Up Against It

By Mark Binmore

The official tag.
An account of my publicity tour to advertise a book and musical workshop by Chris Henson recorded in words and pictures, as we travelled and promoted.    
The unofficial tag.  

Up Against It is the book that possibly, finally puts a writer under the  microscope following the launch of a book. A creative analysis of promotion, it examines topics such as what it takes for a book to get  read, the encouragement it entails and what lays behind the scenes of everything promotional. As well as a keen critical edge, the book along with its predecessors Tour De Europa and Versus America gives dialogue, gossip, scandal and word for word conversations are unearthed and reexamined.  

In an attempt to uncover the heart of sales, Up Against It rummages frantically through an impossible film script, a publishing dinner, various book signings, radio interviews, a recording  session, a London rehearsal and the launch of a theatre workshop. It is also a partial history, respect and love of friendship. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark Binmore
• Release date: Aug 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215928745

Book preview

Chris Henson with Mark Binmore

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

Johnny I’m Sorry

Private Places

Published by Fontana

First published in Great Britain by Kindlight 2018

Copyright ©Chris Henson 2018

This Edition ©Chris Henson 2021

––––––––

The right of Anonymous to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and publisher of this book

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

'She covered her face with powder and paint because she didn’t need it, and she refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn’t boring.

She was conscious that the things she did were the things she had always wanted to do.'

Zelda Fitzgerald

The official tag.

An account of my publicity tour to advertise a book and theatre-music workshop by Chris Henson recorded in words, as we travelled and promoted. 

The unofficial tag.  

Up Against It is the book that possibly, finally puts a writer under the microscope following the launch of a book. A creative analysis of promotion, it examines topics such as what it takes for a book to get read, the encouragement it entails and what lays behind the scenes of everything promotional. As well as a keen critical edge, the book along with its predecessors Tour De Europa and Versus America gives dialogue, gossip, scandal with word for word conversations unearthed and reexamined. 

In an attempt to uncover the heart of sales, Up Against It rummages frantically through an impossible film script, a publishing dinner, various book signings, radio interviews, a recording session, a London rehearsal and the launch of a theatre workshop.

It is also a partial history, respect and love of friendship.

Introduction.

With Kate Robins.

When he was 8,  Mark Binmore wanted to be a ballet dancer. He saw Giselle and (he thinks) Coppélia. He was so impressed, he checked out Teach Yourself Ballet from the library, joined a local dance school and attempted to learn at home.

'I used the radiator as a barre,' Mark, said on the phone from London. The impulse, though, didn’t last. 'I moved on and decided I wanted to be an actor,' he said. 'And then I thought I might have the potential for being a writer, but I never had a problem with being written about.'

It takes me a little while to find Chris Henson's house. That's not because it's hidden, but it's difficult to spot because it was once part of another, bigger house and from the outside the division isn't clear. Though I'm looking directly at it, I manage to walk it past several times.

Once I get inside and see the exposed brick wall that divides the property, it strikes me that a house like this is the perfect place for a man like Chris to live, a man whose two books about fellow friend and writer Mark Binmore, demanded that he form an honest friendship with the subject while keeping his journalistic integrity safely zoned away.

Was there tension here? It's a question he has been asked a lot since the books were published.

'Everyone was very obsessed with asking how I could ever write anything honest about someone if I was effectively their mate,' Chris says. 'And I don't think they ever believed the answer, but the answer's completely true: that I just think we both intuitively knew the kind of thing that I would write and we were both really comfortable with it.'

Tour De Europa and Versus America, two books which follow Mark Binmore on an author’s journey in sight of promotion do not read like standard books. They don’t read like anything. By concentrating on reportage, reducing authorial comment and using montage techniques, Chris manages to paint a more detailed portrait. Mark emerges as an egocentric, neurotic nightmare; a talented, vivacious, exciting writer; a generous friend and an irresponsible brat; a manic-depressive unsuited to the demands of his success and a media whore who can't get enough attention despite hating it. And yet he comes across as completely approachable and someone you would like to meet and be with. Chris lets his subject live and breathe, and by the end of both books, it's clear that Mark's contradictions reveal, in part, the phenomenon of modern author. It probably helped that Chris hadn't set out to write a book about Mark.

'I had completed my own novel and we shared the same editor. We met by accident and hit it off straightaway. For a long time, I'd been looking to write something based on reportage about a world I could get completely into. But I'd been trying to avoid making it something to do with writing and promoting a book, because that's where I came from and I wasn't sure it was a smart thing.'

They discovered they shared a love of good food, shopping, gossip and shoes, and started hanging out.

