Duncan Fallowell and Andrew Logan: Prize-winning memoir seeks a home!

Party pasodoble: Andrew Logan and Duncan Fallowell

Two of my favourite men - y'know, the two mentioned in the caption - were snapped in friendly embrace at the launch party for Duncan Fallowell's latest book, How to Disappear: A Memoir for Misfits. Andrew Logan is in 'praying mantis mode' (according to DF) while Duncan himself asks Arcatistes 'how I might tighten my neck - I'm doing well elsewhere but the neck needs a tighten.'

I deplore any kind of cosmetic intervention, except for the most gruesome accidents and war injuries. Failing that injunction, 90-year-old Jackie Stallone's recent attempt to claw back time must stand as my graphic advisory - click (best not to eat first) here. 

On other matters, Madame Arcati finds herself more than a little surprised to learn that How to Disappear is not due a second edition or re-issue, either by original publisher Ditto Press or anyone else. This despite the title winning Duncan the PEN/Ackerley Prize for Memoir 2012, the UK's only literary prize for autobiography/memoir genres - as heralded here.

As things stand, your best hope of acquiring a copy is to find £5,000 to snap up the one used copy at that price on Amazon. Actually, for £5,000 you could bankroll a 3000-hard copy reprint even before consideration of much cheaper e-publishing options for all those juicy Kindles. Penguin, where are you, poppets?

And don't forget, Andrew's 'Phenomenal Elizabeth Taylor Portrait' can still be yours for an amazing £22,250 (+ £500 postage) on eBay - details here.

Come to think of it, both book and portrait offer substantial returns on outlay. Surely there's a European Lottery winner out there with vision.

Duncan Fallowell wins UK's only literary prize for memoir

Duncan Fallowell

Belatedly, I must congratulate long-time Arcatiste Duncan Fallowell on winning the PEN/Ackerley Prize for Memoir (2012) for his dazzling How to Disappear: A Memoir for Misfits. Madame Arcati was of course the first to review this title - a critique which arose from my readerly self-lubrication.

Duncan won against stiff competition - Brian Sewell may have been regarded as the favourite. Fortunately, the judges yielded to exquisite temptation and let loose the feral spirit that abhors genre, genre and genre. How to Disappear is hard to categorise: memoir of a sort, a travel book to some extent, a tour of forgotten weirdos, among whom Evelyn Waugh's ex-boyfriend (RIP). It is a work of wisdom (ie accumulated tricks) and of restrained debauchery - and of marathon detective work. It features a peculiar paranormal happening - conceivably.

Ditto Press must also be congratulated for producing a book that looks like it wants to be treasured and appreciated as art in its own right.

The PEN/Ackerley is Britain's only literary prize dedicated to memoir and autobiography. A number of reputable publishers rejected the book before new indy house Ditto took it on. Youth may not assure us a virile publishing future unafraid of literature, but it helps. As DF said in his acceptance speech, of a rejecting publisher who wondered when Duncan would write his 'big' book: 'All my books are big. it's the publishers that got small.'

 

Duncan Fallowell: 'How to Disappear' memoir published as objet d'art

DF: click pic to big up

Madame Arcati hears that Duncan Fallowell's next book is being published not by any of the dandruff set but by a sexy new publishing venture which comes out of the British art scene. They are called Ditto and have been joined by Bruno Bayley, one of the editors of Vice Magazine. He has been asked to find books of the highest literary quality to be published by Ditto as art objects. Bruno is 25 years old and the son of design guru Stephen Bayley. His very first book will be a non-fiction title from Duncan Fallowell called How To Disappear: a memoir for misfits and it's to be launched at the end of February, 2011.

More about Ditto. Duncan's site and penis.