Lemady: Episodes of a Writer's Life [Hardcover]

Lemady is subtitled Episodes of a Writer's Life and is a rambling, idiosyncratic stream of consciousness discourse which is probably the closest Keith Roberts ever came to writing an autobiography. Roberts is famous as the author of Pavane, an alternate history novel that brought him fame (though little fortune). Many of his other novels are worthy though they are very hard to find having been published mainly by very small presses with very limited print runs (though Wildside Press has brought several of the rarer novels back into print and they are now easily obtainable through Amazon.Com). One reason for this was Robert's rather irascible character - he had a positive genius for alienating his colleagues and sometimes he seemed to go out of his way to be difficult. Lemady contains its moments of bitchiness (he is quite scathing about Kerosina, a small press which almost single handedly kept many of his books in print in the 1970s) - but despite this a certain grace shines through. Nobody who could write such beautiful novels can be entirely devoid of soul and insight. Many of the obituaries published on his death concentrated on the negative aspects of his character - it seemed that even after he was dead, Roberts kept the enemies that he made in life, and those enemies proved to be very unforgiving. Well; distance lends enchantment. I never met Roberts, but I admired his books hugely and Lemady adds an extra dimension that I for one am very pleased to have discovered.

Subtitled "Episodes of a Writer's Life", Lemady is a fascinating and idiosyncratic fusion of fact and fantasy that records some key events and encounters in Roberts' life. Although, from one perspective, the narrative can be perceived as a personal record, it also features a fictional character, the Lemady of the title, who interacts with Roberts as he remembers. Truth and fantasy are therefore never what they seem; one becomes the other and the reader must decide where real life finishes and fiction begins. Not a major Roberts work, but essential for anyone interested in what makes the author tick.