2020 Bestsellers and Book Lists

Everything gift-wrapped this month

Our 2020 bestsellers are Strangers by Rebecca Tamás & Shia LaBeouf by A K Blakemore. Two sharp, weird, original and compelling bodies of Work for the reader in your life – or as a present for yourself.  We are making both available in a bundle with 25% off & gift-wrapped free. Please give generously and shop early – all publisher proceeds will go towards next year’s programme.

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Daily Winds Book Lists

I thought I’d share these texts which I wrote for The Daily Winds Tourist Information Centre as part of the Flo Brooks exhibition, Angletwich – currently showing at Brighton CCA. I was invited by Polly Wright, Programme Producer and Flo to respond to the theme of ruralism. There is a great video of the show you can see here. You can read texts and book lists from Black Lodge Press and Public House Birmingham–who also contributed, here.

Dartmoor 365 by John Hayward, Curlew Publications (2020)

John Hayward, walked, drew and wrote this wonderful book between 1989 to 1990. The approach was methodical and caringly executed; Hayward divided a map of Dartmoor National Park up into 365 individual square miles and identified a point of interest on every single one. Readers are invited to follow and colour each of ‘the 365 squares’ they visit in the book. Sites include; fords, bridges, hills, Tors, crosses, architecture and the locations of many folkloric legends.

I grew up on the edge of Dartmoor and it can be a lonely and wild place. One of the things I love most about this book is picturing Hayward in solitude, on his many ‘wanderings’ through the vast expanse of ‘the moor’ determined to forge his own path and bring back something new. I see his modest ink sketches (some made in fog, rain and snow) as a form of collecting a new heritage.

In recent months, when longing for ruralism I’ve turned to this book at times of worry and have sought comfort in the unfamiliar and familiar place names; Deadman’s Bottom, Ephraim’s Pinch, Hangman’s Pit and Bloody Pool to name a few.

Night Blooms by Angus Carlyle, Makina Books (2020)

‘Feet beating the ground, the ground sounding its surface in return’

Angus Carlyle’s Night Blooms collects nocturnal explorations of an area of woodland close to his home on the South Coast of England. Poetic prose and photographic experiments document Carlyle’s chosen medium of running, an everyday act he has repeated across specific trails in solitude for years. In Night Blooms, public space becomes unrecognised – trespassed underfoot and collected. We encounter the smells, noises, the presence of inhabitants; bats, a nightjar, laughter, concrete. A head torch provides a prism of vignetted light and acts as a portable studio, like a lantern to the understory of a secret yet shared space. Everyday objects take on a new status – shrine-like, sinister, glowing. The exhale of breath, bad weather, a deflated bouncy castle are seemingly snatched at pace from the air. If there is a constant character here, it is the blooms which remain more familiar, unwieldily and delicate. Night Blooms takes us up high – as territory, trails and terrain overlap and collide, re-assembled glimpses offer study caught in motion.

Swims by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, Penned in the Margins (2017)

‘Swimming is continuous. Only the rivers are intermittent.’

The journey of this singular, evocative poem takes many forms–including an interspersed sequence of three poems, Aegina, The Voice and Wallflowers about the poet’s Father who taught her to swim. Swims begins and ends in Devon, taking us through Britain’s waterways, from urban pond to open sea; The Teign, The Barle, The Ouse, Grasmere, Hampstead Heath, King’s Cross Pond, Llyn Gwynant, Lyn Idwal, The English Channel, Porthmeor and The Dart. Burnett conceived each swim as an environmental action, testing the ways in which individuals might affect environmental change.

Portrait of Our Times Interview

Alessia Arcuri and Robin Silas Christian discuss how Makina Books set foot into the publishing industry, focusing on the challenges and exciting prospects following their venture into the world of combined images and words.

Q&A with Makina Books

Perpetual Skip

Kevin Hendrick has been quietly making work as Middex for a few years now. Their first record, NO HOME was icy, sharp, brutal and forward-thinking. This one, perhaps situated in a strange borough is different. I read the words in Perpetual Skip (the seventh pamphlet in the New Words series) in one sitting before working with Kevin on the arrangement. The words are drawn from a record forthcoming in 2021 on the Outer Reaches label and like everything else we’ve done I think this book steps across borders. It’s not easy to categorise Perpetual Skip as a pamphlet, bookwork, booklet or project. It is, however, the first ‘lyrical’ Makina Book – an idea that excites me not least because when I was younger I used to devour the booklets in compact discs and scour them for any information or clues as to the origin of the work. Middex makes a world and I’ve needed places like this to retreat to during this weird year. Frontwards Design did the business with the design brief too – I’ve loved collaborating with them this year on everything we’ve done. Somehow this feels like the right book to end this year on.

