I'm in IS80 a book for Iain Sinclair at Eighty

 

Is 80, is that Iain Sinclair! And this hearty volume has been put together by Gareth Evans, to celebrate this fact - and now you can buy it, a limited-edition signed publication, signed by IAIN, that is. 

For sale exclusively from the London Review Bookshop: Solution Opportunities: for Iain Sinclair at 80 | Various | London Review Bookshop. Have a look, have a buy!

A unique tribute to a remarkable writer, film-maker and walker, in an edition of only 300 numbered copies – each signed by Iain Sinclair – this 192 page A4 illustrated publication features over 170 contributors, including Peter Ackroyd, Caroline Bergvall, Keggie Carew, William Gibson, Xiaolu Guo, Philip Hoare, Toby Jones, Stewart Lee, Esther Leslie, Rachel Lichtenstein, Robert Macfarlane, Jonathan Meades, Dave McKean, Michael Moorcock, Alan Moore,  J.H. Prynne, Denise Riley and Marina Warner. And me.

Featuring original essays, poems, images, letters and reflection from writers, artists, musicians, publishers, friends, critics, booksellers and readers, it is not only a celebration of a unique body of work but also a de-facto history of the last 60 years in experimental literature and culture.

It was, as I said, conceived and edited by Gareth Evans, and designed by Joe Hales Studio.

My little poem takes the strange fact that Mary Robinson (about whom, here:Pages: Selecting for a Selected: The Poems of Mary Robinson 2: The Life of Mary Robinson (robertsheppard.blogspot.com) lived in the same street as William Blake, when he was indentured to William Basire the engraver. And somehow, in a sort of Iain Sinclair way, it ends up with Mr Nemo the actor in New Brighton (that, of course, is Walter Sickert, who leads one down several Sinclairian rabbit-holes). But I don't think Sinclair ever approaches Mary. For a commissioned poem (I find them difficult) I'm pretty pleased with it, but to read it, you'll have to buy the book!

I write about Iain Sinclair on this blog (and I published some of his poems too), chiefly here: Pages: Robert Sheppard: Everything Connects: The Social Poetics of Iain Sinclair . There are lots of links too. 

My book on Iain Sinclair, imaginatively entitled Iain Sinclair, is still available here: Iain Sinclair | Liverpool University Press

Nicholas Royle makes reference in his piece in the book to my booklet of reviews of Sinclair, which is pleasing. Perhaps I should print more of this Ship of Fools volume. Until then, there's much to go on.