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(This episode is marked as explicit because of strong language.)
(Background noise might make this episode a challenging listen.)
Episode image is a detail from the cover of Byzantium Endures by Michael Moorcock, published in 1994 by Phoenix; cover illustration: Robin Cracknell.
Brr! Tall, deep-voiced David Duchin joins host Charles Adrian for the eighth Second Hand Book Factory on this December day. Describing himself as a “facilitator”, David extolls the work of Dave Eggers and comes up with some very exciting musical choices; Charles Adrian slips in something by Laura Nyro, who is (incidentally) one of his favourite singer/songwriters.
The other Dave Eggers book that David and Charles Adrian are reaching for the title of in this episode is A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius.
You can watch the video to Fatty Boom Boom by Die Antwoord on YouTube here.
Byzantium Endures by Michael Moorcock is also discussed in Page One 159.
This episode was recorded at the Wilton Way Café for London Fields Radio.
This episode has been edited to remove music that is no longer covered by licence for this podcast.
A transcript of this episode is below.
Episode released: 11th December, 2012.
Book listing:
What Is The What by Dave Eggers
Diary Of A Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith
Byzantium Endures by Michael Moorcock
Links:
Episode transcript:
Jingle
You're listening... you're listening to London Fields Radio.
Charles Adrian
Hello and welcome to the 8th Second Hand Book Factory. This is... This is London Fields Radio in the Wilton Way Cafe. Everyone's suddenly gone very quiet, which is the first time that... This is the first time that's ever happened. People normally just keep talking. I'm here with David Duchin this afternoon. I'm in the Wilton Way Cafe for London Fields Radio. And... what else should I say? I'm Charles Adrian. I'm going to start by playing a track... This is the only track that I've chosen for today. I'm... I think I'm trying to compete with with David because his music choices are generally quite cool and exciting. I'm going to play a track by Laura Nyro which is called December's Boudoir.
Music
[December's Boudoir by Laura Nyro]
Charles Adrian
So that was Laura Nyro with December's Boudoir because it is now December, David, although you may not realise it.
David Duchin
[Makes shivering sound]
Charles Adrian
Brr brr.
David Duchin
[laughs]
Charles Adrian
So I'm here with David Duchin. Hello David.
David Duchin
Hello.
Charles Adrian
[laughing] Hello. Thank you so much for coming along.
David Duchin
Oh well, thanks for having me.
Charles Adrian
I'm... I'm going to ask you first how... so how do you... how do you describe yourself? How do you encapsulate what your position in the world is?
David Duchin
[laughs] Well, the... the flippant answer would be that I reach things on high shelves for my wife.
Charles Adrian
That's... I think that's perfectly worthwhile.
David Duchin
Yes. [laughs]
Charles Adrian
[laughing] [indistinct] David Duchin: thing-reacher. And...
David Duchin
[speaking over] No, I would... I would say if I... if I had to describe myself as anything - and it does actually, kind of, go with the thing-reaching concept...
Charles Adrian
Yeah.
David Duchin
I... I would like to think of myself as a facilitator.
Charles Adrian
That's nice. Yeah. That covers a lot of... That's a very... That's a very useful word.
David Duchin
In my... My nine-to-five job is I... I run a theatre.
Charles Adrian
Yeah.
David Duchin
I... In the evenings, I work as a volunteer on arts projects and...
Charles Adrian
Uh huh.
David Duchin
... I'm always trying to help project manage my friends' projects even though they don't necessarily...
Charles Adrian
[laughs]
David Duchin
... want or need that but...
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] You... You're too... You're one of those aggressively nice people.
David Duchin
Yeah.
Charles Adrian
Let's talk about the book that you brought that you like.
David Duchin
Yes.
Charles Adrian
Because I feel like we... you know, we haven't... you and I haven't spent a lot of time in each other's company. I'm hoping to find some... I'm hoping to find out something about you now.
