Diary of a Somebody

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It's all well-trodden ground these days, but it still hurts knowing what fate awaits Joe, so full of life, and Ken, so trapped in his own neurosis, unable to arrest its descent into psychosis. But, as alluded to above, it's not all quite the same as it was. The midlife answer to Adrian Mole? It's a big comparison to make, in comic novel terms, but Brian Bilston is worthy. In Diary of a Somebody, Brian makes a New Year's Resolution to write a poem a day for a year. Hilarious results ensue, as well as the disappearance of a poetry (and love) rival. Laugh. Cry. Cringe -- Stella Magazine * Sunday Telegraph *

Highly original, genuinely funny and clever, with a gentle humanity in between the lines. Brian Bilston should be Poet Laureate -- John O'Farrell Britain has a rich tradition of literary diarists, from Samuel Pepys and James Boswell to Frances Partridge and Alan Bennett. We also have a rich tradition of spoof diarists, who seem realer than real to many readers: Charles Pooter, Bridget Jones, Adrian Mole. A welcome reminder of the joy to be had when you put yourself in the hands of someone who knows their way round both a joke and a bittersweet narrative . . . Funny and ingenious * The Times * How do I laugh at thee? Let me count the ways . . . If you like sub-Carry On puns, clever parodies of famous poems and Wittgensteinian meditations on language, you'll love it * Mail on Sunday *I missed my nameless pronoun. An abstract that had a few minutes before floated everywhere had been crushed into a particular. I liked this woman, whatever her name. I enjoyed her clumsiness and her obsessions and her occasional desires for an outburst of violence. I thought I recognised a lot of her qualities in myself. I wanted to understand her. Biographers often report that they enjoy a private relationship with their subject that is (even when this is impossible, because the subject is dead) shared on both sides. So what if Laura was called Laura? Laura was everywhere. One must live dangerously, take risks, or one otherwise is in an ordinary metier all along… I now see I can do it. IT MUST BE DONE!!” Life just gets worse. He sinks deeper and deeper into a state of lethargy, with only the cat for company, and his funny and sometimes subversive poems to lighten his mood. His focus narrows down to his neighbours’ bin day and other habits. He finds it difficult in his depressed state to engage with his teenage son Dylan who visits once a week. Sophie acquires a dynamic partner, the paragon of all virtues, a man whose success does not stop him from doing good deeds and who inspires Brian’s son with motivational quotes. As if life couldn’t get worse, this paragon decides he will relocate to the US taking Sophie and Dylan with him - this, just when Brian was starting to bond really well with his son. His son is reluctant to go. LifeLikeTheatre brings the Orton Diaries to the stage at Rialto Theatre, Brighton and attempts to explore the final months of Orton’s life at the height of the swinging sixties. The play centres around the exciting and salacious life of Joe Orton and his relationship with Kennith Halliwell. Such a subject matter promises so much and despite stellar acting, the play suffers from some odd staging choices and disappointingly tame approach. Part tender love story, part murder mystery, part coruscating description of a wasted life, and interspersed with some of the funniest poems about the mundane and the profound, Diary of a Somebody is a unique, original and hilarious novel.

PDF / EPUB File Name: Diary_of_a_Somebody_-_Brian_Bilston.pdf, Diary_of_a_Somebody_-_Brian_Bilston.epub He's also a typical man. Subtle doesn't work for him so his tentative friendship with Liz, a woman he (literally) dreams about, is a bit slow to get off the ground. Even when Liz quite obviously asks Brian something where her meaning is quite obvious, for instance, if he would like a nightcap, she gets a monologue with the reasons why he is unable to, or even told that he is watching reruns of A Touch of Frost on the TV that night! Part tender love story, part suburban murder mystery, part scathing description of a wasted life, and interspersed with some of the funniest poems about the mundane and the profound, Diary of a Somebody is a unique, original and hilarious novel.

Summary

There are fascinating possibilities in this situation. I’d get it down on paper if I were you” said Joe Orton once, the young playwright followed his own advice, and for a period of his short life kept a diary. American theatre critic John Lahr dramatized the diaries in 1989, and the result is Diary of a Somebody which has now opened as the second production at the new Seven Dials Playhouse in London. She was exactly as I had come to picture her: tall, slightly stooped, her face “round as the moon”, and with lots of hair. She wore spectacles and looked bemused not just by me, but by everything beyond her front step.

Brian Bilston has decided to write a poem every day for a year while he tries to repair his ever-desperate life. His ex-wife has taken up with a new man, a marketing guru and motivational speaker who seems to be disturbingly influencing his son, Dylan. Meanwhile Dylan’s football team keeps being beaten 0–11, as he stands disconsolately on the wing waiting vainly to receive the ball. At work Brian is drowning in a sea of spreadsheets and is becoming increasingly confused by the complexities of modern communication and management jargon. So poetry will be his salvation. But can Brian’s poetry save him from Toby Salt, his arch nemesis in the Poetry Group and potential rival suitor to Brian’s new poetic inspiration, Liz? Worst of all Toby has announced that boutique artisan publishing house Shooting from the Hip will be publishing his first collection, titled This Bridge No Hands Shall Cleft, in the autumn. And when he goes missing Brian is inevitably the number one suspect. Part tender love story, part murder mystery, part coruscating description of a wasted life, and interspersed with some of the funniest poems about the mundane and the profound, Diary of a Somebody is the most original novel you will read this year. Diary of a Somebody by Brian Bilston – eBook Details Staged for the first time in 35 years, Diary of a Somebody is a deep dive into the mind of one of the most witty, rebellious, and acclaimed artists of his generation. Introducing George Kemp ( Bridgerton, Netflix; Call My Agent, Netflix; The Trial of Christine Keeler, BBC) as notorious artist and playwright Joe Orton, Diary of a Somebody will see Toby Osmond ( Game of Thrones, HBO ; Henry VIII and His Six Wives, BBC; Dead Souls, Monkhead Theatre) take to the stage as his mentor and partner, the actor and writer Kenneth Halliwell.Alexander Masters: ‘After just one hour of reading them, I was desperate to look at them again.’ Photograph: Pal Hansen/The Guardian Achingly funny. Without doubt it should win next year's Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for the best comic novel, even if my own novel is in contention as well -- Jonathan Coe It's January 1st and Brian Bilston's life needs to change. His ex-wife has taken up with a new man, a motivational speaker and marketing guru to boot; he seems to constantly disappoint his long-suffering son; and at work he is drowning in a sea of spreadsheets and management jargon. Only in poetry does he find refuge and relief, interlarding diary entries with his mischievous verses, some parodies of pop songs (REM, Bee Gees, Blur), some of actual poems, nearly all of them quotable. I especially like his haiku horoscopes: