2013-05-18T05:04:17-04:00 Lloyd Paige http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=lloyd-paige Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Lloyd Paige Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.2901176 2013-05-08T09:16:19-04:00 2013-05-09T08:14:49-04:00

Lloyd Paige http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lloyd-paige/
The month of February saw the award winning novelist in conversation with Professor Josh Cohen at Goldsmiths University, London. The evening was in celebration of the new Goldsmiths award for innovative fiction in association with the New Statesman, to be judged by Nicola Barker, Jonathan Derbyshire, Gabriel Josipovici, and Tim Parnell (Chair).

Geoff Dyer was the second author in the promotional programme with James Kelman being the first and Ali Smith being the third. With a £10,000 winning prize on offer the award was sure to attract media interest which it has, but the organisers have gone one better by holding these sessions with recognised authors.



Many attended Dyer's talk at the Whitehead Building on campus and I took my place amongst them. After a splendid introduction by Cohen, Dyer jumped straight into it by warming up the audience with his sharp wit before reading an extract from a new story. We then moved onto Q&As where I managed to put a question to Dyer and it went like this.

LP: 'What changes if any have you noticed in your writing since the time you started to now?'

He replied:


GD: 'Hmm great, great question. The Colour of Memory, my Brixton book, came out in 1989 and has just been reissued. Back then there weren't even digital files so because they had to reset it, I had the chance to make some changes. I re-read it. I was really struck by first of all, something that is so sad. There's a lyrical thing going on there, not surprising it's a first novel but I really like the lyricism in that. Apart from a few things in the Venice book, that's really faded.

If I went and told a literary doctor that, he'd put up the stethoscope and say, 'You're absolutely on course, that's quite right for a man of your age, ( the audience laughs).

It was so sad I'd lost much of the lyricism but equally, the lyricism of course went hand in hand with the tendency to overwrite stuff. And then the influences I've been under have changed. I think the (Albert) Camu thing is strong there. The Thomas Bernhard thing has kicked in and I think I really got into the idea of repetition. Those would be the two things I've noticed.'

The evening was rounded off with a few more questions then a bit of traditional book signing.

With the Goldsmith's Prize we have another literary showpiece and if it can unearth, then shine the spotlight on talented authors like many others do, it will surely be a good thing.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1865081 2012-09-07T18:00:44-04:00 2012-09-10T11:29:15-04:00

Lloyd Paige http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lloyd-paige/
Earlier this year I had the unique pleasure of witnessing this phenomenon unravel again, especially the third series and I'm convinced that we will not find another James T. Kirk (William Shatner), or another Spock (Leonard Nimoy). Yes at times, the original series was way over the top, containing a spectrum of awkwardly bright props, suspect acting along with Horrible Histories style costume design, and clichéd moments that made most of us embarrassed.
We didn't mind.

Whenever Kirk landed on an alien planet with a new member of the team, we knew the new member would be the first to get their contract terminated.
We didn't mind that either.

Their death would be the cue for a quizzical stare from Bones and it readied us for what was to come. That was what we loved about the show because it represented a period in time that simply cannot be repeated, lived or breathed again. Our society's moved on. The show broke taboos with a multi-cultural crew, the first interracial TV kiss, and was a very good advert for hair gel and stick-on ears. I also noticed something else, Captain Kirk's astonishing success with women, especially in the third series where he seemed to be a very busy man indeed, either rescuing a damsel in distress or contemplating rescuing a damsel in distress. I can only imagine what happened after the cameras stopped rolling and wondered where he got the energy from. By Shatner's own admission, the situation even affected one of his relationships.

On the 46th Anniversary of the show, it's safe to say that the world of Star Trek has influenced the whole science fiction genre ever since - not to mention harvesting its own array of spin offs. There's a follow up the J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek reboot which is scheduled to hit U.S. cinemas on May 17th 2013, and we'll continue to get repeats of the original series on and off, from obscure satellite channels. Even Google have celebrated it with an interactive graphic on their main page. So in a recession hit period of austerity where we are crying out for escapism, what more could anyone ask for?]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1773160 2012-08-14T07:11:40-04:00 2012-08-14T09:47:23-04:00

Lloyd Paige http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lloyd-paige/

The Olympic Games 2012 are over and judging by the outpouring of grief, it will take many of us a long time to get over that fact. This is because wall to wall coverage does something to the mental thought process. It stops us from worrying about the mundane things in life and provides escapism. Thankfully the Olympics got off to a flyer but it wasn't long before the controversies began to roll in.