David Duchin
Well, the book that I like... Wait... Should I unveil it now?
Charles Adrian
As you like. You can... This is your time. You can... You can stage-manage this.
David Duchin
Well, let me give you a little bit of a preface. The... The guy that wrote this book started out as a short story writer and journalist and he, sort of, championed underdogs quite often. He started a magazine that only published work that had been rejected other places.
Charles Adrian
Oh, I like that.
David Duchin
Yeah, he's very cool.
Charles Adrian
Yeah.
David Duchin
And he... he found an interesting style and his style was that when he heard stories that he felt should be told...
Charles Adrian
Yes.
David Duchin
... you know, not unlike with his magazine...
Charles Adrian
Right.
David Duchin
... then he would act as a, sort of, conduit. His first book, which... for which he got huge acclaim - and I think he won... he might have won the Pulitzer for that...
Charles Adrian
Okay.
David Duchin
... was called... oh what was it? An Un... Unbearable Story Of Stunning... Oh, I can't remember it now. Oh, that's terrible. But anyway, this book...
Charles Adrian
Yes.
David Duchin
[laughing] That I'm...
Charles Adrian
[laughs]
David Duchin
... that I'm on right now is called What Is The What.
Charles Adrian
Ah!
David Duchin
And the author is Dave Eggers.
Charles Adrian
Dave Eggers. Um... An... oh... Heartbreaking Tale Of...
David Duchin
Yeah.
Charles Adrian
... Staggering Genius or something. I have it on my shelf. It's the only book I have by him but I loved it. I didn't know anything about him, actually.
David Duchin
Well, that... that was the story of his brother...
Charles Adrian
Right!
David Duchin
... and the story that I've brought along is the story of a guy called Valentino Achak Deng, who...
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Good name.
David Duchin
Yeah.
David and Charles Adrian
[laughter]
Charles Adrian
And he... And he came across Dave Eggers somewhere?
David Duchin
Dave Eggers heard his story - I'm not sure exactly how the two of them met...
Charles Adrian
Okay.
David Duchin
... and Dave Eggers decided: Okay, this is an important story.
Charles Adrian
Yeah.
David Duchin
And it's... it's just so well written. It's so well observed. It's a real page turner. I mean, this is a...
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Yeah.
David Duchin
... I'm a slow reader...
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Okay.
David Duchin
... and this is a thick book and I think I finished it in a week.
Charles Adrian
Wow. Okay. It sounds like... It sounds amazing. Would you read the first page for us?
David Duchin
Yes. I would be happy to do so.
What Is the What is the soulful account of my life: from the time I was separated from my family in Marial Bai to the thirteen years I spent in Ethiopian and Kenyan refugee camps, to my encounter with vibrant Western cultures beginning in Atlanta, to the generosity and challenges that I encountered elsewhere.
As you read this book, you will learn about me and my beloved people of Sudan. I was just a young boy when the twenty-two-year civil war began that pitted Sudan's government against the Sudan People's Liberation Movement [sic]. As a helpless human, I survived by trekking across many punishing landscapes while being bombed by Sudanese air forces, while dodging land mines, while being preyed upon by wild beasts and human killers. I fed on unknown fruits, vegetables, leaves and sometimes went with nothing for days. At many points, the difficulty was unbearable. I thought the whole world had turned blind eyes on the fate that was befalling me and the people of southern Sudan. Many of my friends, and thousands of my fellow countrymen, did not make it. May God give them eternal peace.
This book began as part of my struggle to reach out to others through public speaking. I told my story to many audiences, but I wanted the world to know the truth [sic] of my existence. In the fall of 2003, I told Mary Williams, the founder of the Lost Boys Foundation in Atlanta, that in spite of the public-speaking opportunities available, I wanted to reach out to a wider audience by telling the story of my life in book form. Because I was not a writer, I asked Mary to put me in touch with an author who could [sic] help me write my biography. Mary contacted Dave Eggers, and thank God Dave and I met...
