
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
Life's stories are always prone to disruption and digression, thwarting the neat storybook narrative we love so much.
Almost all of our stories follow the same basic pattern: beginning, middle, end: exposition, action and climax. It's a neat and tidy way of telling a story. But life's not like that, is it? Life is not neat and tidy, it doesn't obey the rules. Life's stories—like the stories told here in But, personal and impersonal, historical and contemporary—are punctuated by disruption, derailment, and digression.
Stories where the good guys lose. Stories where the bad girls win. Stories that just stop in the middle. Stories that fizzle out or simply never get going. Stories that don't make sense. Stories that start where they should end and end where they start. Stories that go round in a cyclical loop, forever. Unfinished stories. Unstarted stories. Stories that stutter and mumble, that cough and splutter.
That's what we have here in this book: real stories, that do all of the above. That's why this book is called But. Because the but is there to disrupt the easy normality of the way we tell our stories. This book is a collection of stories about real lives, real people, and real life. Stuttering, wayward, disjointed, funny, ridiculous, and unplanned.
Frequently asked questions
- Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
- Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Cover Blurb
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- Introduction
- Disrupters No 1—Welfare State International
- Lines
- The Iranian Wedding Pianist
- Adrian Henri’s Funeral
- Art, Yachts and Crayons
- The Decisive Moment
- Ziggy Visits Sabden
- Perfect Story Structure
- Disrupters No 2—Andy Roberts
- Jah Wobble, Davey Graham and Hoovers
- Dorothy Wordsworth’s Socks
- Leeds, Leeds, Leeds
- Money, Money, Money
- Motivational Sports Quotes
- Likely Lads
- Writing
- On the Road
- Two Blackbirds
- Disrupters No 3—Dick Witts and Louise Alderman
- Hmmm … Talking to Danbert
- An Activist’s First Duty Is to Have Fun
- So It Goes
- Comic Sans Walks into a Bar
- Upside Down
- On the Bus
- Lieteller
- What the Folk?
- Disrupters No 4—Crass
- Gimme Some Truth
- Marginalia
- Pissing It Down(In Praise of English Rain)
- Shhh
- The Guitar
- Disrupters No 5—Lou Watts and Alice Nutter
- But I Digress
- From A to
- Liminal Space
- B
- Storyboard
- When Two Lads Meet
- Some Words You Can Use Instead of But
- 4’33»
- These Hills Are—
- Wonder
- With Hidden Noise
- Disrupters No 6—Casey Orr
- Inger and the Lucky Dog
- Message from Woody Guthrie
- The Devil’s Interval
- Hollywood Ageing Cream
- Hope
- Good Idea, Bad Idea
- Disrupters No 7—Rod Dixon
- Making It Up as You Go Along
- That’s My Story and I’m Sticking to It
- A Lovely Mess
- A Man Walks into a Library
- Weather Events
- Epilogue
- About the Author