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/
.