Charles Adrian
That... That answers the question that I had. That's... That's a... That's amazing. And it also, wonderfully, gives us [laughing] a little window into your... into things that you like, which is...
David Duchin
[speaking over] Yes.
Charles Adrian
... what it's meant to do. I'm going to play some music now which gives us a slightly different sort of window. I... You... You - wonderfully - sent me a huge number of possible music choices so I listened through them and I have to say... So I watched the video for this on YouTube - you sent me the link - I think it's... I think it's absolutely foul. This is Fatty Boom Boom by Die Antwoord.
David Duchin
Ah! What a tune!
Music
[Fatty Boom Boom by Die Antwoord]
Charles Adrian
Amazing. Amazing music. Horrible, horrible images. This... I should have said: “Parental Advisory: there's a certain amount of swearing in that track.”
David Duchin
[laughs]
Charles Adrian
It's too late now. Now, this section... this section of the show, as always, is my book for my guest. This is my book for you, David.
David Duchin
Ah.
Charles Adrian
I played with the idea of giving you just a collection of American short stories. I thought: How... What... What... You know, how could I... How could I make a nicer gesture than to give you a little piece of your own home? But then I read the first page and it was a really dull first page. So I changed my mind.
David Duchin
[laughs]
Charles Adrian
And what I've brought you instead is a little slice of London.
David Duchin
[interested] Aha.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] This is a real classic. This is Diary Of A Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith.
David Duchin
Oh I don't know this.
Charles Adrian
Have you not come across this?
David Duchin
No. Not at all.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] This is a... This is a proper, like... This is a... It's a really important book in the... in the comic canon. It's, I think, quite influential in various ways. It's a very... It's a very silly book. It's... It's... It's... It's supposed to be the diary of this guy... his name is - I should remember this - Charles Pooter. And I'm just going to read you the first page which gives you some impression of the... of the tone of the book.
Chapter I
MY DEAR WIFE Carrie and I have just been a week in our new house, “The Laurels”, Brickfield Terrace, Holloway - a nice six-roomed residence, not counting basement, with a front breakfast-parlour. We have a little front garden; and there is a flight of ten steps up to the front door, which, by the by, we keep locked with the chain up. Cummings, Gowing, and our other intimate friends always come to the little side entrance, which saves the servant the trouble of going up to the front door, thereby taking her from her work. We have a nice little back garden which runs down to the railway. We were rather afraid of the noise of the trains at first, but the landlord said we should not notice them after a bit, and took £2 off the rent. He was certainly right; and beyond the cracking of the garden wall at the bottom, we have suffered no inconvenience.
After my work in the City, I like to be at home. What's the good of a home, if you are never in it? “Home, Sweet Home”, that's my motto. I am always in of an evening. Our old friend Gowing may drop in without ceremony; so may Cummings, who lives opposite. My dear wife Caroline and I are pleased to see them, if they like to drop in on us. But Carrie and I can manage to pass our evenings together without friends. There is always something to be done: a tin-tack here, a Venetian blind to put straight, a fan to nail up, or part of a carpet to nail down - all of which I can do with my pipe in my mouth; while Carrie is not about putting a button on a shirt, mending a pillowcase or practising the “Sylvia Gavotte” on our new cottage...
David Duchin
[laughter]
Charles Adrian
... something. New cottage something. So it was written... It's a contemporary book in the sense that it was written in... in the nineteenth century and it lampoons the self-importance of really very dull people. It's a wonderful book.
David Duchin
That's excellent. I feel, in a way, that you've given me a book to help me understand the English. So... [laughs]
Charles Adrian
Yes, I think that, yeah, there is...
David Duchin
[speaking over] ... thank you
Charles Adrian
something deep in the bedrock of our souls which is... which is revealed there. I'm going to play the next track that I liked from your list. This I really loved. It's very beautiful. It's by Palace Music and this is New Partner. I've never heard of them. I've never heard of this song. That always makes me happy. And I... yeah, I just adore this.
