Is Shane MacGowan Still Alive? Book

Lincolnshire-born Leeds United fan Tim Bradford claims no Irish blood, but is well qualified to write about Irishry having spent years propping up West London bars wearing a leather jacket and clutching a pint of Guinness. Vaguely based on misguided jaunts to Ireland in 1998 to try and sell his Vauxhall Corsa, Is Shane MacGowan Still Alive? casts him as a Kerouac figure (albeit one who spends more time in the pub than on the road). The book has the potential to be an edgy-but-funny travelogue, but as the preface forewarns, maybe instead you should "think of it as a rambling pub conversation...".Bradford angrily criticises the Irish theme pubs trend as "a fake validation of the ridiculously chirpy good-time Oirish vibe", while at the same time including a garish full-colour picture of a leprechaun and a string of frivolous anecdotes and cheap gags about "tramps", potatoes, hurling, potatoes, priests, potatoes, bombs, tinkers and potatoes. Since Bradford's fame is as a cartoonist for football fanzine When Saturday Comes, the flippant text is peppered with back-of-beermat doodles, silly crosswords and the like. Those who want humorous travels in Irishry with more plot might prefer Tony Hawks' Round Ireland with a Fridge or Ardal O'Hannlon's amusing novel The Talk of the Town, since Bradford's diary is closer to an Irish joke book to be found in a tacky souvenir shop...Right, whose round is it? --Sarah ChampionRead More