Monday 6 April 2015

Read - Margrave of the Marshes (#5/52)

Margrave of the Marshes starts as the autobiography of John Peel, but after 200 pages or so it morphs into a biography written by his wife, Sheila Ravenscroft, with help from their four children - this is due to John's sad and untimely death in 2004, shortly after he'd started writing the book.

I had been wanting to read this for ages, then once I'd started it I found it very hard to get into it.  It's been sitting on my bedside table, 50 pages read, for the best part of a year.  I picked it up again this weekend and after some initial effort found it much easier to get on with second time a round. The first half is very much in John Peel's voice ( a very familiar voice if, like me, you grew up illicitly listening to his late night radio shows under the bedclothes in the 1980s) and was very poignant to read.




This part of the book comes to an end while John is still in America and well before he's started his British career as DJ and national institution, and it's left to Sheila (also, apparently affectionately, known as Pig) to take over and write the account of the subsequent years from their meeting to his death.  This is interesting but feels understandably rushed - more of a summary of events.  Extracts from John's diary are interspersed here and there which make it more interesting.

All in all I'm very glad I read this book.  I enjoyed the memories it sparked of the thrill of hearing an amazing piece of music for the first time when I was just a teenager, I loved hearing John Peel's voicce come alive again as I read it.  And I was listening to 6 Music today as Tom Ravenscroft  (John's son) was doing the afternoon show, and he mentioned Robert  Wyatt - one of John's favourite musicians whose amazing version of 'Biko' I first heard on the John Peel show - and it felt very apt.

4 comments:

  1. I'm not a great biography person, but I'd like his book, just because he came from Liverpool and, like you say, I can imagine him writing in the same way he used to talk. Good review.

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    1. Thanks for popping by again! I'm not a big reader of biographies either - I try and read things outside my comfort zone sometimes but I do prefer settling down with a good detective novel!

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  2. Hi Sarah - found you via Angel Jem's blog and enjoying reading a few back posts this morning. I wasn't aware of this book - glad you wrote about it. I was a big fan of John Peel growing up and then, by coincidence, ended up teaching his kids when we were in East Anglia, so met him and Sheila at parents' evenings. Tom was a somewhat reluctant student so I'm glad he has made a career out of music.

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    1. Wow - thank you for your comment - how interesting to have met the family! I'd love to know what you think of the book if you ever read it.

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I'm not sure if anyone reads this. But if you do, and you'd like to comment, I'd get very excited. And would try to reply. Thanks!