Music
[New Partner by Palace Music]
Jingle
London Fields Radio... it's London Fields Radio.
Charles Adrian
So it is... We're now towards the end of the 8th edition of this Second Hand Book Factory - or this 8th edition of the Second Hand Book Factory, whichever way round that should be - and I'm about to get my book.
David Duchin
Yes. It's a very exciting moment for all of us.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] It's like Christmas every week.
David Duchin
Yes.
[thumping sounds]
Charles Adrian
As David reaches down...
David Duchin
[speaking over] I'll reach down into my furry bag...
Charles Adrian
[excited noise]
David Duchin
... and I shall produce Michael Moorcock's Byzantium Endures.
Charles Adrian
Ah. And it's got written on it: “I am a child”. Did you write that?
David Duchin
No, that's part of the book design.
Charles Adrian
It comes... Oh I see. Wow.
David Duchin
That... The bit that says “I am a child” is... is referring to the diaries of Pyat.
Charles Adrian
[interested] Aha.
David Duchin
Pyat is the main character in this and he's born around 1900...
Charles Adrian
Right.
David Duchin
... and we follow the development of the twentieth century...
Charles Adrian
I see.
David Duchin
... by following him.
Charles Adrian
I see.
David Duchin
He's born in the Ukraine...
Charles Adrian
Right.
David Duchin
... but his journey takes him from there to Constantinople...
Charles Adrian
Right.
David Duchin
... and then to Europe and then to the United States. He joins the Ku Klux Klan...
Charles Adrian
[laughing] Okay.
David Duchin
... he invents a motor car, he... he joins a burlesque revue.
Charles Adrian
Wow.
David Duchin
It's... It's quite an amazing story and it is basically the story of the twentieth century seen through the eyes of a Ukrainian megalomaniac.
Charles Adrian
Yeah. Co... It sounds intriguing. Read... Read...
David Duchin
[speaking over] It's... It is such a good read. And Michael Moorcock normally is a fantasy writer and I...
Charles Adrian
Ah. Okay.
David Duchin
... I really do not like talking animals.
Charles Adrian
[laughing] Right.
David Duchin
I have a thing about talking animals...
Charles Adrian
[laughs]
David Duchin
I think animals should know their place...
Charles Adrian
[laughs]
David Duchin
and I would never... I just don't...
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] You wouldn't read a book about talking animals.
David Duchin
I don't read fantasy and... and that extends to... to hobbits and things like that.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Right. Right. That's fine.
David Duchin
I just find, if you... if you have something to say, why... why use that kind of metaphor to say it?
Charles Adrian
[laughs]
David Duchin
Why not just say it?
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Yes. I know other... I know other people who would... who would say the same as you, David. I'm not going to argue with you now. It would take too long.
David and Charles Adrian
[laughter]
David Duchin
Yeah, but as soon as the microphone gets turned off...
David and Charles Adrian
[laughter]
David Duchin
So.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Um.
David Duchin
But I just think it's very interesting that Moorcock took a departure to write the history of the twentieth century in this.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Right. Yeah, yeah. That's quite a different task, isn't it?
David Duchin
Yes.
Charles Adrian
[affirmative] Mmm.
David Duchin
And I... And I think he's excellent. He's... He's considered one of the great fantasy writers...
Charles Adrian
Right.
David Duchin
... and... and his talent is not lost on... on writing a normal narrative.
Charles Adrian
[laughs]
David Duchin
He's also written a number of books about London...
Charles Adrian
Oh, really? Okay.
David Duchin
... which are about sides of London you would never see.
David Duchin
And... So he's... he's just definitely worth checking out.
Charles Adrian
Ah. Nice.
Charles Adrian
Okay. I will do. I will do. Well, I'm going to... I'm looking forward to reading this. Read me the first page - or read us...