'This led to a call from his publishers, who asked if I would follow Mark on his first major European tour and see what happens. An original idea was a kind of scrapbook but it just evolved from there.  With the first book, people always comment it should be titled Tour D’Europa, but it’s not for a reason. The book sold well and so when his American tour was finalized I was asked again. If I hadn't thought I could do something really honest about him, I wouldn't have entertained it. But the more time we spent together, it was quite obvious that we were doing much more than a simple behind the scenes article.'

Both books are so much more.

'Artistes would always take photographers on tour and so, just to be different I guess, Mark decided to take a writer instead. We did decide on a 99-page photo-book and that I'd do some captions and some kind of essay, but for me this was a chance to do the thing I really wanted to do. So, I wrote the book that I wanted to write without telling him, and then I said, 'Well, this is what I've done, I’ve called it Tour De Europa.' And he was horrified. But he liked it.'

As he completed sections of the second book, Chris gave them to Mark to read, and they went through the manuscript together in its entirety before handing it to the publisher.

'It was hard. He was very disciplined about it, though he didn't enjoy it particularly. Some bits he thought were very funny, but there were a lot of things in the book which were very painful for him. They caused him pain when they happened, he hated them coming up for the book, and he didn't want to think about them a third time.'

Is it true that you wrote a book about last years book promotion which will never come out?

'I don’t think I’m sure where the manuscript is. It might even be in the cellar below us.'

Why didn’t it come out?

'Well, it was too much like the previous book. Also, there was too much stuff that couldn’t be printed. (He laughs) I think its going to published posthumously. There’s another one too, actually, from when we went to Spain.  I don’t know where that manuscript is either. It’s not that the content is shocking, necessarily, just what everyone says about other people. Mark would say, 'I’m sure I would never say such a thing about so and so,' and I would reply, 'Yes you did.'

So, what is the plan for this book? 

'It should be different, but it’s a great formula. This time around Mark isn’t just promoting a new book. There’s a record, a theatre workshop, new publishers, new book editions, a possible film. I'm aware that the easiest thing for me to do would be to write another book along the same lines.'

But that might change.

'I learnt very young in life that perhaps nothing was forever, sometimes life meant being disillusioned. But we usually push side these thoughts and cater on, hopefully. Although we lived in the hills and could see the sea, we rarely spent time down on the coast but when we did I can remember those days so vividly. It was always summer, bright glorious sunshine and the beaches seemed wider, sandier and calmer than those in England. Standing on the beach, the sea resembled a golden sheet of blue, the sun sparkling off its coat of blue which was interjected with streaks of chalk white. I remember bare feet submerging in the cool water, the salty smell of the sand, lazy days of summer.

For hours we would sit and stare at the ocean, not a word passing between us. Water flapping lightly at the shoreline, the odd individual fisherman setting up his rods and wares to catch a piece for his dinner. 

Shells were sought, washed and packed ready to take home and place around the terrace. Big shells, tiny pink ones, shards of blue mussel and, the most prized of all, limper shells with conical tops. The day on the beach was never complete by an achievement or a desire. In a vain attempt to relive a childhood memory we would sometimes build a fort, our own castle. Surveying the results at the end of the day proved quite an accomplishment.  Until the tide turned and washed away what you had created. One always felt unprepared for the destruction of the fort.  We do not learn. 

We always believe it will stand and be okay for us. 

That our fort will survive, the tide will never turn. 

But of course, it does.' 

Mark Binmore. Beautiful Deconstruction.

'I love you,' he says.... 'I've been in love with you for weeks.'

'There's no such thing,' she says. 'It's a rhetorical device. It's a bourgeois fallacy.'

'Haven't you ever been in love, then?'

'When I was younger,' she says, 'I allowed myself to be constructed by the discourse of romantic love for a while, yes.'

I am with Mark, sat on his terrace at his city home. At Dusk by John Surman is playing in the background. He is reading from the 1988 book by David Lodge Nice Work revealing that this particular quote has inspired him to work on a new novel. But first there is the little matter of his current book to publish and push. 

'Beautiful Deconstruction is the book I needed to write. And in writing it, I believe I have at last found my context.'

Mark Binmore.

London. 

We are waiting for a magazine interviewer to arrive.

Promotion has begun. 

Sitting next to Mark, is the completed manuscript of his new book Beautiful Deconstruction. I asked him if he remembered writing it.

'Yes vividly,' Mark replied. 'I remember when I started, the idea, a story.  I wrote the first chapter which happily remains unedited and then wrote the last few pages so I knew, as usual, I had a journey to get to that point.  And it was a beautiful journey.' 

Then up he leaps, straightens his clothing and gently, almost involuntarily, he starts breathing the first lines under his breath. 

