Cover image of Stewart Lee – Where are the thinkers? from the Post-Nearly Press Conversation Series 1-5 2014-2019
Funds raised from the event will support Live Theatre’s Talent Development and Children and Young People’s programmes.
Read an exclusive extract from Stewart Lee’s conversation with Neil Jackson – ‘Where Are The Thinkers?’ from the book ‘Post-Nearly Press Conversation Editions 1-5 2014-2019’:
Generation X Point Zero – Quit your Job – Tune out the Entire Human Race…
Trapped inside a culture of booze, drugs and cracked aspirations, the narrator’s attempt for anonymity amidst the chaos of society begins to collapse. Scarred by the September 11th attacks, the subsequent War on Terror and fall out of austerity, a stuttering journey towards disappearance is laden with insomnia, rootlessness and bereavement. A melancholy poetic spanning a fifteen year period reveals the deadening walls of a South-East London estate, the stifling geography of the Lake District and Brighton’s labyrinthine edginess. Each encounter – a bar, corner shop, gallery, library or hospital ward is increasingly filled with surreal menace. Ultimately, the threat is real, in a world populated with unease, confusion and sadness.
Falling Away is an achingly personal and deeply political work that speaks to the haunting present and our desperate need for hope…
Paperback: 40 pages (includes cover drawing by Iain Sharpe & x 17 b&w images)
Price: £6.50
Dimensions: 140mm x 2.5mm x 216mm
The politics of fuel laid bare…
Follow David Banning into the fractured terrain of Whitehaven via the Fylde coast and the chalky cliffs of East Sussex as he absorbs the mining history and industrial grandeur once associated with West Cumbria. Nearly 15 years ago a list scribbled down on the back of an old bingo flyer – given to him by his late father – highlighted the names of five coal miners from former West Cumberland towns. A family history that once pointed to a final adventure before the development of the Cumbrian Metallurgical Coal Project brought the empty hyperbole of modern day taglines and slogans more sharply into focus. Coal for Steel. Indigenous versus imported. A plan for jobs. Growing the economy and the much-trailed ‘levelling up’. The gradual dissolution of life drifts down into the silence between shadows…
Read an exclusive extract from Iain Sinclair’s conversation with Neil Jackson – ‘Improving the Image of Destruction’ from the book ‘Post-Nearly Press Conversation Editions 1-5 2014-2019’.
I would like to express my sincerest thanks again to all the contributors who gave their time for free and created some fantastic work for the From Tarmac to Towpath book – raising over £300 for The Trussell Trust and the #TogetherForChange campaign.
Chroma’s output will be very limited next year as I want to concentrate solely on writing projects again, so in the meantime – I hope you have enjoyed everything so far, I’m very thankful, as ever, for your support…
Have a cracking holiday and a happy new year – let’s hope for better things in 2022…
POST-NEARLY PRESS CONVERSATION SERIES EDITIONS 1-5 / 2014-2019
OUT: NOVEMBER 25th 2021
COLOUR PAPERBACK – 262 PAGES
ISBN: 9781838091538
FEATURING: Iain Sinclair, Chris Petit, Andrew Kötting, Alan Moore and Stewart Lee.
All five of the Post-Nearly Press Conversation Series of books compiled together for the first time and made available in colour paperback format, with original artwork and a brand new cover design by Craig Turnbull.
The book has a substantial and completely exclusive foreword from Iain Sinclair – a bristling and brilliant piece of writing titled, Pre-Posthumous Words for Post-Nearly Press.
Perfect for fans, collectors and newcomers alike, the Post-Nearly Press Conversation Series traverse the compelling methods, inspirations and creative outlooks from five of the UK’s most visionary authors/artists. Iain Sinclair kicks it all off with a fascinating ride through the navigation of territory and the enduring influence of J.G. Ballard. Chris Petit discusses The Museum of Lonelinessand relationships with screens. Andrew Kötting penetrates the London Olympic site and the post-punk era of music, while the illustrious Alan Moore performs an impromptu Mandrill rap in a unique Northampton studio. Lastly, comedian Stewart Lee recalls the late Vorticist poet bloke – Mark E Smith from The Fall.
