Motherload

David Bradley I had the immense privilege this week of taking a turn about Hyde Park with the remarkable David Bradley. His funny, satirical, angry essay, 'A Eulogy for Nigger', has just won the Notting Hill Editions Essay Prize. Here is what we talked about: http://shinynewbooks.co.uk/…/interview-with-david-bradley-…/ And this is a taster of the essay: http://shinynewbooks.co.uk/…/an-extract-from-the-nhe-essay…/

Jon Day as cycle courier, back in the day I sat down with Jon Day, one-time cycle courier, now English literature lecturer, and had a very enjoyable discussion about cycling and his wonderful essay on it, Cyclogeography (published by the rather fabulous Notting Hill Editions). What I really loved about Jon's views on cycling was that he thought the British attitude to the bicycle was po-faced, while the French have a completely irreverent, subversive and inherently revolutionary take on le cyclisme . You can read the interview here – and take a look at Shiny New Books , which is all about what's hot in literature this summer.