GUY MANKOWSKI

This is the first chapter from  ‘I Know How To Live’: The Life of Kristen Pfaff  by Guy Mankowski  (with an afterword by Jason Pfaff). It’s 1993, and a teeming English summer afternoon. A crowd sways in front of the stage. The singer wears a guitar over her grey trench coat. Smoke flows through her hair as she waves her lit cigarette at the crowd. A man in the crowd shouts, with contempt, ‘she’s dyed her hair!’ There’s a woman next to her in a black miniskirt, carrying a black bass with the confidence of one who treats it as an appendage. The black hair that obscures her face is somehow more convincing than that of the singer, who doesn’t look at her. The singer strums, her singing inaudible at first and the woman to her right winds her mike stand, plectrum in her mouth. There’s a sense of growing conviction about her. Ear-splitting feedback. A sense of occasion, the clenched body language of a band determined to prove themselves to this huge crowd at The Phoenix Festival. Fatima Mansi

Now being at the point where the first chapter of this book is finally out in the world it is remarkable to think I was first inspired to write a book about Kristen Pfaff from Hole when I read her mother Janet's book about her daughter's life (available  here ) and it contained excerpts from Kristen's diary. An entry in which she describes as a young girl having a conversation with the sea was perhaps the most beautiful piece of writing I've read and it probably began all this work. I have been working on it with Jason Pfaff after I got in touch with him. Jason gives his side of how we decided to work together on  this  podcast. One reason the book has taken longer to write than anyone might have expected is revelations about Pfaff from people who knew her are still being offered to me. However much I know about Kristen the more news about the book comes out the more people come to Jason and me to talk and open up about their recollections of her. Jason Pfaff and I have

  Tickets for my TEDx talk live in Lincoln on Saturday 03/09  are now available here . I'll be talking (in Session 2: 'People') about how in lockdown I found myself in the usual position of being given the archive of a famous pop star, and archive that even her family hadn't fully opened...I'm honoured to be one of the speakers selected to talk about their specialist subject in a panel alongside the cognitive psychologist Robin Kramer and the textiles artist Kerry Gibson. There is a program of incredible speakers for 2022, including former England Rugby Union legend Rory Underwood. 

In 2014 I wrote what has been my only piece of fan mail, to Mark Fisher (also known as K-Punk). It was around the time my novel, ‘How I Left The National Grid’ was being published. I distinctly recall being frustrated that Fisher, a writer whose work I loved, was not more widely known.   He did not have a Wikipedia page as far as I could tell, and when I hunted for one on that site I found some generic reference to his work on there which did not mark him as distinct in a way I thought was deserved (even now the page for Fisher’s Wiki page derides him as a ‘blogger’ and questions if he is deserving of a presence there, despite his PhD, lecturing work at Goldsmiths and enormous impact). The slightly generic aspect to his name, and more pertinently Fisher’s own lack of any apparent ego seemed to mean he did not have the online profile that his writing deserved. But I felt I needed to get in touch.  Why did I write to him? Us writers can be a proud lot, reluctant to wear our influences to

  Just wanted to offer a quick update about the book about Kristen Pfaff. Along with Jason Pfaff, for some years a book about Pfaff has been in development. It has benefited from the input of many parties, not least Pfaff’s exes, Mike Huber and Robert Slammon and many others. It also benefits from access to Pfaff’s unseen archive, Jason Pfaff's video archive, as well as other exciting sources. Pfaff’s 27 years were used fitfully and the book will very much focus on her life rather than her passing. As an academic, activist, counsellor and musician Pfaff packed a lot into her years and this book will very much celebrate her life and her time as a key member of cult band Janitor Joe, putting the spotlight onto the years in which less is known about Pfaff. The book will also celebrate Pfaff and others contribution to the masterpiece that was Hole’s ‘Live Through This’. When there is news on the publication front we’ll be sharing it right away. I’d like to offer my thanks to the Pfaff

 On Tuesday 12th October at The Collection, Lincoln I am honoured to be talking about my book 'Albion’s Secret History: Snapshots of England's Pop Rebels and Outsiders' with iconic frontwoman Kate Jackson.  Focusing on figures who served to define England’s unofficial cultural history, this book was written to penetrate the surface of England’s pop history, including the venues it was shaped in, alongside art, film, architecture and politics, and throw some new light on the ideas of Englishness it reveals. Rhian E. Jones described the book as 'the most illuminating odyssey through overlooked English culture since Michael Bracewell's 'England Is Mine''. The second part of this event will be with Louder Than War's John Robb, who coined the term 'Britpop' and who was the first to interview Nirvana.  In addition on 14th October I'll be in conversation with award-winning Booker shortlisted author, journalist and political commentator Will Self