chapped lips (part exposé) by P. Hope

from Wrong Revolution

FIRST EDITION OF 30 (Including a 1 hour CDR of readings by the author)

36 Page Chapbook/booklet - Handmade & constructed using 160 gsm paper and textured card jacket. Each copy is hand numbered & only this edition will feature the bonus CDR.

Despite writing prolifically since my mid teens I've never quite got round to publishing anything in a longer form than my lyrics. For some reason it's always seemed a big leap to make and I've always been very conscious that it's all too easy to be derivative and to adopt a voice rather than find my own. Over the last few years I've been constantly harangued by my good friend Richard D France, who himself has published several books, urging me to publish, publish, publish!

The first drafts of 'chapped lips' started by way of periodic emails to Richard. In this way I found that I was able to pace the intensity of the communication, adding and editing each section before sending it through for 'consideration'! At last I had found a way to say what i wanted in the way I wanted without feeling any pressure to conform to a traditional style or shape.

Richard's tireless badgering and encouragement finally worked and this winter has been spent fine tuning, arranging and constructing. We're really pleased that London's FREEDOM PRESS (the UK's oldest Anarchist bookshop) have already agreed to stock & there are some others in the pipeline.

Rather than try to come up with my own words to describe my own words (!!!), which I find more or less impossible, here are Richard's thoughts :-

"Just imagine if one had fallen into the cesspit of despair and analysed the stench on the way down then Pete Hope's book is an ideal companion for the journey to barren rock bottom. With words stretched and twisted beyond redemption, Pete writes with such a flair that recoils with intensity in exploring the dark side of the mind. A narrative that crashes into brick walls and rebounds with broken glass in your eyes, guided by a profound form of parley that will negate and disagree at every turn of the sentence.

It's a jarring and uneasy read and yet absorbing, for you want to know what's coming next as you are taken from one perpetual car crash to another with surprises and razor barbs along the way. I jolted in my seat with discomfort and yet wanting more for to relate his words to our reality of the 21st Century. This book is a refreshing reminder of why we should reject all the avariciousness of conventionalism and seek the true alternative.

Hope's writing brings to mind Hunter S Thompson on a very bad overdose while in raucous conversation with a trigger happy finger and being served lukewarm afternoon tea and mouldy cucumber sandwiches by the likes of William S Burroughs, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.

A must have read and truly refreshing in a world of drabness and overwhelming conventionalism."

Reader: Richard D France