David Duchin
[speaking over] Yes. Sure.
Charles Adrian
... I should say because it's not just me listening.
David Duchin
It is from the introduction.
THE MAN WHO was known for years in the Portobello Road area as 'Colonel Pyat' or sometimes simply as 'the old Pole', and who, in the 60s and 70s, was Mrs Cornelius's regular evening consort at The Blenheim Arms, the Portobello Castle and The Elgin (her favourite public houses), collapsed during the August 1977 Notting Hill Carnival when a group of black boys and girls collecting for Help The Aged in Caribbean fancy dress entered his shop [sic] and demanded a contribution. His heart failed him. He died at St Charles Hospital some hours later. He had no next of kin. Eventually, following a great deal of unpleasant publicity, I inherited his papers.
In the previous two years I had come to know him well. He had found out that I was a professional writer and had, in fact, become hard to avoid. He pursued me. He insisted we could turn to a profit his reminiscences of Mrs Cornelius, who had died in 1975. He knew that I had already, in his terms, 'exploited' her in my books. He had recognised my deep interest in local history when he had seen me some years earlier, photographing the old Convent of the Poor Clares as it was being pulled down. Much later he had come upon me filming the slum terraces of Blenheim Crescent and Westbourne Park Road before they, too, were destroyed. That was when he first approached me. I had tried to ignore him but when he spoke familiarly about Mrs Cornelius, referring to her as 'a famous British personality', I became curious...
Charles Adrian
There's a, kind of, monstrous, fantastic parallel thing going on between this book and... and your first book, I think. This... This...
David Duchin
[laughs]
Charles Adrian
Person with story in search of author.
David Duchin
True. I actually didn't think of that.
Charles Adrian
But I like it. I like it very much. I like that we start with this... this, kind of, tension. [laughing] I think that's great.
David Duchin
[laughs]
Charles Adrian
We already know there's some... there's some... there's some dislike going on or some suspicion or some...
David Duchin
Or perhaps it's just the whole concept of 'the truth will out'.
Charles Adrian
[musing] Mmm. Yes, maybe. And, speaking of which, let's come to your last track, David. This is... This is... This is from something that you've been working on.
David Duchin
Yes. Speaking of 'the truth will out'. Yes. [laughs]
Charles Adrian
Yes.
David Duchin
Okay. Not many people know that I am involved in the porn industry. And this is the soundtrack from a film which I'm only vaguely connected with, which is called Hoxxxton but it is spelled with three X's rather than the...
Charles Adrian
[laughing] Three X's.
David Duchin
... normal one X.
Charles Adrian
Just in case you hadn't worked out that it was a porn film, that's... that's, you know, a clue, isn't it.
David Duchin
[laughs] The band that we hired to do the soundtrack is called Rockford Cabine. They're from Bochum in Germany, where they are tennis pros by day and...
Charles Adrian
Wonderful.
David Duchin
Yes.
Charles Adrian
That just...
David Duchin
[laughs]
Charles Adrian
That just is enough, isn't it. That's absolutely enough. I've chosen the track - because you just gave me the record and said... and said plunge in where you like - I've chosen one called Why Are You Crying which we will listen to together. This is the first time - I [indistinct] say, this is a, kind of, historic moment - that I have played anything on vinyl on this show.
David Duchin
It’s also…
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] David has instructed me in the use of the vinyl machine.
David Duchin
Yes, I have. It's also the first time that this record is ever being played...
Charles Adrian
[gasps] That is...
David Duchin
... as it has only just been printed.
Charles Adrian
Oh my! That is so exciting! So, ladies and gentlemen, this is by Rockford Cabine. This is Why Are You Crying. Thank you very much, David, for coming. This is... This is the track that will play us out. I've... Yeah. This has been wonderful. Thank you.
David Duchin
Thank you.
Music
[Why Are You Crying by Rockford Cabine]
[Initial transcription by https://otter.ai]