THE BEST SELECTION OF BRISTOL BOOKS
Since 2004, Tangent Books has been publishing books about Bristol and by Bristol authors. Our list is the most comprehensive contemporary archive of Bristol history, reference, fiction, poetry and counter-culture.
SHIPS WEEK BEGINNING JUNE 8
The Bristol Short Story Prize makes a habit of finding writers a little before the rest of the world does. Gathering fourteen exceptional voices, Volume 18 takes us from a Brighton night shelter to a Mumbai flat to the queue at the dystopian Happiness Deposit Centre. Here is the short story at its most exacting, and its most alive.
Featuring:
Hussani Abdulrahim, Christian Anthony, Erika Banerji, Avantika Chilkoti, Timothy Collyer, Sarah Cotton, Kate Dalby, John Doble, Sharon Marie Hier, Laura Kyle, Jonathan Page, Eliza Robertson, Shabnam Shokoohi, William Weightman
By Steve Wright and Richard Jones
Now in its fifth edition, Home Sweet Home has been fully revised and updated.
The book explores Banksy’s early years with the DryBreadZ/Bad Apples crew and follows his escapades around Bristol and far beyond.
Banksy’s Bristol includes interviews with some of the artists who worked with Banksy in his early years as well as in-depth pieces (with pictures) on…
• Banksy vs Bristol Museum
• Banksy and the Easton Cowboys
• Dismaland
The Banksy timeline traces his work from his first stencil in Windmill Hill to his latest exploits.
Compiled by Bristol music expert Richard Jones, Bristol Music: Sounds Of The City It is an essential guide to Bristol music with a timeline of the key moments in the city’s music history from 1955 to the present day.
The book includes profiles of more than 100 bands, musicians, DJs and producers who have made a significant impact on the sound of the city from Russ Conway to Massive Attack.
The book includes iconic images of the early days of the Bristol Sound by photographer Beezer.
It was originally published in 2018 to accompany the Bristol Music: Seven Decades Of Sound exhibition at M Shed and includes a section on some of the items displayed at M Shed.
The title has been fully revised and updated.
‘Heartwood is a love letter to trees, a cry of pain, a call to arms, A tender and precise telling of one woman’s relationship with trees, it engages with the life of trees as precisely and insightfully as the lives lived alongside them, Through subjects and forms as varied as woodland, she shows us not just how much we have to learn about trees, but how much they can teach us about ourselves, and about the world we could live in if we turn our attention to nature.' Clare Shaw, author and poet
The memoir of Milo Johnson (Aka Dj Milo) is both a fascinating insight into the life of one of the pioneers of what became known as the Bristol Sound and a harrowing personal story.
Milo was one of the founder members of Wild Bunch, the Bristol multi genre sound system that spawned Massive Attack, Tricky and super-producer Nellee Hooper. It’s a no holds-barred account of Milo’s personal life – a story of abuse and abandonment and how that journey helped redefine the musical landscape.
His childhood and adolescence, was one of extremes and opposites. He was born and raised in Bristol’s West Indian community in the Sixties but attended school in the affluent white neighbourhood of Cotham. Fatherless and abandoned by his mother at the age of 12, he was forced into the care-to-prison pipeline.
Music, which had always been an important part of Milo’s life, turned out to be his salvation, enabling him to escape a dark destiny that seemed already mapped out and taking him from Bristol to a life-changing time in Japan. Later, Milo moved permanently to New York City, eventually living in Harlem for 25 years, where his appetite for consciousness was fed.
This is the definitive history of Sarah Records; the Bristol-based label that signed the acts no major label would touch but who you wanted to hear.
Sarah put out a board game, produced cut 'n' paste fanzines and stuck two fingers up to the mainstream music industry. Sarah was your secret world and it was located in the heart of Bristol. Sarah Records lasted for seven years, nine months and 11 days.
In These Things Happen, those who were there at the beating heart of the indie-pop world reveal the deepest, darkest secrets of what really went into making Sarah’s pop masterpieces. Featuring almost 130 interviews, including at least one member of every single band (as well as the world exclusive first interview with Christine of Christine’s Cat fame), this book is an oral history of a defining moment in pop history.
Who stripped naked on stage to another band’s drum solo? Why did Julian Knowles sleep with his boots on his stomach in Hull? Whatever happened to Mr James C Urchin? All of these burning questions and more will be answered in this book. With no tatty old gig flyer left unturned in the pursuit of exposing the true political pop pandemonium that went on in the wonderful world of Sarah Records.
Barry Myers was nicknamed ‘Scratchy’ by Joe Strummer after he joined The Clash as tour DJ in 1978 and became and became one of the ’Gang of Seven’ as featured in the fanzine Armagideon Times alongside Strummer... Mick Jones, Topper Headon, Paul Simenon, drum roadie The Baker and tour manager Johnny Green.
In his memoir, Scratchy describes the music and politics of the 1970s that culminated in the punk counterculture. He paid his dues in the dancehalls of London, graduating from the Speakeasy to full-time resident DJ at Dingwalls in 1976. He joined up with the Clash in 1978 as their Tour DJ .
A must-read for Clash fans. The book contains 48 pages of colour pictures from Scratchy’s early years as a DJ and his time with The Clash.
“Barry Myers was the sonic alchemist who helped forge The Clash’s irrepressible vibe… He elevated their pre-show entertainment to an art form, injecting a live DJ’s energy into the mix, fostering an electrifying connection between band and audience.”
The Baker, Clash Drum Roadie