'The studio is dark; voices can be heard approaching its main doors. Soon, a flick of a switch brings light, which reveals a white walled room full of musical instruments of every shape and size, glistening under the rays thrust upon them, all fighting for space with a plethora of recording equipment already set up. The voices heard earlier, now file in through the doors. Musicians. The room falls silent as a piano lid is lifted to reveal black and white keys that stare back at the man now carefully placing his long fingers upon them. 'Okay chaps,' he says, 'Shall we give the first number a run through?'  The arranger had arrived, the process had begun...'

And, just for a moment, I’m sure he forgets I’m even there and slips back into the memory of creating a story about two men who live in France and have to return to England. And maybe, in a funny way, is a lot happier for it. 

'I was trying to break my ways of writing things,' he explains when he snaps back to reality. 'The words all came pretty quickly in one night. I got the story simultaneously. You often get a little snatch of things, a phrase that fits. I think it’s a subconscious thing really because I don’t sit round thinking I want to write a story about this. Sometimes I’ll get a title which gives me a place to start. It happened with this book. I had two words. The working title was Old Confetti (from a piece of prose I wrote 'fall and be free as old confetti') but it would have been too difficult to explain, there was no point.'

I mention that I thought the working title was Oak And Feather.

'Oak and feather? That sounds quite good. Fall and be free as oak and feather.  I might have to recycle that.'

'Obviously, people are going to look at my writing and read things into them,' Mark said once. Obviously, but he also maintained that he was 'completely misunderstood anyway.' Refusing to clarify the situation, he kept stressing that there was a difference between what he might do in private, and what he was prepared to say in public.'

Book Magazine.

The Interview.

Back in 2010, author Mark Binmore published a book and the soundtrack to his own life changed course and speed. The book, a collection of stories titled Even When Tonight Is Over was a surprising seller on America’s West Coast, and a minor success in France and Belgium. Republished just over a year later, it made an impact in Britain and several other countries worldwide. Mark Binmore had arrived. 

Although his working relationship with Stuart Arte, his original editor whom he worked with on his very first publication Beautiful Mess was short-lived (ending somewhat disagreeably with the latter relinquishing all contractual rights in return for a substantial royalty return on future book sales), linking up with the legendary writer and editor was a determining moment in the life of Mark. Stuart helped him define his unique style and art of writing. Two further books were composed then ultimately cancelled as his original management and publishers closed.  Having fulfilled his dreams of being part of the Stuart A story, Mark turned the writing around, slowed it down, speeded it up again, and made it into something new, without ever fully divorcing it from its generic roots. He also did something unthinkable: he signed a new UK deal, he turned down a lucrative American publishing deal in favour of a smaller publishing house and allowed friend and writer Chris Henson to come on board and compose two books about his life as a writer and the art of promotion. The results though paid off.  The truly ironic thing about Mark is that he has somehow managed to spin a career around the fears, the frustrations and (just occasionally) the fun of being young(ish), gifted and a gay writer.

'I’ve never said anything about my private life to the newspapers or to periodicals,' he told the Book Magazine in 2012. 'And I don’t intend to.'

And he hasn’t.

Until today, that is.

Today, Mark Binmore has something to tell me. Or at least that’s what I’ve been led to believe. The word is that Mark has decided to speak out about his private affairs, mainly to coincide with his latest book Beautiful Deconstruction so naturally I’ve been pushing for an opportunity to allow him to do just that. The only problem is, in all the discussions we’ve had setting up this interview, nobody knows exactly what he means. Not me. Not my editor. Not even Mark’s press officer, who suggested that he and I meet twenty minutes before Mark arrived. I was anticipating some kind of prep talk, something along the lines of 'Look, Mark has decided to do this interview after a lot of careful thought, so please respect his feelings and please, please be gentle with him.' Instead, we had a friendly chat about life and the media in general and nothing very much in particular.

So here we are then, Mark Binmore and I, forty-five minutes into our agreed two-hour session, we’ve discussed a lot of other, more public things, like why Mark decided to contribute to a charity book.

'I didn’t actually decide to do a charity book as such,' Mark informed me, a little crisply. 'I just had this idea of contributing something that hadn’t been released before and probably wouldn’t. That way, I knew I wouldn’t have any trouble getting it cleared by the publishers.'

We’ve talked about the Mark’s lyrical contribution to the forthcoming untitled-as-yet Milk album.

'Oh yes, the legendary Milk album. If they ever release it.  Well, I have always wanted to work with them, of course, because they are such a trademark. Milk! They’ve made it, really. Just one name. I was asked if I would like to work with them last year, they were interested in using some of my prose lyrics which had already been published but I was in the middle of writing and completing a new book. Then I found some other unpublished lyrics, and I thought, Oh, I should give this one to Milk. I thought the words were similar to their old stuff, which is exactly what they’re trying not to do, unfortunately, but I sent it to them anyway, and