I was walking through Selfridges’glossy magazine section when I was stopped in my tracks by
The Keep's magazine quirky cover.
When I flicked through this first edition I noticed the Commissioning Editor is
Iain Finlayson, which compelled me to buy it.
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Iain Finlayson |
Mr Finlayson, an author who moonlights as a book reviewer has written several books including the sublime
Tangier: City of the dream.
And when I saw
The Keep’s contributors include the interesting writer
Duncan Fallowell and GQ editor
Dylan Jones OBE, trustee of the Hay Festival I was intrigued.
The Keep,
a stronghold of ambitious thinking and artistic excellence; a treasury of new writing, iconic images, exciting ideas and creative imagination is published by Hay & Wye CIC, and intends to be a biannual magazine published in the deep winter and late spring of each year.
It could also just be described as Hay-on-Wye’s new literary magazine, as there are substantial extracts from some of the festival’s Hay based authors’ new books which enticed me to buy them: namely
Under the Tump by
Oliver Balch and
Tom Bullough’s Addlands.
Hay resident
Soma Ghosh wrote the sizzling
Death of an Idol:My Strangest Relationship article after Prince’s death on the Keep’s website. In the printed first edition, she interviews Hay based, fellow ex-Soho clubber
Nina Lyon at length about her new book
Uprooted: On the Trail of the Green Man.
The Keep isn’t purely a promotional vehicle for Hay based authors’ new books though. The magazine is illustrated with photographs of prize-winning quality, which should make the National Portrait Gallery drool; all of which definitely helps make this first issue a collector’s item. Grab it while you can. (Also available from The Shop on the
Keep Magazine website).
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Soma Ghosh |