In Perpetual Skip, 11 sermons, once soaked in pools of echo are orphaned from the noise – taking on an urgent and compelling archive—(non) prayers stoked by vivid light. Here, words are on the move, crossing all zones—sprawling grounds of a strange borough—with broken catholic memories and colour. In Skinhead on a Raft we follow the arc of a smoked and discarded cigarette and stay with it on the floor. Discarded cigarette, discarded truths. Glue Preference honours the writers in the unlit underground yards. Stories look outwards; through a scratch-tagged bus window, to the ceiling (and beyond) of a rented flat, and into the canal—rank and receiving. Perpetual Skip is a constant. A beautiful mess with a million stories. ‘Oh it loves a mess – and the mess – is the moss – of denial.’

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Strangers – Charcoal and gift-wrapped edition

Rebecca Tamás’ Strangers, already one of the non-fiction books of the year has just been reprinted with a new colour way in a ‘charcoal’ edition. The new edition has a revised cover, designed again by Frontwards and is available to order now in two beautiful versions, including a limited, signed by the author, hand-stamped edition with an oversized tarot card, a vinyl sticker all wrapped in hand-stamped green bookwrap! Is this the ideal Christmas present you’ve been waiting for? I hope so.

Last week, Strangers was recommended by the New Statesman and reviewed in It’s Freezing in L.A. It has also been a book club read for Burning House Books and Cunning Folk. Huge thanks to everyone who has supported the title already – it means the world. Click here to watch Rebecca do a reading of On Greeness for Between two Books – Florence Welch’s book club!

Order the limited edition version of Strangers

x

Perpetual Skip

​Kevin Hendrick has been quietly making work as Middex for a few years now. Their first record, NO HOME was icy, sharp, brutal ​and forward-thinking. This one, perhaps situated in a strange borough is different. I read the words in Perpetual Skip (the seventh pamphlet in the New Words series) in one sitting​​ before working with Kevin on the arrangement. ​The words are drawn from a record forthcoming in 2021 on the Outer Reaches label and like ​everything else we’ve done I think this book steps across borders. It’s not easy to categorise Perpetual Skip as a pamphlet, bookwork, booklet or project. It is​, however​, the first ‘lyrical’ ​Makina Book​ ​– an idea that excites me​ not least because w​hen I was younger I used to devour the booklets in compact discs and scour them for any information or clues as to the origin of the work. Middex makes a world and I’ve needed places like this to ​retreat​ to ​during ​this ​​weird year.​ Frontwards Design did the business with the design brief too – I’ve loved collaborating with them this year on everything we’ve done. Somehow this feels like the right book to end this year on. We launched the book this weekend just gone at HYPERTEXT Bound Art Book Fair. The programme was incredible and the site, exhibitors and shop is well worth your time. As ever, a huge thanks to everyone who has supported us. I should also say that this book and everything we have left in print is part of our 20-30% off sale. Middex orders come with an embroidered skip patch whilst stocks last! Shop indie and help us out with our programme next year.

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The Makina Books Flash Sale (24 hours)

All books and prints are reduced – select free UK postage at checkout

Shop now with free UK Postage

Podcast  Lunch with Flo Brooks and Polly Wright

I’m delighted to be doing a podcast lunch with the artist Flo Brooks and Polly Wright, Programme Producer of Brighton CCA tomorrow – December 2nd at 12noon. I worked with Flo a couple of years ago on Outskirts as a book and exhibition and am a huge fan of his work. We’ll be taking about creative communities, ruralism, Dartmoor and Flo’s amazing current show, Angletwich.

Strangers – Charcoal and gift-wrapped edition

Rebecca Tamás’ Strangers, already one of the non-fiction books of the year has just been reprinted with a new colour way in a ‘charcoal’ edition. The new edition has a revised cover, designed again by Frontwards and is available to order now in two beautiful versions, including a limited, signed by the author, hand-stamped edition with an oversized tarot card, a vinyl sticker all wrapped in hand-stamped green bookwrap! Is this the ideal Christmas present you’ve been waiting for? I hope so.

Last week, Strangers was recommended by the New Statesman and reviewed in It’s Freezing in L.A. It has also been a book club read for Burning House Books and Cunning Folk. Huge thanks to everyone who has supported the title already – it means the world. Click here to watch Rebecca do a reading of On Greeness for Between two Books – Florence Welch’s book club!

Order the limited edition version of Strangers

Thank you everyone – I’ll leave you with the 2020 Makina Books Family Portrait

Robin x