I AM so fortunate in this sad, war-torn, unequal world. At 65, after more than 40 varied and enjoyable years earning my living doing what I love, I’m writing and composing more than ever and my experiences beyond that remain rich and full of surprises and serendipitous moments. One such has just occurred.

The life and work of the Sussex poet, writer, controversialist and roaring ale-drinker Hilaire Belloc has been an inspiration to me ever since my father started reading me his Cautionary Tales when I was about four years old. And the work of John Cale, the iconoclastic classically trained Welsh composer, songwriter and avant-garde musician, has been the same in a musical sense ever since I heard his droning viola on the first Velvet Underground album aged 14.

I have every album Cale has done, and Belloc, with all his contradictions, has been a constant companion through my life. At the age of 80, Cale has just released a brilliant, haunting new album, Mercy. And Sussex historian Chris Hare has recently published a wonderful, emotionally satisfying new book, Hilaire Belloc: The Politics of Living where he connects with the essence, the lust for life, and the spirit of this contradictory, confrontational, roaring genius in a way only a true devotee can.

Listening to one and reading the other at the same time, I decided to review the pair together.

Cale and Belloc may seem a strange combination, but to me both are as homely and familiar as the sight of my front door, and I live in the Sussex port town home where I grew up.

Both were outsiders: the working-class Welshman from the valleys moving into Andy Warhol’s New York clique in the 1960s; the Anglo-French writer and political thinker, with Sussex as a home and lifelong love, immersing himself in the London literary and political scene at the turn of the century.

Chris Hare, like me, is a Sussex-based Belloc devotee with a huge personal identification and, as for me, Belloc’s work has helped him through a devastating period of personal loss.

Hare celebrates Belloc’s love of and writings about his adopted county, and above all his Sussex walking book, The Four Men. This includes wickedly satirical political verse and his prescient excoriation of right-wing newspaper barons (Dredge the Rothermere! Dam the Beaverbrook!).

Hare walks alongside Belloc in his vexed incursions into party politics, celebrates his anti-capitalist radicalism and fear for the future of Europe — how right he was! — and dissects the accusations of anti-semitism and baleful flirtations with the far right.

Just one quibble: it’s anarchists who want to abolish property, Chris: we socialists and communists seek its fair distribution. This was also Belloc’s aim, albeit via a different path.

The book is fair, flamboyant and beautifully written and a must for anyone with an interest in the life of the man I consider to be Sussex’s greatest poet.

Meanwhile, as I write this, John Cale spins soundscapes: electronica and strings, with vocals that are almost plainsong, then piano-based with an occasional guitar, his familiar baritone bringing back memories and evoking new images.

And occasionally Cale and Belloc meet: “The grandeur that was Europe is sinking in the mud...” is a line that could have been written by either man.
 
The finest song here is Moonstruck, Cale’s tribute to Nico, his old Velvet Underground co-conspirator whose solo albums he produced in the seventies. To really “get” this album you have to play it many times, which I have done, and it is one of his finest.

Glorious victories for two lifelong accompanists in my path through life, one celebrating a continuing creativity at 80; the other long gone, but brought back to life by a Sussex fellow who knows.

As for me: lots of poetry on picket lines, some great gigs and continuing glory on the pitch for Brighton. See you in two weeks.

Mercy by John Cale is available from www.roughtrade.com
Hilaire Belloc: The Politics of Living is available for local people from Steyning Bookshop, Worthing Library, or Worthing Museum or directly from the author at [email protected]
For further info please visit https://www.facebook.com/attilathestockbroker and/or https://attilathestockbroker.bandcamp.com/merch