• Japanese swimmer Park Tae-Hwan was disqualified then reinstated.

• Sixteen year-old Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen had to publicly fight back against doping slurs.

• Eight Badminton players, two pairs from China and one pair each from Indonesia and South Korea were disqualified for trying not to win.

• Team GB's male gymnasts were stripped of their silver medal and demoted to bronze after protests by the Japanese team.

• Iran's boxer Ali Mazaheri was disqualified after receiving three warnings in under a minute and then he refused to stand next to the referee when the fight was brought to a premature end.

• The South Korean flag was mistakenly displayed on Hampden Park's stadium screen next to the North Korean women's football team (a mistake of seismic proportions).

• For South Korean fencer Shin A-Lam, time stood still when the clock seemed to be stuck with one second left, meaning that her opponent, Germany's Britta Heidermann, was able to score the winning point in a sudden death match. Judges ruled that the point would stand leaving Shin A-Lam in tears. But she refused to leave the piste and accept the decision, and waited for over an hour for the result of an appeal she eventually lost.


There were more controversies too but let's remember that London hosting the Games was truly an amazing gift. Though we rightly questioned its monumental cost and the ticket buying process, the whole of the United Kingdom became infected with Olympic fever, including a lot of the pessimists.

The Olympic Torch went through Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales thus allowing ordinary folks to become involved by cheering on the lucky people selected to carry the torch. The Opening Ceremony didn't disappoint, in fact it dazzled us and the athletes and fans from all over the world enjoyed the spectacle. The marvellous achievements of Michael Phelps in perhaps his last Olympics set the standard and Usain Bolt cemented his place in athletics history by defending his titles and picking up three gold medals. Our travel infrastructure didn't collapse as we feared, we just had to get used to the re-routing and temporary no go areas that were put in place, and we witnessed 'Super Saturday,' when three of our athletes, Jessica Ennis, Greg Rutherford, and Mo Farah brought home gold.

I succumbed to the Olympic fever too and visited the ExCel Centre, one of the Olympic venues. My journey to and from it went pretty smoothly and the distribution of the tickets and the information updates I received prior, were good. Being on home turf meant that anyone representing Team GB received an automatic maddening cheer with lots of flag waving smiles. Unruly behaviour was kept at a minimum which proved that we could all come in from the cold together and be as one. Not only that, but athletes from other countries received a nice reception as well from the home crowd.

Although Team GB performed exceptionally well, analysis from the Wall Street Journal suggests that they topped the loser table with the most last, second-to-last, and third-to-last finishes in total. We also know that a lot of money was ploughed into our swimming programme for which we only saw a small return. So what is the legacy?

The effects of the Games are already seeping through with the hope that they will last. Despite the financial cuts already made the Government will make more money available from the National Lottery for elite sports, millions over the next four years, and the focus is already on getting youngsters into sport to be our athletes of tomorrow. But it's also important to remember that sport and exercising is supposed to be good for us. At the height of Olympic fever a newcomer to my local gym mentioned to the instructor that she hadn't exercised for two years. Now I can't confirm that the Games played a hand in her return to the treadmill but I kind of suspected it did. Athletics and cycling clubs up and down the country have seen an upsurge in queries from those wanting to take up the respective sports, and Paralympic tickets are apparently selling faster than ever too.

Sadly not everything in the Olympic Park will remain which is a shame because those facilities could have led to more events being hosted there in the future. I hope that the feel good factor of the Olympics, coupled with a natural sporting interest from even those who are not 'sporty,' still remains intact for a long while because at least 90% of the UK population tuned into the games at some point. Coming third to America and China with a medal haul of 65 - 29 gold, 17 silver, and 19 bronze - is no mean feat and the Minister for Sport even hinted that London may bid for the Games again as early as 2024, now that would be something.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1729157 2012-08-01T17:39:33-04:00 2012-08-02T04:48:36-04:00

Lloyd Paige http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lloyd-paige/
If Olympic visitors are not travelling to the West End then where are they going? The answer is Westfield Stratford City and it's been billing itself as the gateway to the Olympic Park. I recently visited Westfield which has the tremendous advantage of being slap bang next to the Park. It also has a multitude of shops, over 300 and at a cost of £ 1.45bn to build, has 1.9 million sq ft of space. Ask yourself this, when you've spent a large sum on tickets for your event in the Park and want to buy something afterwards are you really going to travel all the way into Central London to get it? Or when the kids say that they want new swimming gear after leaving the Aquatics Centre or that they need a basketball and full kit after visiting the Basketball Arena, are you really going to travel all the way into Central London to get them?

