Seeing what they want to see: An interview with Michael Bracewell

Abstract

Writer, novelist and cultural commentator Michael Bracewell was born in London in 1958 and educated at the University of Nottingham. He has written several novels and many works of non-fiction, including books about artists Gilbert & George and Richard Hamilton, and bands such as Roxy Music. England Is Mine: Pop Life in Albion from Wilde to Goldie () and When Surface Was Depth: Death by Cappuccino and Other Reflections on Music and Culture in the 1990s () were much more ambitious and wide-ranging volumes that roamed popular music, culture and society, whilst his 2021 title Souvenir: London, 1979–1986 was a more reflective book which intrigued by the way Bracewell wrote around music, without engaging directly with it. It was in response to Souvenir that I interviewed the author, although since my questions were sent to him he has not only helped bring the new Gilbert & George Centre in East London to completion, but also published a new novel, Unfinished Business.