Secure A Copy Museum Without Walls Envisioned By Jonathan Meades Ready In Digital Version

brilliance. Plenty of architectural entertain and information, The WW Nazi building film is worth tracking down, Frequent access to a dictionary may be required depending on reader smart arsiness, Cannot stress how much I love Jonathan Meades I'm biased but this is a magnificent collection of a masterful writer who doesn't get anything like th recognition he deserves.
The best bellowing contrarian in the land, This is mostly just TV scripts I've already seen, and though this means that we can at last catch up with his rapidfire aesthetic barbs, they still suffer without their inspired, bizarre visual production.


A sense of loneliness comes through on paper anger and historical command is the dominant note in the programmes, You can see almost all his work at this sitelinkYoutube channel, It is a fine use of a week, Part of a continuum of architectural criticism that runs, more or less: Betjeman, Nairn, Meades, Hatherley, Utterly brilliant, a book that will expand your world, your mind and your vocabulary! Wonderfully rude and contrarian, Excellent at skewering the absurdities of architecture, planning, urban policy, taste etc, Enjoy reading him even when I disagree, Whether you are familiar with his TV work or not, these essays are an excellent introduction to Meades' style and composition, He is a writer that is interested in everything, and he makes this clear will a wonderfully playful use of language and imagery.
Easily one of the best reads in recent memory, I revisit the book time and time again to enjoy Meades' dynamic, fluid writing, describing the beauty of everyday places and environments.
I don't feel Meades has ever gained the widespread notoriety and respect that his exceptional prose and body of work deserves, One of the greatest influences on my writing, by far, For me about the best read of, I admire his work and his writing maybe not least because I find it impossible to disagree with him, Some of the essays in the book covers parts of the country which I know well others simply provide a reason to go and see.
One particular favourite note is that at Harvington by Kidderminster is a graveyard for reliant robins which are cannibalised to form the motorised trikes for the hells angels.
Taken with the cds from his TV work, most recently on Essex, Jonathan Meades is a profund and cnetral commentator on the aesthetics and mores of our times.
As irascible and demanding as his films, these collected writings of Jonathan Meades are at times challenging, witty, infuriating and contradictory, They are all, however, true to his own views on art, architecture, and society, Meades has the uncanny ability to make the preposterous sound commonplace and the commonplace preposterous, It is less of a book or collection of essays as typescripts from his television work and as such it does lose a bit of context without the accompanying visuals.
Hence I found myself on frequent occasions reaching for the internet in order to look up a referenced building/figure/architect,

Nevertheless this is pure Meades and his voice is prominent throughout: explaining, mocking, cajoling, Always fascinating. Always erudite.

However given these pieces are from different times they can begin to meld into each other if read sequentially, Note to editor: please ask Mr Meades to refrain, if possible, from the use of the word "quoditian", After the fortieth instance it does grate heavily on the nerves,

'We are surrounded by the greatest of free shows, Places" Jonathan Meades has an obsessive preoccupation with places, He has spent thirty years constructing sixty films, two novels and hundreds of pieces of journalism that explore an extraordinary range of them, from natural landscapes to manmade buildings and 'the gaps between them', drawing attention to what he calls 'the rich oddness of what we take for granted'.
This book collectspieces and six film scripts that dissolve the barriers between high and low culture, good and bad taste, deep

seriousness and black comedy.
Meades delivers 'heavy entertainment' strong opinions backed up by an astonishing depth of knowledge, To read Meades on places, buildings, politics, or cultural history is an exhilarating workout for the mind, He leaves you better informed, more alert, less gullible, "Everything is fantastical if you stare at it for long enough, Everything is interesting. " A hefty slice of Meades, Erudite, didactic, opinionated, confrontational, argumentative, Would have hadif he hadn't overused the word "douce", I look forward to the next volume, Museum Without Walls collects essays, articles and TV scripts by Jonathan Meades, And it is an immensely enjoyable read, Meades' obsession is with Place and how it shapes and influences us,

Meades is a brilliant writer, skewering his targets with deadpan, razor wit, His special ire is reserved for Architects and the insipid buildings they inflict upon us, A great architect can inspire and transform the people who live in their buildings, A poor one can inflict bland mediocrity upon us,

The writing here ranges from examinations of the buildings of Hitler and Stalin to the strange charm of shacks in the Severn Valley from suburban Britain to our fascination with all things Victorian.


Meades is opinionated to be sure, but its hard to disagree with him when he makes his arguments with such persuasive prose.
And it is always backed up by the wealth of knowledge he has gathered over the years,

The only part of the book that didn't work for me is the inclusion of some of his TV scripts.
Meades is brilliant in front of the camera, subverting the conventions of the usual TV talking heads with his deadpan delivery, You really need to see the TV programmes to see these scripts come to life, A judicious search on YouTube show you what I mean, All his TV programmes are there,

Otherwise, a brilliant, informative, funny, opinionated in the best sense book, Go read. loved it. thought provoking and brilliant on every page Jonathan Meades combines high and low culture with dark humour while discussing the most erudite of cultural issues.
A joy to read. Magnificent aplomb. Love it. Jonathan Turner Meades bornJanuaryis a writer, food journalist, essayist and film maker, Meades has written and performed in thantelevision shows on predominantly topographical subjects, His books include three works of fiction and several anthologies, Meades is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a Patron of the British Humanist Association, Meades was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and educated at Kings College, Taunton, which he described as a dim, muscular Christian boot camp.
He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art RADA in, Meades wrote reviews and articles for The Times for many years, and was specifically its restaurant critic fromto, He was voted Best Food Journalis Jonathan Turner Meades bornJanuaryis a writer, food journalist, essayist and film maker, Meades has written and performed in thantelevision shows on predominantly topographical subjects, His books include three works of fiction and several anthologies, Meades is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a Patron of the British Humanist Association, Meades was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and educated at King's College, Taunton, which he described as "a dim, muscular Christian boot camp".
He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art RADA in, Meades wrote reviews and articles for The Times for many years, and was specifically its restaurant critic fromto, He was voted Best Food Journalist in theGlenfiddich Awards, Having given up writing about English cuisine inafter being The Times' restaurant critic for fifteen years, Meades estimated, in an interview with Restaurant magazine, that he had put onlb a year during his reviewing period, which works out around an ounce per restaurant.
By his own statement in the series Meades Eats, after being pronounced 'morbidly obese' he subsequently managed to lose a third of his body weight over the course of a year.
His first collection of stories Filthy English was followed by Pompey, which was widely praised and compared to Sterne, Scarfe, Steadman, Dickens and Joyce amongst other great stylists.
Meades' An Encyclopaedia of Myself was published in Mayby Fourth Estate, It was long listed for that year's Samuel Johnson Prize and won Best Memoir in the Spear's Book Awards, Roger Lewis of the Financial Times said of the work that "If this book is thought of less as a memoir than as a symphonic poem about post war England and Englishness well, then it is a masterpiece.
"Meades's book Museum Without Walls was published on the Unbound crowd funding site, in both print and e book editions, sitelink.