You're much more likely after a long day to go to the best nearest place. So when we look at it from that perspective, Westfield was always going to end up the winner and a very high percentage of Olympic visitors were always expected to pass through there anyway. Perhaps too many warnings were dished out about potential travel difficulties in London and it put a lot of visitors off. Time will tell.

To get a picture of how difficult it has been for traders, after three decades the Covent Garden theatre shop Dress Circle is set to close to operate online. The owner had hoped the Olympics would bring in extra trade. It didn't. Taxi drivers are not having a good time and even market stall traders in Greenwich are not seeing much business due to the shepherding of attendees to and from the nearby Equestrian venue. So is the country really missing out on an economic injection? Not really because influential business people worth billions are in the city for The British Embassy's business summits at Lancaster House with a view to invest here. The powers that be are hoping to attract over £1bn in trade and investment for the country.

So it seems that what is taken away with one hand is given back with the other, it's just not been done in the way a large majority of London businesses had hoped or expected.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1693973 2012-07-23T04:31:25-04:00 2012-09-21T05:12:13-04:00

Lloyd Paige http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lloyd-paige/
When the train pulled into Stratford, the doors opened to a great wave of relief. Walking through the station, I was met by Olympic signage and the arduous journey soon became a distant memory. Once I surged through the barriers, I saw two people holding up a Sierra Leone placard for arriving athletes which made me feel right in the thick of it. I tried to find the Park but wasn't sure where I was going so retraced my steps and asked an official Olympic person directions. He was holding a giant foam pointing finger - which said, "Park That Way" (picture it). Amazingly he didn't know and said that he'd just been told to hold the sign and... point it. Untrained staff - warning number two!

So I employed a bit of DIY, this time guessing right, making my way correctly towards the Olympic Park and found that you will only be allowed to go so far without a ticket. I didn't have one but I did see a Russian athlete going for a leisurely stroll. Result. I doubled back to the Westfield Shopping Centre where it didn't feel odd seeing soldiers walking around and if they had been scheduled to man the security from the off, no one would bat an eyelid. I felt that an international flavour was definitely in the air which will increase as the games draw near. It will also give us all a lift and be good for the economy, but let's hope that the powers that be, first heed the obvious warnings signs.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1559853 2012-05-31T20:29:10-04:00 2012-07-31T05:12:17-04:00

Lloyd Paige http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lloyd-paige/ X Factor and sold itself as being a talent show for real voices. Not a show obsessed with the appearance of its contestants or a show which laughed at its singers. No it stood upon a much grander hill. At its peak the show pulled in over 12 million viewers then slipped down to just over 6 million. So what do we really think of the first series?

For a start The Voice stopped being The Voice the first time the judges saw the faces of their acts. Who can forget the short-lived trend of people taking pictures of themselves - with the show in the background - while sitting on chairs with their backs turned, imitating the judges? Brilliant I say. However that sort of stopped when the judges met the contestants, at which point, personalities then came into play.

The show let their stylists loose with one hand tied behind their backs because everyone knew that the Saturday and Sunday shows were filmed on the same night. We were led to believe the judges and presenters went home, slept, woke up, had breakfast, chilled out, and then put on the same Saturday TV clothes for Sunday night's show. The outcry slowly built up. Eventually the Beeb sought to rectify this wrong and we saw the others, and especially Holly - show us what their wardrobe had to offer. Even Reggie's suits looked dapper but the mutation didn't stop there. Perhaps in an attempt to stave off the initial fall in ratings, big screens started to appear behind the singers, and dancers emerged during performances. Hang on, haven't I seen that before... X Factor? The funny thing is, about a week after I made the observation Simon Cowell publicly said the same thing. It's OK Simon I'll let you have that one for free.

