Galley Beggar Advent 2023

DECEMBER 1

Clare Pollard’s Cultural Highlights

IF YOU WERE A TEENAGER in the 90s this was a great year for gigs – PJ Harvey at the Roundhouse singing ‘Man-Size’, Pulp at Latitude (my daughter on my husband’s shoulders), and Blur at Wembley belting out ‘Tender’ with a gospel choir were highlights. Blur’s single ‘The Narcissist’ has also been looping around my head at most times. The other earworm being of course Ryan Gosling’s resplendent ‘I’m Just Ken’ from Barbie.  

I was artistic director of the Winchester Poetry Festival this year, so got to see some remarkable live performances, from Luke Wright’s very clever, funny show about his adoption – Luke Wright’s Silver Jubilee – to intensely moving readings by Harry Josephine Giles, Kathryn Bevis and Zaffar Kunial. At the theatre I really enjoyed finally watching The Book of Mormon (I love a musical) whilst my favourite exhibition was Alice Neel’s gorgeous, humane ‘Hot off the Griddle’ at the Barbican.

As a long-time Brett Easton Ellis fan, I’m glad his new novel The Shards didn’t disappoint. It’s strange to realise it’s the first of his books to grapple with being queer. I can’t begin to list all the other books that have given me pleasure, but I’m currently reading Claire Dederer’s wise and nuanced Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma, and do look out for Ferdia Lennon’s debut Glorious Exploits in January – it’s about a staging of Medea in 412BC and is absolute fire.  

All of this is preamble though, as for anyone paying attention the cultural highlight of the year was obviously the final season of Succession.

CLARE POLLARD is an award-winning poet and playwright based in London. She is the author of five poetry collections and the former Editor of the Modern Poetry in Translation magazine. Her first novel, Delphi, was published to wide acclaim by Fig Tree Press in 2022. The Modern Fairies, her second novel, will be published in June 2024.