvind.bsky.social
author English Imaginaries, Moscow Gold?, Playing Possum, Radio Joan, and most recently TOOTHPULL OF ST DUNSTAN (2025) / works mostly at Eastside People / lives and writes in Whitstable
Reposted by kevin davey
Buying too many books at the Small Publishers Fair at Conway Hall @smallpublishers.bsky.social
October 25, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Buying too many books at the Small Publishers Fair at Conway Hall @smallpublishers.bsky.social
for some reason Alfred Jarry crossed my mind when I saw Morland’s cartoon in today’s Times
September 18, 2025 at 4:56 PM
for some reason Alfred Jarry crossed my mind when I saw Morland’s cartoon in today’s Times
a really impressive account of Linton Kwesi Johnson’s development politically and as a poet, the watershed of 1981 and the importance of John la Rose and New Beacon - though it really should have made more of Race Today, Railton Road, CLR James and Darcus Howe… but it’s a keeper of a piece
‘He made white British readers recognise Jamaican patois. Most readers need to articulate the poems in order to understand their meaning: glancing at the page isn’t enough.’
Mendez on Linton Kwesi Johnson: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Mendez on Linton Kwesi Johnson: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Mendez · Burning Age of Rage: On Linton Kwesi Johnson
Linton Kwesi Johnson has maintained that ‘writing poetry or making music ... is not a substitute for hardcore...
www.lrb.co.uk
September 10, 2025 at 5:59 PM
a really impressive account of Linton Kwesi Johnson’s development politically and as a poet, the watershed of 1981 and the importance of John la Rose and New Beacon - though it really should have made more of Race Today, Railton Road, CLR James and Darcus Howe… but it’s a keeper of a piece
A seriously impressive review in the LRB which hasn’t sent me to the title, but headfirst back into the 73 hours of David Lynch’s ten movies and three series of Twin Peaks. I know Godard didn’t like him but Godard wasn’t always on point. The soundtracks are almost as good as JLG’s.
September 9, 2025 at 3:35 PM
A seriously impressive review in the LRB which hasn’t sent me to the title, but headfirst back into the 73 hours of David Lynch’s ten movies and three series of Twin Peaks. I know Godard didn’t like him but Godard wasn’t always on point. The soundtracks are almost as good as JLG’s.
My thoughts on the remarkable fiction of Paul Griffiths in the latest issue of Exacting Clam
www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18...
www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18...
Paul Griffith's let me tell you and let me go on | Exacting Clam
www.exactingclam.com
August 22, 2025 at 5:02 AM
My thoughts on the remarkable fiction of Paul Griffiths in the latest issue of Exacting Clam
www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18...
www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18...
No longer Manga and Murakami. Prospect surveys the boom in fiction translated from Japanese. I guess I should take a look at Murata
July 30, 2025 at 12:00 PM
No longer Manga and Murakami. Prospect surveys the boom in fiction translated from Japanese. I guess I should take a look at Murata
Many thanks! to Rónán Hession for his appreciation of TOOTHPULL in the Irish Times this weekend
July 27, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Many thanks! to Rónán Hession for his appreciation of TOOTHPULL in the Irish Times this weekend
I can’t help but read the latest Maggie Nelson as a flipside to Toothpull, my recent memoir of a troubled dentist. Pathemata, dis-Latined, is a Book of Suffering. Death is in the air. It’s a COVID era narrative. “Pain pretends urgency” she says, “one has to become cold-hearted to its entreaties.”
