Parting Shot

8 p.m. My Flat, Brockley, South East London.

To be honest this wonderful book has been sat on the table next to me sofa for the last two weeks and I was originally going to post an article about at the time, but I felt that with the amount of alcohol I had consumed at the time and the emotions of the occasion from the leaving party I had just arrived home from it was best to let the dust settle.

So, a day after leaving my job, here is this wonderful book that I had staggered through the streets of central London clutching and onto the last train to New Cross after an evening that realised not everyone in the shop I formerly worked in couldn't stand me. I could easily write a whole post on the politics of working in a large bookshop with over thirty booksellers, but I shan't. Instead, I shall say a simple Thank You to the people of Blackwell, Charing Cross Road for such a thoughtful gift.

So, to the book. This is a fitting tribute to one of Hollywood's finest actors of the last thirty years, but whose photography is sadly very underrated. From wonderful late 50's Americana, to the streets of Los Angeles, the civil rights marches in the South, to candid shots from film sets and art galleries and a very nice Portrait of Sir Peter Blake.

I had only discovered his photography a couple of years ago, but since then his work has been a constant inspiration and I had even somehow never realised that his photograph Biker Couple, 1961 had been subsequently used for The Smiths Best Of So, that's it.''We did it, man. We did it, we did it. We're rich, man. We're retirin' in Florida now, mister."