Book of Essays

[ken garner]

thanks. I knew from Sheila and William that this was at last being planned from around 
about Christmas time. But I did not know they were going to mix the articles with diary 
entries and other stuff. The blurb suggests - though this may not necessarily be an 
accurate reflection of the content - that the collection has therefore been chosen / shaped 
partly according to how the articles work together as a 'second autobiography' - so maybe 
not so much from Sounds or The Observer then. We will all buy it of course and like it, but 
die hards like us may I suspect want more more more.

I had an email conversation with William in which i did some rough calculations about 
what the vast selection job might be like (which I am sure he hardly needed to hear!): I 
worked out that John must have been doing an article of an average of 800 words almost 
every week for most years since 68 (successively for Disc and Music Echo, International 
Times, The Listener, Sounds, Observer, Independent, Radio Times, etc), which comes to, 
er, at least 1.4 million words. So it would be theoretically possible to make and justify 
three separate books out of a selection from each of the Sounds, Observer* and Radio 
Times years respectively - Jeremy Clarkson just throws 50 or 60 columns into a large-
print paperback and shifts a quarter of a million copies! Even to select 10% of the grand 
extant total would fill two doorstep hardbacks of approx 600-800 pages each.

[*I have a strong hunch that the Guardian empire may well do a volume of Peel in the 
Observer complete anyway in a year or two - it's exactly the kid of thing they do, eg 
Orwell's Observer years)

But the family (and the publishers, of course) were keen to get on with it and agree on the 
most notable / funniest / controversial pieces and get them out there, and I am sure they 
will have come up with an enjoyable taster

But we will have to wait a long time for A COMPLETE COLLECTED PEEL JOURNALISM (which 
would still actually only print in full about 20% of it all), and which would fill 2 or 3 
hardback vols plus intro, notes, chronologies etc. Maybe in 2020? 2030?

ken

--- In peel@...m, Robert Ward <r0bertward@...> wrote:
>
> looks like this is the fella - "The Olivetti Chronicles"  presumably named after the make 
of his typewriter 
>  
> http://www.amazon.co.uk/Olivetti-Chronicles-John-
Peel/dp/059306061X/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218023423&sr=8-14
> 
> --- On Wed, 8/6/08, theallnewadventuresofspp <theallnewadventuresofspp@...> 
wrote:
> 
> From: theallnewadventuresofspp <theallnewadventuresofspp@...>
> Subject: [peel] Book of Essays
> To: peel@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Wednesday, August 6, 2008, 12:40 PM
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I read on Channel 4 teletext (yes some of us still do use it) that on 
> OCt 23 there's an anthology of Peel's writings for various magazines 
> and essays put togther by Sheila. Does anybody have any info on what 
> exactly might be in this. It definitely sounds like one to put on the 
> xmas list.
>