Rumours flew around that the judges were told to be tougher with their critiques. Words such as "I'm just being honest," were bandied about like water on a hot summer's day, alleged tantrums, prima donna behaviour and all sorts were spoken of which threatened the integrity of the show. So it was time to call in the big boys, sorry I mean girls, take a bow Lana Del Rey, Cheryl Cole, and Kylie Minogue.

It seems that The Voice was desperate to do things differently, even creating a voting fight off which got rid of probably one of the most cast iron finalists in Ruth Brown since Leona Lewis, but fair play to the singers who made it through to the final. Tyler, Bo, Leanne, and Vince, would all sound perfectly fine over the radio, on a CD, or on any MP3 download.

We never got to see the selection process which would have been nice. So it led us to believe that the ones who made it to our TV screens were the best of the bunch that queued at the door. Maybe Danny Cohen and John de Mol thought that its inclusion would make The Voice too similar to that other show. We also craved more excitement because at times it seemed a bit monotonous. We never got to see - up close - the Judges' relationships with each member of their team and we were never able to properly gauge the amount of the time each judge spent coaching their singers. It needed to be more transparent.

The plus points are though that The Voice will make the X Factor up its game at the very least, and it will also try to improve on its first time offering for the second series. But only time well tell who will win the overall battle of the singing talent shows.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1545895 2012-05-28T05:20:12-04:00 2012-07-28T05:12:10-04:00

Lloyd Paige http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lloyd-paige/

How many of us have purchased a book because there's been a movie adaptation, or because it's synonymous with a television programme? Are we all merely sheep waiting to be herded off to wherever the media shepherd wants us to go, or are we rebellious free thinking individuals, desperate to make our own choices? To gain a better insight, I looked at the top ten best selling books of 2011 based on the UK statistics compiled by Nielsen BookScan.

When combined, the ten best selling books of last year sold an admirable 4,244,388 copies, amounting to an attractive £27,672,050.94 in revenue. By far the biggest seller of last year was One Day by David Nicholls which pulled in £5,157,015.10 in sales. The Second place prize went to Jamie Oliver for his book, Jamie's 30-Minute Meals which actually accumulated more money in sales than One Day with a total of £6,617,423.26, due to its recommended retail price of £26.99. Then A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French came in at number three, followed by Emma Donahue's Room, and Kathryn Stockett's The Help. The Guinness World Records (2012) came next and Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy propped up the back end of the top ten best sellers. John Grisham's The Confession pushed itself in between the trilogy at number eight.

After viewing the list and recalling the interviews that I've conducted with a number of fiction authors, I worried whether there'd eventually be enough room at the inn. Would a stream of quality books face the prospect of being shunted outside because they lacked media muscle?

One Day (first published in 2009), The Help, and the Millennium Trilogy, have all been adapted to film. The Room was said to be inspired by a much publicized real life event, Jamie Oliver is a celebrity cook and along with Dawn French, a television regular. Even the Guinness World Records has had a television series. As far as I'm aware, only John Grisham's The Confession has no such media link as yet. A film or television connection, or a related matter in the public eye, is no guarantee for a book's immediate success but it helps. It can act like a slow burning oil lamp attracting the katydids, eventually helping the book to surge ahead.

I recently came across Jo Nesbo's Headhunters in a well lit store and stopped in my tracks, breaking out into an ice cold sweat because I recognized the cover. That's all, nothing more nothing less. At my local cinema a day earlier, Headhunters happened to be one of the movie trailers which I saw. Those clever PR people count on those situations, using recognizable faces from a film and sticking them on the cover of a book to hook us in. I resisted the temptation to buy it but only just and although I survived the moment, I felt just a little bit guilty for not going ahead with the purchase as I recalled the action sequences from the trailer. This business strategy is nothing new though. So when Tom Cruise finally arrives on the big screen in the guise of Lee Child's Jack Reacher, I won't be surprised by a movie tie-in book cover, and I expect the book One Shot which the film is based upon, to gain a new following. The existing Reacher novels should also benefit from an upsurge in sales too. Even if a new and wonderful novel emerges to compete against it, timing is everything and a film or television connection seems to be worth more, quietly directing us to our next purchase. Only time will tell if the overall sales figures for the end of this year will serve us up a different story.]]>