{"id":5543,"date":"2026-09-10T15:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T14:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/?p=5543"},"modified":"2026-09-10T15:46:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T14:46:17","slug":"cosy-rebel-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/archive\/cosy-rebel-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Cosy Rebel, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a>Saturday 22nd<\/sup> August 2026<\/em>. To the Betsey Trotwood in Farringdon, London, for the first outing of the Dickon Edwards Diary Show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dickon Edwards, London, 22 Aug 2026. Photo by Travis Elborough.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rather than have a straightforward launch-style event at which to sell the slightly improved second edition of my book (Diary at the Centre of the Earth Vol 1, 1997-2007)<\/em>, I devised a salon about diaries as a whole, with my book as one of several examples. For this first outing in London, I added my own selections from the diaries of Virginia Woolf, Samuel Pepys, Derek Jarman, and Helen Garner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Svelte Lectures is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as myself onstage, there was a host to ask me questions (Travis Elborough), two actor friends reading (Victoria Redfern as Woolf and Garner, Rob Wringham as Pepys and Jarman), plus three DJ friends to provide a suitable ambience before and after the performance (Shanthi Sivanesan, Ian Watson, Alex Mayor).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex M later said that this format was \u2018Like BBC Four, but in a room\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was going to call the event \u2018Club Dickon\u2019, but Victoria R said that sounded like an invitation to have me bludgeoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it turned out, the event was something between Dickon Edwards, This is Your Life<\/em> and an early birthday party, given I was about to turn 55. I rarely have actual birthday parties, and will tell you about what I did<\/em> do on my birthday on the 3rd<\/sup> September in a subsequent instalment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But at the Betsey event I was delighted to reunite with unexpected people from across different chapters of my history, all of whom I hadn\u2019t seen for some time. These included Rachel Stevenson, of my band Fosca, whom I first met at indiepop gigs in the early 1990s, and Professor Joseph Brooker, of Birkbeck University, who co-supervised my PhD thesis from 2017 to 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travis E secured the venue for us. The Betsey Trotwood was perfect: the site of indiepop club nights in the past like Track & Field. But architectually appropriate too: a colourful and ornate survivor of London past, a sign of independent humanity on a traffic island amid the harsh corporate buildings that speckle the Farringdon Road, not least the UK headquarters of Linkedin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This area of London is Dickens country, with Saffron Hill from Oliver Twist <\/em>around the corner, and Betsey Trotwood herself a Dickens character. How apt, then, to have the LinkedIn building glowering at the Betsey from across the road; LinkedIn, that unlovely employment website where human beings are forced to jump through digital hoops against their will in order to prevent poverty. The current incarnation, in fact, of the Dickens workhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do not know the Betsey\u2019s manager, Patrick, but in an email to Travis he said he \u2018knew Dickon\u2019s late brother Tom very well\u2019, and so was happy to let us use the venue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am rather touched by this, and so is my mother when I tell her on the phone. I talk to Mum about my improving confidence in public speaking. She adds that when were were both small children, it was me who was more keen on performing than Tom. In the primary school nativity play, I demanded to be made Head Angel. I can still remember the dance moves. And I remember that I was the only boy angel, too; all the others were girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom, on the other hand, was so reluctant to go on stage that the school had to find him the least prominent role possible. Mum says, \u2018In the end they made him a non-speaking camel.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Betsey, Ian Watson thanks me for a particular diary quote I had passed on. He says he found it useful when he was struggling to write his comic novel, The Tunnels<\/em>, which has just come out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quote is from the diary of Christopher Isherwood, and is a good tip for writer\u2019s block:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every day I get some more of the book done. It\u2019s hopeless, almost incoherent, but that doesn\u2019t matter; one NEVER regrets writing anything. The jungle is being cleared.<\/em> \u2013 Christopher Isherwood, diary, 6 Jan 1974.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recommend Ian\u2019s book The Tunnels<\/em>, by the way: by far my favourite novel to feature Boney M references and grumpy minotaurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As the event begins, Shanthi plays \u2018He\u2019s a Rebel\u2019, the 1960s hit by The Crystals, produced by Phil Spector. It is her affectionate reference to me. I have not really thought of myself as a rebel. But I suppose I must be by default, in a weird and soft sort of way. I recall how the main biography about Phil Spector is also titled He\u2019s a Rebel<\/em>, and how Spector spoke with a lisp, like me. When people mocked the way Spector spoke, he would pull a gun on them. This same reflex eventually led to him being jailed for murder. That\u2019s where I hope, at least, that my rebel aspect diverges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wonder if I can count as a cosy<\/em> rebel? The biggest book trend right now is for \u2018cosy crime\u2019. Murder mysteries in comforting English settings, usually by an author called Richard. There is Richard Osman from the cosy BBC show Pointless<\/em>, andRichard Coles, the Communards musician turned cosy BBC vicar. The trend may partially be the fault of Richard Curtis, of Love Actually <\/em>and Four Weddings<\/em>, whose name has been associated with fictional English cosiness for some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I too am a Richard (my official name), so by rights I should try writing a cosy English novel. I certainly enjoy afternoon tea and avoiding swearwords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Betsey I tell Ian Watson, who is a veteran music journalist, that perhaps I could draw on my background of 1990s indiepop for a cosy crime story. Murder in the Kentish Town Bull and Gate<\/em>! At midnight, found dead in a pool of cider and black: the editor of a weekly music paper!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ian says there\u2019d be too many suspects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be continued…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appeal: My total earnings for last month was under \u00a3100. Hastings Job Centre say they do not have anything for someone with my \u2018high end qualifications\u2019, as they put it. So please do take out a paid Substack subscription<\/a> or donate to the diary site if you can. A paid subscription gives you access to all the carefully polished Svelte Lecture posts from the past, but more importantly it is a direct means of proving that you think my work is enjoyable, and that it should continue. And indeed, that I should continue. Thank you!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

**
This online diary was begun in 1997. It is thought to be the longest running of its kind. The archive contains over twenty years of exclusive knowledge, all searchable and free to read without adverts or algorithms or clickbait. It depends entirely on donations by readers to keep it going. Thank you!
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Saturday 22nd August 2026. To the Betsey Trotwood in Farringdon, London, for the first outing of the Dickon Edwards Diary Show. Rather than have a straightforward launch-style event at which to sell the slightly improved second edition of my book (Diary at the Centre of the Earth Vol 1, 1997-2007), I devised a salon about diaries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5543"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5548,"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5543\/revisions\/5548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}