Something of the Night
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Who can say what the night might bring? Mummy tucking you up with Teddy and a cup of Ovaltine? Fireworks and frivolity? A party? Music? Dancing? Or you could be reading in bed, between clean linen sheets before falling into deep and restful sleep and sweet dreams. And who knows; the night might bring romance, or love, or sex, if you play your cards right. Or you might be working; millions of people work at night. If nobody worked at night, Britain would cease to function. Or the night might be cold, haunted, inhuman and wild. When you look up into the night sky, you see that you are nothing. An insignificant mote of dust. Or the night could be all too human. Hen parties in skimpy dresses and fairy wings being slammed into the back of a police van; girls working on street corners in the part of town where the lights don't come on; businessmen going to lap-dancing clubs to forget what waits at home. Or you could die. Most people do die at night. Or you could just lie awake and wait for the dawn. Set over the course of an intoxicated night in a house up a mountain in West Cork, Ian Marchant offers a darkly funny account of what people get up to at night, explores his own experience of a life of night times, and shows us how we all have something of the night about us.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The chances of an episodic autobiographical ramble by a pop music obsessive who delights in describing his experiences of skinning up, pissing and failing to exploit the possibilities of Soho massage parlours appealing to me, a church-going lover of classical music, would seem to be slim. Yet I really enjoyed 'Something of the Night', because time and again as I turned the pages I found myself having light-bulb moments of recognition: 'I've been there!'; 'I did that!' or 'I know how that feels!'. I have to admit that this was partly because Ian Marchant's path and mine have actually crossed with spooky frequency, so some of my pleasure in the book is peculiar to me. But still... how how come he can not only recapture for me my teenage passion for David Cassidy, but explain more clearly than I ever understood at the time why 'How can I be sure?' is a fantastic song by any standards? And convey the appeal of Evensong in an Anglican cathedral more vividly than I could do myself? As for the discourse on the rise and fall of the linen industry in Northern Ireland... is he seeing into my head? Are we the most unlikely kindred spirits imaginable? I enjoyed Ian's earlier book 'Parallel Lines', about railway journeys, but 'Something of the Night' is not only more carefully edited but also a lot more personal. I cried, which I certainly didn't expect to do. Don't approach this book with any preconceptions - just go with Ian on his journey through the dark hours, and enjoy.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I am a slow reader. I read almost embarrassingly slowly. For starters there is very little of the night about me. As a sound sleeper, and very much a `morning person' I seldom see more than the beginning and the end of the night. I usually manage about three pages of whatever I've downloaded onto my Kindle before the blurred vision kicks in and I fall asleep. So it's a testament to Ian Marchant's unique mix of laugh out loud humour, mind boggling general knowledge, and raw, brutal emotion that I was able to rip through his latest offering in just a few days.
Something of the Night is Marchant's best yet. A long drunken discussion with an old friend in a cottage in Ireland forms the framework for his subject matter - those things that occur in, or are related to the hours of darkness. He covers everything from 1980's pop music to near earth objects in a beautifully random fashion almost like a stream of consciousness, interweaving personal experience and many of his own `darkest hours before dawn'. Somehow he writes about himself, without seeming `up himself' - as ever he's self effacing, thought provoking and always funny.
By 5am his friend Neil is snoring like `an espresso machine trying to blow up a whoopee cushion' but then he's had 10 pints of strong continental lager, and even if I had too, I reckon this book could have held my attention.
Something of the Night is Marchant's best yet. A long drunken discussion with an old friend in a cottage in Ireland forms the framework for his subject matter - those things that occur in, or are related to the hours of darkness. He covers everything from 1980's pop music to near earth objects in a beautifully random fashion almost like a stream of consciousness, interweaving personal experience and many of his own `darkest hours before dawn'. Somehow he writes about himself, without seeming `up himself' - as ever he's self effacing, thought provoking and always funny.
By 5am his friend Neil is snoring like `an espresso machine trying to blow up a whoopee cushion' but then he's had 10 pints of strong continental lager, and even if I had too, I reckon this book could have held my attention.
7 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Something of the Night is a semi-autobiographical book by Ian Marchant, exploring Britain's night time activities. Each chapter investigates something different, whether it's bonfires and fireworks, life at motorway service stations, drunken nights out, Soho's ladies of the night and other goings-on under the cover of darkness.
Just a short step into the book I realised the author lives just over the hills from me, though, admittedly, "just over the hills" is still nearly an hour's journey away due to our lovely country lanes and roads. Put it this way, when you live in a county where there's more sheep than people, "local" covers quite an area!
Still, it was great to see names of local places popping up every now and then as this area generally just doesn't exist (although ex-MP Lemsip, sorry... Opik Lembit put us on the map a few years ago). Even local news has to be quite big to nudge past the North & South Wales news on the local bulletins.
Something of the Night isn't just about what Mr Marchant gets up to when it gets dark, he also provides us with some history, facts and figures along the way too. His drunken friend Neil also comes along for the journey through Something of the Night, even though he thinks Marchant's previous book was called `The Longest Mile' (It's `The Longest Crawl' - a book about a massive pub crawl!). We also get quite an insight into Ian Marchant's musical tastes (somewhat before my time though, I must admit!).
If you're after an easy read with some history and some laughs along the way, then I'd recommend giving Something of the Night a go. It's an enjoyable read.
Just a short step into the book I realised the author lives just over the hills from me, though, admittedly, "just over the hills" is still nearly an hour's journey away due to our lovely country lanes and roads. Put it this way, when you live in a county where there's more sheep than people, "local" covers quite an area!
Still, it was great to see names of local places popping up every now and then as this area generally just doesn't exist (although ex-MP Lemsip, sorry... Opik Lembit put us on the map a few years ago). Even local news has to be quite big to nudge past the North & South Wales news on the local bulletins.
Something of the Night isn't just about what Mr Marchant gets up to when it gets dark, he also provides us with some history, facts and figures along the way too. His drunken friend Neil also comes along for the journey through Something of the Night, even though he thinks Marchant's previous book was called `The Longest Mile' (It's `The Longest Crawl' - a book about a massive pub crawl!). We also get quite an insight into Ian Marchant's musical tastes (somewhat before my time though, I must admit!).
If you're after an easy read with some history and some laughs along the way, then I'd recommend giving Something of the Night a go. It's an enjoyable read.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Entertaining, meandering, intriguing
I admire Marchant's work enormously, though this perhaps is not his best: it is a little rambling in places, funny and poignant, but occasionally underwhelming. Read more
Published 2 months ago by mike y
Full of wit, humanity, sadness and hope
I've read and enjoyed Ian Marchant's books over the past few years. He's an amusing writer, and an amiable guide to whatever topic he chooses, being neither facile nor... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Esther Stephens
Not quite up to snuff...
Am a huge fan of Marchant (fiction, non-fiction and music - particularly his university band, the Prime Movers, who were extraordinarily fine) - but found myself just slightly... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Ivan Zehdra-Maychayne
Darkly funny and poignant
I didn't know what to expect from this book, but I was in no way disappointed. One of its strengths is its combination of narrative, fact and reflection, which makes it immensely... Read more
Published 4 months ago by CM
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