Essays

I’m writing a new novel provisionally entitled City Roots. It’s set in 1956-57 and features Trad Jazz and Folk Revival as backgrounds. This has meant I needed to sort out some ideas on Trad Jazz.   ON TRAD SIX THESES ON TRAD JAZZ IN THE UK   ‘We were a bunch of roughnecks playing a purposely primitive music.’ Ken Colyer   Twentieth-century jazz…

It’s just a book review. But I was really impressed by this autobiographical account by Huzama Habayeb. Published in Bookblast. https://bookblast.com/blog/before-the-queen-falls-asleep-huzama-habayeb-review/

DISCOVERING TEENAGE BRITAIN: ETHEL MANNIN, COLIN MacINNES AND THE TEENAGE NOVEL IN 1950s BRITAIN [This essay was first published by Bookblast in January 2022: https://bookblast.com/blog/spotlight-forgotten-women-writers-ethel-mannin-colin-macinnes-the-young-adult-novel-in-1950s-britain/] It’s unlikely that you’ll ever have heard of Ethel Mannin (1900—84). She wrote over a hundred books, including novels, political reflections, autobiographical memoirs and travel-writing, but she has received precious little attention since her death. To my knowledge,…

IN SEARCH OF A CONSPIRACY On Conspiracy Theories   ‘the all-out war on meaning’ Naomi Klein, 2023   I can’t find my glasses. I try to think where I last saw them. I look on my desk, on the bookcase next to my desk and in my rucksack. Nothing. My partner must have hidden them. This is hardly a full-blown conspiracy theory. But…

This was the last academic essay I wrote. In 2019 I sent it to a music history journal, who replied that it was interesting and well-written, but they didn’t want it. Clearly, they were looking for dull and badly-written pieces. I decided it was time to move on.   ‘Something happened in America’ (Shelton 1975, p. 7)   ‘Skiffle is piffle’ Melody Maker,…

[This essay was first published in 2022 on the Cardiff Writers’ Circle website: https://cardiffwriterscircle.cymru/a-history-of-cardiff-writers-circle-1947-2022-by-sharif-gemie/. It was written as part of the celebrations of the CWC’s 75th anniversary. It’s available as a PDF here: Open Manuscript – Draft 3] ‘Stimulating thought can only be of help to a writer.’ (CWC minutes, 7 July 1969)   Chapters Limits to Study First Successes The 1960s, 70s…

Sharif Gemie [This essay was first published by Bookblast in October 2023: https://bookblast.com/blog/sharif-gemie-six-months-reading-marcel-proust/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sharif-gemie-six-months-reading-marcel-proust]In May 2023, I had a problem which is probably familiar to many people: there was nothing I wanted to read. Having rejected everything on the Guardian’s book review pages, I decided there was only one possible solution. I’d work through the entirety of the three volumes of Marcel Proust’s A…

Sharif Gemie [This essay was first published in June 2021 by Abergavenny Small Press: https://www.asppublishing.co.uk/post/reflections-on-covid-an-essay-by-sharif-gemie]‘There is meaning as well as pain in sadness, mourning and grief.’Rachel Solnit (April 2020)More than forty years ago Susan Sontag, a celebrated American cultural critic, was diagnosed with breast cancer. The treatment was successful, and Sontag went on to reflect on her experiences in Illness as Metaphor. She…