Books Worth Reading #2: 'England on Fire' by Stephen Ellcock and Mat Osman

I was lucky enough to go to a launch event for this book on the 28th June, just over a week ago.  At the invite of the London Fortean Society, the authors participated in a Q&A at Conway Hall, home of the Ethical Society. And fascinating stuff it was too. 

Stephen Ellcock is a London-based writer, researcher and collector of images who, according to his publisher, 'spends far too much of his time nowadays creating an ever-expanding, virtual museum on Facebook and Instagram.' He has spent years pulling together an extraordinary collection of images that all convey something about the fabric and 'personality' of this country. For this book he's been joined by Mat Osman, thriller writer, bass player with indie band Suede, and brother of Richard, who has provided a short evocative text to introduce each section of the book. It's very very good. And the artwork - featuring everyone from William Blake, to Paul Nash, Bill Brandt to Derek Jarman, and Tacita Dean to Yinka Shonibare - is beautifully presented.

For the second half of the event we had another treat when Stephen and Mat were joined on stage by four contemporary artists featured in the book - Sam Hillier, James F Johnston, Claire Partington and Ben Edge. I was particularly pleased to see Ben as I've been a big fan of his work for some time and visited an exhibition of his work last year that was done in conjunction with the Museum of British Folklore. The show - titled Ritual Britain - consisted of 20 of Ben's paintings of British customs and festivals ranging from the Padstow Obby Oss to the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance. It was nice to have the opportunity to get him to sign my copy of the exhibition catalogue.

A fantastic, informative evening. 

And a lovely book that I highly recommend.