The Other Other Jack

‘How old are you, exactly?’

‘Do you talk to other people in line for the bus or do you just eavesdrop for the cute overheard phrase?’

Above is a screenshot from a reading of the stage adaptation of The Other Jack, directed by James Dacre, with Jack (played by Nathaniel Parker) on the left and Robyn (played by Jasmine Blackborow) on the right. The script is by the US playwright and poet Dan O’Brien (CBe has published his poetry and essays). It’s based on the book of the same name by myself, published by CBe in 2021, with some material also coming from 99 Interruptions.

The reading can be streamed free on Vimeo until 22 April – you’ll need to register here with the Lortel Theatre, who will send you a link and a password. It’s an hour and a half long. We are busy people. If you’re pressed for time maybe fast-forward to the five minutes beginning at almost exactly one hour in (1:00).

The original book is loosely constructed around a series of conversations in cafés between a man (a writer, ageing) and a woman (a waitress, much younger). They talk ‘about books, mostly’, according to the cover, but also about ‘bonfires, clichés, dystopias, failure, happiness, jokes, justice, privilege, publishing, rejection, self-loathing, shoplifting and umbrellas’. The man is me, or is me as much as Jack Robinson is me, and here I am being evasive again, something that Robyn picks me up on. The play is not the book and I could say that the Jack in the play is not me but Dan O’Brien’s script is self-effacingly faithful to the book so it is me, whether I like it or not. On the left, smug ageing writer; on the right, young woman concocted to demonstrate writer's self-awareness of his smugness – so that's all right then. There’s something monstrous here.

Newsletter April 2025

[Photo of early CBe books by Martina Geccelli]

Invisible Dogs was on the shortlist for the Republic of Consciousness Prize and that was a Good Thing. Congratulations to the winner, Bullaun Press, publisher of Gaëlle Bélem, There’s a Monster Behind the Door, translated from the French by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert. This prize is designed to reward small presses rather than individual authors or books, and by being on the shortlist CBe nets £1,500, which is more than helpful.

A not-so-good thing is that the distributor has raised charges (i.e, the percentage deducted from sales income on every book sold out of the distributor’s warehouse before it’s passed on to the publisher). And has instituted a new charge on books that sell zero copies over a 3-month period. This charge will affect a large number of CBe titles – currently including books by, among others, Caroline Clark, J. O. Morgan, Beverley Bie Brahic, Roy Watkins, Jack Robinson (me), Dai Vaughan, Nuzhat Bukhari, David Wheatley, Julian Stannard, Dan O’Brien – and potentially, given that in the current 3-month period many other titles are selling only one or two copies, and in the next period may not even do that, many more. Selling small and slow and sometimes zero for 3 months is what many CBe titles do, and I’m fine with that, but I’m being charged here for the privilege of not making money.

Another not-good-thing: two weeks ago I was whacked on the head by a bear that had woken up from hibernation in a grumpy mood. A bone in my neck is fractured and I’ll be wearing a neck brace for some time. This will be a slow year. Two titles published already – 2016, Mrs Calder and the Hyena – and just two to follow. In September, Patrick McGuinness: Ghost Stations: Essays and Branchlines. And 99 Interruptions, published in 2022, is down to just a few copies and needs reprinting, but instead there’ll be a revised and expanded edition: 176 Interruptions.

Bonus extra: a reading of Dan O'Brien's stage adaptation of The Other Jack (with some of 99 Interruptions in there too) is free to sream from the off-Broadway Lucille Lortel Theatre from 8th to 22nd April. Link here. 'There are flirtations, arguments, spilt coffee, deaths both in life and in fiction, generational and gender and cultural conflict, rain and laughter.' Actors: Jasmine Blackborrow, Nathaniel Parker; directed by James Dacre.

I can still walk down to the post office and I need the exercise so please give me a reason. See the website (which includes one or two titles that are officially out of print but a few copies are still available from here; this category may need to increase). And the Season Tickets – 6 books of your own choice for £50, 10 for £75) are still a tariff-free bargain.