brief 24: Editorial (2002)

Jack Ross, ed.: brief 24 (July 2002)

Editorial

Alan Brunton

“I don’t think —”
“Then you shouldn’t talk,” said the Hatter.

– Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)

(See the somewhat less wonderful adventures of “Father Flog,” on the inside back cover, for further consequences of a lack of foresight.)

I was sorry when I heard that John Geraets was thinking of giving up the editorship; it meant a good deal to get past his exigent editorial eye. I can’t say the labour of putting the magazine out four times a year greatly appealed at first, but curiosity won the day. I’m always interested to see what the regulars are up to. I’m also keen to rescue new pieces of lunacy from the cutting-room floor.

So bring it on (to quote Kirsten Dunst) …

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That’s as far as I’d got when I heard the news of Alan Brunton’s death, in Amsterdam, of a heart attack. He was fifty-five, and (apparently) in the best of health.

I only met him a few times. Those were significant meetings, though (for me, at any rate). They left me with the impression of an immensely supportive, witty, and protean man – someone who contributed a vast amount to our culture, through his writing, through the theatre group Red Mole, and latterly through his publishing imprint Bumper Books.

“It makes you wonder!” he wrote in my copy of his book Ecstasy. It does indeed make you wonder. It makes you sad, too, to know he’s gone. It’s cold comfort, but I’m glad that we’ve at least been able (courtesy of Michele Leggott) to include something new of his in this issue.

I hope to publish more pieces by/about him in the next issue, #25, in September.

Upcoming issues:

Please get in touch if you’d like to contribute to:
# 26 (December, 2002)Kendrick Smithyman special issue
unpublished work / memoirs & tributes / criticism / bibliography

Father Flog

(23/6-6/7/02)

brief 24 (2002): 3.

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brief 24 (2002)


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