July 16, 2025 at 7:48 PM
I can’t help but read the latest Maggie Nelson as a flipside to Toothpull, my recent memoir of a troubled dentist. Pathemata, dis-Latined, is a Book of Suffering. Death is in the air. It’s a COVID era narrative. “Pain pretends urgency” she says, “one has to become cold-hearted to its entreaties.”
as i think (in fact hope) you aren’t likely to be readers of the remote right monthly The Critic,
here’s a kiss and tell feature you might otherwise miss - an author’s step by step account of the collapse of Unbound
here’s a kiss and tell feature you might otherwise miss - an author’s step by step account of the collapse of Unbound
June 28, 2025 at 2:50 PM
as i think (in fact hope) you aren’t likely to be readers of the remote right monthly The Critic,
here’s a kiss and tell feature you might otherwise miss - an author’s step by step account of the collapse of Unbound
here’s a kiss and tell feature you might otherwise miss - an author’s step by step account of the collapse of Unbound
I’m impressed and also disappointed that the centre right/FT appears to understand the contested and intricate links between literary form, imagination and politics better than the left.
June 28, 2025 at 2:45 PM
I’m impressed and also disappointed that the centre right/FT appears to understand the contested and intricate links between literary form, imagination and politics better than the left.
Thank-you Will Davies for reviewing Toothpull of St Dunstan - the memoir of a Canterbury dentist tugging and plugging at the gate to the city for 700 years - in today’s Times Literary Supplement.
June 26, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Thank-you Will Davies for reviewing Toothpull of St Dunstan - the memoir of a Canterbury dentist tugging and plugging at the gate to the city for 700 years - in today’s Times Literary Supplement.
Reposted by kevin davey
A 700 year old dentist. This is a fantastic book. Ambitious idea, dazzling at the sentence level, entertaining in-between. If there's a type of novel you love that you think people "don't publish anymore," it's probably this one.
For readers of #AlanMoore and #modernism. Let's call it Mooredernism
For readers of #AlanMoore and #modernism. Let's call it Mooredernism
June 24, 2025 at 7:55 PM
A 700 year old dentist. This is a fantastic book. Ambitious idea, dazzling at the sentence level, entertaining in-between. If there's a type of novel you love that you think people "don't publish anymore," it's probably this one.
For readers of #AlanMoore and #modernism. Let's call it Mooredernism
For readers of #AlanMoore and #modernism. Let's call it Mooredernism
OutCalvino-ing Calvino in ‘89! This and The Lay of Sir Tristram - and the musicological expertise of Griffiths’ work on the Second Viennese and Darmstadt schools - are the seedbed for the revoiced Ophelias of LET ME TELL YOU and LET ME GO ON, now combined by NYRB. Republish the backlist, someone.
June 24, 2025 at 7:36 PM
OutCalvino-ing Calvino in ‘89! This and The Lay of Sir Tristram - and the musicological expertise of Griffiths’ work on the Second Viennese and Darmstadt schools - are the seedbed for the revoiced Ophelias of LET ME TELL YOU and LET ME GO ON, now combined by NYRB. Republish the backlist, someone.
“Literature is becoming culturally marginal”; “the subject is cowed, apologetic and shrinking”; its “prestige has declined precipitously.” This week’s New Statesman includes a lamentable Jeremiad by James Marriott, name-checking no writers after Trilling and Auden. Though he does have a point.
June 13, 2025 at 1:18 PM
“Literature is becoming culturally marginal”; “the subject is cowed, apologetic and shrinking”; its “prestige has declined precipitously.” This week’s New Statesman includes a lamentable Jeremiad by James Marriott, name-checking no writers after Trilling and Auden. Though he does have a point.
Philip Hensher self-puffs his forthcoming history of the novel in this week’s Spectator, trashing Eimear McBride as he goes. Not a volume I’ll be pre-ordering.
June 7, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Philip Hensher self-puffs his forthcoming history of the novel in this week’s Spectator, trashing Eimear McBride as he goes. Not a volume I’ll be pre-ordering.
TOOTHPULL OF ST DUNSTAN - The startling memoir of a dentist who for 700 years pulled teeth in the approach to Canterbury, beside its city gate.
Your copy is ready at Aaaargh Press www.aaaarghpress.com/product/toot...
Your copy is ready at Aaaargh Press www.aaaarghpress.com/product/toot...
