It’s funny how when someone tells me they’re going to send me a free thing and I tell them my address and it arrives a few days later I still look at the padded envelope and wonder what the hell it is. Today it was Russell‘s new book.
It’s based on his “award winning weblog” eggbaconchipsandbeans which along with the associated a good place for a cup of tea and a think has been a firm favourite of mine since I stumbled upon it 18 months ago (god, time is flying…) and I’m delighted to say that the book is thoroughly enjoyable too.
This sort of thing is fraught with dangers, however. It’s essentially a “Christmas Book” which those in the trade know to be a fickle thing. It’ll either be brilliant and sell loads or it’ll be shit and bomb horribly or, more often than not, it’ll be shit and sell loads. Russell’s book is certainly not shit. I hope it sells loads.
What makes it good is how unremittingly positive it is and not in a naive or glib way. This is refreshing as so much of modern “culture” is archly negative, taking the piss to attain superiority over genuine enthusiasm and disguise a deep moral vacuum. Russell likes fried breakfasts and he likes the cafes that serve them. He likes the details which he picks up on and notes with unerring accuracy. He’s not a tourist but he has a traveler’s eye. And above all he manages to communicate that most elusive of things – the spirit of a place that is in essence a functional thing.
He also give me a credit, which was very nice of him. It’s not often I get credited in books, especially when they’re not about comics.
Go buy it. You won’t be disappointed.
Good review, makes me want to get the book. Which I intend. And I sincerely hope that 192 Café on Old Kent Road is mentioned, ’cause it’s a great brekkie place.