Tuesday 18 August 2015

THE HAPPY READER

Has there ever been a time when bookish types have been better served by literary magazines? The book review pages of the quality newspapers have diminished and deteriorated during recent years (with the exception of the Guardian's excellent Saturday Review supplement) but literary magazines appear to be surviving if not thriving and growing in numbers. I subscribe to the Literary Review and Slightly Foxed, both of which I couldn't live sanely without, and I occasionally buy the London Review of Books and the TLS when there's something in them that arouses my interest and that I might possibly understand. And then there are the U.S. mags like Bookforum, The Paris Review and the New York Review of Books, and online magazines like Five Dials. They all have their own distinct style, occupy their own particular space in the arena of literary criticism and without them the habit of book-buying and the pastime of reading would undoubtedly be less interesting. But is there any room and any need for any more literary magazines? Well when a magazine as innovative as The Happy Reader comes along the answer has to be yes. The Happy Reader is a “Bookish Quarterly”, is published by Penguin books, and costs just £3 per issue. They have just published their third issue and had a presence at this year's Port Eliot Festival in Cornwall where their modest but well-appointed tent staged interviews with the likes of Margaret Drabble, Simon Garfield, and Patrick Gale. They are clearly a force for good.

The format of the magazine is unique and bold. Each issue basically has two main sections. The first half of issue three for instance is taken up with a lengthy interview, mostly about books, with “renowned standup and comic actor” Aziz Ansari. I'm afraid, being allergic to most modern comedy, I'd never heard of him before, but the interview was engaging and revealing and I'm glad I had a chance to meet him. Nice chap. The second half of the issue, and the real meat for me, consists of a series of articles about Dorothy Carrington's acclaimed portrayal of Corsica – Granite Island, about Corsica itself, about travelling, about islands, about Corsican cheese and Corsican crime. I didn't know about Granite Island before I read these articles but now a copy sits invitingly in front of me awaiting a hot summer's afternoon when reading is the only thing that makes sense. The other two issues of The Happy Reader are divided up in a similar manner. Issue one I must admit had me scratching my head to a long interview with the actor Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey!) but the second half saved the day spectacularly with essays on, about and around Wilkie Collins' Victorian thriller The Woman In White. Issue two turned the tables somewhat and carried an excellent interview with Kim Gordon followed by a set of essays loosely connected to a book I have so far resisted – Kakuzo Okakura's The Book Of Tea. There are rogue essays in every issue which appear to have no connection at all with the main themes under discussion but that is a large part of this magazine's charm and attraction and cleverly demonstrates how the best reading can catapult you off on surprising diversions, arcane explorations and previously unheard of avenues of interest. Lateral reading. Of course, being a Penguin publication, every chosen title for each issue is a Penguin Classic, but as someone whose appreciation of the 'classics' leaves something to be desired I am very glad to be given the opportunity to discover more titles from that imprint in such an enjoyable and engrossing way. Bookish magazines launched by publishing houses have mostly had depressingly short life spans in the past; I just hope that The Happy Reader is here to stay.
For further details go to www.thehappyreader.com and for a good interview with editor-in-chief Seb Emina go to http://magculture.com/at-work-with-seb-emina-the-happy-reader/ .