June 5, 2025 at 12:08 AM
TOOTHPULL OF ST DUNSTAN - The startling memoir of a dentist who for 700 years pulled teeth in the approach to Canterbury, beside its city gate.
Your copy is ready at Aaaargh Press www.aaaarghpress.com/product/toot...
Your copy is ready at Aaaargh Press www.aaaarghpress.com/product/toot...
May 21, 2025 at 9:08 AM
TOOTHPULL OF ST DUNSTAN - The startling memoir of a dentist who for 700 years pulled teeth in the approach to Canterbury, beside its city gate.
Your copy is ready at Aaaargh Press www.aaaarghpress.com/product/toot...
Your copy is ready at Aaaargh Press www.aaaarghpress.com/product/toot...
The pre-packaged sale of Unbound cancels the crowdfunder publisher’s many debts, replacing them with damage control pledges that no-one can rely on; tweaks the brand to Boundless; and leaves the trust and respect of users where? (The Times)
March 26, 2025 at 2:12 AM
The pre-packaged sale of Unbound cancels the crowdfunder publisher’s many debts, replacing them with damage control pledges that no-one can rely on; tweaks the brand to Boundless; and leaves the trust and respect of users where? (The Times)
It’s rare I nod my head when reading Shriver
March 24, 2025 at 9:59 AM
It’s rare I nod my head when reading Shriver
Good company for spring, a brace of poets who never met, each war-wise and more (Pushkin Press). “You can paint with whatever you like, with pipes, with stamps, postcards or playing cards..” - “Ride forward humanity. Saddle the wild herd of sounds!”
March 2, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Good company for spring, a brace of poets who never met, each war-wise and more (Pushkin Press). “You can paint with whatever you like, with pipes, with stamps, postcards or playing cards..” - “Ride forward humanity. Saddle the wild herd of sounds!”
72 wonderful indie outlets are on the shortlist for this year’s INDEPENDENT BOOKSHOP OF THE YEAR award (but, inexplicably, my favourite - THE BROADWAY BOOKSHOP in Hackney, is absent)
secretldn.com/independent-...
secretldn.com/independent-...
These London Literary Spots Have Been Shortlisted For The ‘Independent Bookshop Of The Year’ Award – And One Of Them Has Only Been Open For Eight Months
The finalists for the highly-coveted award have just been revealed, and these independent London bookshops are certainly in our good books.
secretldn.com
February 20, 2025 at 3:17 PM
72 wonderful indie outlets are on the shortlist for this year’s INDEPENDENT BOOKSHOP OF THE YEAR award (but, inexplicably, my favourite - THE BROADWAY BOOKSHOP in Hackney, is absent)
secretldn.com/independent-...
secretldn.com/independent-...
FRIENDS IN LOVE AND WAR / L’ELOGE DES MEILLEURS ES ENNEMIE ES at the Ikon in Birmingham is a visual arts reset with Europe. The highlight is undoubtedly Rachel McLean’s video The Lion and the Unicorn (2012), a comic take on our disunited kingdom in the run up to Scotland’s independence referendum.
February 19, 2025 at 1:30 AM
FRIENDS IN LOVE AND WAR / L’ELOGE DES MEILLEURS ES ENNEMIE ES at the Ikon in Birmingham is a visual arts reset with Europe. The highlight is undoubtedly Rachel McLean’s video The Lion and the Unicorn (2012), a comic take on our disunited kingdom in the run up to Scotland’s independence referendum.
frontispiece to Elfriede Jelinek THE CHILDREN OF THE DEAD (Yale UP) / can anyone help?
January 22, 2025 at 9:18 PM
frontispiece to Elfriede Jelinek THE CHILDREN OF THE DEAD (Yale UP) / can anyone help?
Reposted by kevin davey
Nagg and Nell from Beckett's 'Endgame' when young
January 18, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Nagg and Nell from Beckett's 'Endgame' when young