Post-Nearly Press Conversation Series Editions 1-5 / 2014-2019
Colour Paperback 260 pages ISBN: 9781838091538
What you have to appreciate, as a card-carrying ‘post-nearly’ spook, one of the reforgotten with no ticket of return, is that everything that follows is a posthumous dream, spun, as politicians would have it, around ‘the direction of travel’. ‘This is so surreal,’ they bluster. That state of dissociated and unfocused emotionalism required of moderately successful Olympic athletes by media vultures frantic for another orgasm of salt tears. But the experience of not-being-there is as real as it is ever going to get…
IAIN SINCLAIR – (extract from: PRE-POSTHUMOUS WORDS FOR POST-NEARLY PRESS)
All five editions in the Post-Nearly Press Conversations Series have been made available in paperback for the very first time. Featuring the live face-to-face conversations traversing the compelling methods, inspirations and creative outlooks from: Iain Sinclair, Chris Petit, Andrew Kötting, Alan Moore & Stewart Lee – a must for fans and collectors alike…
More details to follow soon
All 18 books on the 2021 Lakeland Book awards Shortlist
Finally, we were delighted that our first book ‘BOUNDARY SONGS: Notes from the Edge of the Lake District National Park’ made the Shortlist for The Striding Edge Prize for Guides and Places at the 2021 Lakeland Book Awards. Winners will be announced on 19th October at a glittering charity event, to be held at the Roundthorn Country House Hotel near Penrith…So until then, we’ll keep everything crossed & wish the very best of luck to all the other authors on the list!
One year, two books, four films, a collaborative exhibition, 11 blog posts, 582 tweets and a HUGE thank you to everyone who has supported and encouraged us to keep going! At the beginning of August 2020, Chroma Editions tentatively edged out into the long plastic hallway of publishing. To celebrate and mark the fact we are somehow still here, we have produced our first foray into sound – a special limited edition of x20 7″ singles available exclusively on heavyweight vinyl. In keeping with our ethos of Lo-Tech, the two tracks ‘L’Etranger & Amour Fou‘ were put together during lockdown using just the Garageband app with an iPad. L’Etranger is a tribute to the seminal work by Albert Camus and features spoken word by Louise Smith. Both tracks were devised by the unknown superstar DJ Jobby Plectrum, a reclusive sometime musician, author, photographer and filmmaker, (whose real initials are actually: DB…)
Copies are priced at: £15.00 (incl P&P), please send payments to: paypal.me/chromaeditions or email: chromaeditionsinfo@gmail.com
Cover pic of our very limited edition 7″ single to mark the one year anniversary of Chroma Editions…
Back in September 2020, trying to publish our first book‘Boundary Songs’ in the midst of a pandemic, while up against a backlog of publishing heavyweights certainly proved to be a formidable challenge! In a climate of uncertainty, brick walls and smatterings of indifference appeared to be the daily norm. However, we constantly re-grouped and persevered and soon became extremely grateful to Sam Read Bookseller, Grasmere, Cumbria for their support and for offering us a much-needed way to sell our new title (and to the author Philip Hoare who provided such a wonderful quote, including the tagline – ‘post-punk-folk-romanticism’ that we duly placed on the front cover). Without both of them we wouldn’t be here, simple as that….It just goes to show what can be achieved when someone is prepared to get behind your work and help promote it. For a tiny press like ours, the Sam Read’s and Philip Hoare’s of this world are national treasures!
One of the many successes of the subsequent ‘Boundary Songs exhibition’ held at the excellent Cross Lane Projects gallery, Kendal, Cumbria in October 2020 was an opportunity to meet and engage with like-minded artists. This quickly led to the genesis for our second title, ‘From Tarmac to Towpath: Excursions into Lockdown’ published at the end of May 2021. Which featured a collection of stunning works from 13 artists across the length and breadth of the UK. With all royalties going to designated local food banks. Films and music produced under lockdown accompanied the project and feature alongside other content on our Chroma EditionsYouTube Channel.
And finally…some MEGA NEWS!! Our next title scheduled for late Autumn 2021 will be a hardback compilation of the near legendary Post-Nearly Press conversations series. With all original copies (even damages and rejects) of the unique stapled books now long sold out, a new compilation is planned which will feature the five editions to date (with Iain Sinclair, Chris Petit, Andrew Kötting, Alan Moore and Stewart Lee), along with unseen artwork, an introduction, foreword and some extras. We are very excited to be working on this amazing series! So that’s a little taster of our inaugural year – thanks again for your support and remember to stay tuned for more details about all of our future projects…
The original Post-Nearly Press conversations series of stapled books…
Here is a first proper look at Glasgow based Iain Sharpe’s fantastic pen and ink drawing that will soon adorn the covers of our forthcoming title, ‘From Tarmac to Towpath: Excursions into Lockdown‘. A scene no doubt familiar to many locals who regularly walk the towpath of the Lancaster Canal at Hest Bank, passing by all sorts of bizarre and witty wonders from the dummies found on display there. During lockdown they always initiated typically strange and eccentric allusions, colouring walks with a strong flavour of theatre. An astonishing stage setting that provides the perfect platform for the opening scene of our second publication…
Chroma Editions 