Author: Declan Tan

Evicted: The changing landscape of squatting in the UK

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First published on AOL / Asylum.co.uk (22nd November 2011) //

Secretary of Justice Ken Clarke’s recent moves to criminalise squatting have ensured that, once again, the subject of squatting is back in the news. After a government consultation that ended in October, campaigners have been furious to see their views ignored. Now it seems as if amendments are to go ahead and, according to critics, these reforms will threaten the homeless, citizens’ right to protest, and the most vulnerable members of our society.

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Jonathan Walker and Dan Hallett, ‘Five Wounds: An Illuminated Novel’

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First published on Spike Magazine (28th November 2011) //

Not every book looks and feels like an artefact when you pick it up. Oftentimes it is just words printed across cheap paper, the literal form of it separated from its content, cased in a merely functional cover with some gluey binding. But with Five Wounds, an “illuminated novel”, the very object itself is part of its mythology and there is a sense of something big, something heavy within it, if you have the time.

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Azazel Jacobs Interview (in full)

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First published on The Rumpus (21st November 2011) //

A New York transplant working in LA, and son of the legendary experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs, Azazel has journeyed steadily through the independent film scene since his debut in 2003 with Nobody Needs to Know.

He arrived this year with Terri, his biggest feature yet, a droll and unsentimental portrait of a pyjama-wearing teenager, played by newcomer Jacob Wysocki. Carer for his ageing uncle (an impressive by Creed Bratton), Terri must also deal with high school, the assistant principal (John C. Reilly) and generally growing up. A well-documented fan of The Clash (he appears unofficially in the Strummer biography, The Future Is Unwritten), Jacobs once said that he wished all of his interviews were about the band. We sat down for a chat about both.

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Dan Fante, ‘Fante: A Family’s Legacy of Writing, Drinking and Surviving’

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First published on Spike Magazine (14th November 2011) //

Opening with the familiar visions of snow from the likes of Wait Until Spring, Bandini and Dago Red (‘Bricklayer in the Snow’), Dan Fante kicks off, like Svevo and Arturo of his father’s novels, buried in an image of purest white. But this is a damned and dark tale, swirling in sweat and alcohol, of depression and addiction, with some genuine pain and angst behind it.

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