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£5 ticket price redeemable against the book THINGS AIN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE on the day of the event

This publication is £30

Author Talk at Red Lion Books on 5th August at 2pm

The event will have a short performance of a section of the text by Phil Cohen and John Wallett, followed by a conversation with Ken Worpole about some of the issues raised by the text itself and also by the close collaboration between a writer and four graphic artists who made the book.

Regrettably, this event is upstairs and Red Lion Books which isn’t accessible to wheelchair users

‘THINGS AIN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE’

Author: Phil Cohen

Graphic artists: John and Jacob Wallett

Photographers: Meghanne Barker and Jean McNeil

Summary

‘An experiment in close collaboration between the writer and four visual artists… capturing the Lockdown Zeitgeist from Left Field.’

The book takes the form of three notebooks which explore aspects of once and future time:

‘Dreaming through Lockdown’ an illustrated dream diary registering the impact of the pandemic on the deep reaches of the author’s imaginative life.

‘Precious Objects, Precarious Signs’ a photographic ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ which become the subject of debate between present and future curators.

‘Random Stories’ excerpts from the digi-diary posted of a tweenager in 2042, growing up in a chaotic and repressive future dominated by Chinese influencers.

Ken Worpole:

Part pandemic dream diary, part graphic cabinet of curiosities, Phil Cohen’s personal history of the future breaks all the rules of auto-fiction and political polemic. This is what one hopes for from an anthropologist sympathetic to the many forms of magical thinking: masks, mechanical toys, optical illusions, bricolage and the moral utopia of children’s play. Beautifully illustrated, elegantly referenced and formidably erudite, there are countless pleasures for those who roll up and step inside.

Limited edition signature-bound paperback
210x205mm extent 156pp

Full colour photos and illustrations throughout.
RRP (UK) £30