My List: York-based writer Miles Salter
Miles Salter is a York-based writer, journalist, musician, educator and storyteller – and former director of the York Literature Festival. He fronts a band called Miles and the Chain Gang. Miles will be launching his latest book, The Pretenders: A Dangerous Band, in November.
I’m currently reading: Finding the time is always the obstacle. I have an increasingly lengthy list of books which I want to get into. Now, of all things, it’s a brilliant new biography of Dame Barbara Cartland, the novelist. Over her long career she published hundred of books and proudly proclaimed that she could dash off 8,000 words a day – all dictated, of course, and now handwritten or typed. Hence the title The Great Dictator, and it’s by Matthew Sweet, a very generous and well-crafted account of the life of this remarkable woman. Cartland’s books were so popular that only the Bible, Shakespeare and Agatha Christie outsold her. I was a reader from a very young age, and the library in Amersham in Buckinghamshire (which is where I was brought up) was my haunt for many, many Saturday mornings. But it wasn’t what you’d call ‘great literature,’ Dungeons and Dragons and Stephen King were far more to my taste. But I did also read The Handmaid’s Tale, and then later on I turned to a lot of George Orwell at around 13, and he later became my thesis material at university. I suppose that non-fiction is what I enjoy the best, and I am not a great fan (to say the least) of certain authors who churn out pulp stuff, and in unbelievably bad prose. I met some wonderful authors and writers when I was running the York Literary Festival, and there were some who were not so amenable as well. One of the standouts was Germain Greer, who had infinite patience in answering questions and in signing her books for her fans. When I remarked afterwards that she had been wonderful, she merely smiled and said, “the encounter matters.” Which is so true. Two other authors I enjoy and admire are Jon Ronson, and Robert Harris, who is both a brilliant writer – and talker.
I’ve been listening to: My interest in music was boosted by my dad coming home one day, with a large cardboard box of vinyl that he’d found in a rented property he had to clear out after it was vacated. There was a lot of stuff which didn’t interest me at all, much of it pretty mundane, but there, alongside all the dross were two LPs. One was by Police, and the other by The Pretenders, and that was the true beginning of my passion for both bands. My other two artists, right there at the very top, are Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen. Dylan, it seems to me, plays for himself – he really doesn’t give a damn what other people think about him or his music, and he has complete integrity. Anyway, cut to many years down the line, and I really did think that there was a good documentary to be made about The Pretenders, and we were quite a long way down the line – this was the time of Covid. Then we went into what I’ll call “production hell,” and I realised that the project would be a book about them and if I say so myself, it’s one heck of a story, and I managed to get to interview so many people, making so many notes on our conversations in the process. I once saw The Pretenders at the York Barbican, which is one of my favourite venues, and despite all the restrictions, I managed to wriggle my way to about ten feet away from the stage. I left that place with tears in my eyes, it was so emotional.
On TV, I’ve been watching: Not a great deal, because there’s often nothing that I really fancy. I enjoy finding documentaries that pop up quite by chance – there was one on a few weeks back about a guy who found a bear, and who befriended the creature, and that was heartwarming. Some things pop up in the most unexpected places, such as a piece on BBC 4, on the director Alfred Hitchcock, which was filmed in front of a live audience at the National Film Theatre in the sixties. He was, of course, brilliant – but so were the questions, which mainly came from very earnest young people who were highly intelligent. Would that be the case today, I wonder?
The live performance I’d recommend is: That Pretenders encounter – it will live in my memory forever. Oh, and I saw the Sex Pistols play in Scarborough this summer gone. Brilliant. The Open Air Theatre is one of Yorkshire’s best live music venues, in my opinion.
My next boxed set or streamed series will be (or was….): If I could have re-runs of both Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, I’d be a very happy man indeed. They are both so brilliantly written and acted, and they form their own television gold. Sheer screen genius.
The App I couldn’t be without is: There’s one onto which I put my reading list, which never ever seems to get any the shorter. Then there’s WhatsApp for staying connected with friends, family and contacts, and there’s Spotify. I think that’s quite enough.
What is right at the top of your “To do” Bucket list?: It would be beyond words to meet Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, and I’d love to have a long, long lunch with Robert Harris. And, because of the last, and his love of all things Roman, I’d like the opportunity at some point, to actually visit Pompei. The other place that fascinates me is Alaska.
The Pretenders: A Dangerous Band, is published November 1. Miles Salter will give a talk about his book at Topping and Company, York on November 10.