One of Britain's most innovative comic poets ­ and a regular sell-out at The Edinburgh Festival ­ John Hegley (1953) has written a number of collections of poetry, ranging from the surreal to the humorous, the personal to the emotional. His first notable media exposure was in 1983/84 with The Popticians who appeared on the John Peel Sessions (BBC Radio One), performing songs about spectacles and the misery of human existence.

Join John Hegley for a marriage of poetry, tale-telling and songs drawn from his new book, Uncut Confetti: A Loose Collection of Celebratory Pieces (Methuen). In a quest to rediscover his continental roots, the poet visits the ancient carnival in Nice, puts on a mask and conjures the spirit of his French Folies Bergères-dancing Grandma. Then he lets loose in the streets for a knees-up. New poems, old potatoes... a stanza bonanza.

Uncut Confetti: A Loose Collection of Celebratory Pieces
Published to coincide with the release of a John Hegley CD, and yet another sell-out tour of the British Isles Uncut Confetti is a stunning volume of new work ­ from the funny to the sad, the personal to the philosophical ­ by one of Britain's best-loved and best-selling writers. The book has a very strong autobiographical strand, and in particular some poignant reflections on John's father who would have been 100 this year. There is also a running thread of animal-related poems, and the usual abundance of splendid drawings accompanied, unusually, by a photograph or two. The book itself is also rather remarkable: the cover has been printed directly onto board and, in a visual echo of its title, the text has been printed on a range of coloured papers. Perhaps John Hegley's most intimate and powerful work to date, Uncut Confetti is a book full of promise for everyone.

NME
'Bleeding marvelous'

The Sunday Times
'Scandalously talented'

BBC
'John Hegley is the funniest poet alive... he nearly made me wet my knickers.'

Further information:
www.johnhegley.co.uk

Bart Plantenga
Also appearing tonight is Bart Plantenga, Amsterdam-based radio DJ, musicologist and author of Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of Yodeling Around the World, who will present some weird yodeling stories and samples of yodeling from around the world. (There may also be a special guest yodeler giving a live performance...)

His book, which has received critical acclaim and coverage in the The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, De Volkskrant, VPRO, The Wire and the BBC, explores the origins of yodeling in Africa and Switzerland and looks at its many serious and ritualistic ­ and often amusing ­ uses around the world. In a highly entertaining style, Plantenga will talk on the development of yodeling in American country music, the Nazi Youth and Bollywood and its use by pop stars such as Gillian Welch, De La Soul and Sly & Family Stone, as well as explore New Guinean and West African Pygmy yodeling.

Plantenga is also a fiction author of numerous published books including Spermatagonia: The Isle of Man and Wiggling Wishbone: Stories of Pata-Sexual Speculation and writes for numerous music, pop and culture journals. His CD compilation Rough Guide to Yodel appeared in November 2006. He has been a DJ for 20 years now and continues at Amsterdam's only remaining pirate radio station, Radio Patapoe (FM 97.3), with his programme Wreck This Mess.

Washington Post
For 150-year-old academic publisher Routledge, a major release is usually a heavy classroom tome. But this fall it found itself with an uncharacteristic hit: Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of Yodeling Around the World by radio deejay Bart Plantenga, which has attracted an audience of hipsters that, says Marketing Director Frederic Nachbaur, has helped it sell more copies than many Routledge titles do in an entire run. The book traces the singing style to such unlikely places as Central Africa and Mexico, and dishes on its various adherents. Everyone from Sly and the friggin' Family Stone, the Fugees, De La Soul... to even the Velvet Underground have used yodels, Plantenga says.

Vanity Fair
'Plantenga cracks the secret history of yodeling wide open.'

Luc Sante
The hills are alive with the ululations of centuries of yodelers, whose echoes persist undyingly. Bart Plantenga shows how yodeling, which may be encoded in our DNA, is humanity's most open secret, linking Swabian and Farsi, mountain and atoll, cowboy and jazzbo. Like an errant carnival ride, his book is fun, head-spinning, and ontologically profound.

Further information:
www.routledge-ny.com

Language: English