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Animal House

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The fact he read it in such a conversational way was a huge bonus and made you feel part of a conversation. One of Browns traits was being a tad cocky, which probably helped him get the gigs and into gigs he was employed to earn his keep. Pablo Hernandez scoring the goal which got us in the position to be promoted from the Championship, and Joffy’s goal v Norwich, which kept us in touch with staying in the Premier League last year, and then Jack Harrison’s injury time goal which made that secure v Brentford. Brown notes that he was younger than pretty much all of his staff, and that his mum had died only months before the opportunity to do Loaded arose. For a teen-come-twentysomething, Loaded magazine was the bible of all things music/sport/fashion/film and gonzo journalism right at the centre of what would be known as 'Cool Britannia'.

After leaving school with no qualifications it's clear that despite all the fun and the carefree attitude that he attempts to portray throughout the book that he grafted very hard for his success. From the off, Loaded was a phenomenon: detractors complained about its non-PC tone (that was mainly the Guardian, says Brown), but readers loved the gonzo writing style (crashing the Cannes film festival with no press pass!

He is the recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Fiction Writing and the Nelson Algren Award in Short Fiction. Brown left after a couple of years following a murky incident in which Erwin Rommel and the Nazis were included in a feature about the most stylish men of the 20th century. Such was the level of mayhem on this particular jaunt, one of the local travel guides was moved to comment, “I like James very much, but if he behaves in Rio how he has behaved in Sao Paulo he will be raped and murdered”.

It’s about, celebrities, football, drugs, a crisps World Cup, travelling, partying and a dose of self reflection. The first few chapters reeled me in in excited anticipation, so I decided to reach out to the author and applaud him on a good read, and to see if he may have remembered me (I wasn't expecting him to by the way but I wanted to show support). The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of Practice. It’s the first one I’ve listened to where the author bursts out laughing, remembering the times he’s writing about. He points out that the dials on his guitar amp go up to eleven because “ … you turn it up to ten, and where do you go from there?Name dropping and bar-propping, the loaded founder’s memoir is a sometimes enjoyable, but more often obnoxious tribute to excess. Trouble does seem to follow Brown – and he freely admits that at Loaded he was making the publishers so much money he was allowed to get away with it. He realised Loaded could include the kind of writing inspired by his journalistic heroes: Tom Wolfe, Hunter S Thompson, George Plimpton. Which leads me to my next point that I don't think as a reader you really get to know James, he only briefly lets the reader in to his emotions when he talks of his Mum's struggles with her mental health and her death, the rest of the time it feels like he's putting on a front.

Brown isn’t afraid of a brag or two in his book, and he believes Loaded’s decline came swiftly after his exit. This is my relatively small knowledge of Brown up until now having written a brutely honest, sometimes lighthearted and lessons in life book entitled Animal House published via Quercus books. Bright, loud, funny, provocative, ambitious and careless, loaded was read from the barracks of Afghanistan to the England dressing room at Euro '96. His writing was still much in demand though and he still knocked out the occasional article for the likes of the Times. I remember when Loaded 1st came out, it was such a great read, but then it changed for me and the adverts were for things I could never afford and it spoke less and less to me like it did in it's early editions.He created the award-winning and hugely popular loaded magazines, and went on to edit British GQ where he launched the Man of The Year Awards.

Occasionally, I slip outside to the fleshpots of Soho to attend a premiere or appear as guest on daytime television. The magazine itself was packed full of the irreverent, half-drunk nonsense that provided many a lunchtime session down the pub, along with some genuinely funny insights.

This book made me nostalgic for a time I barely remember but wish I could’ve been apart of and serves as a reminder that it’s better to create what you believe to be missing, than to complain that someone isn’t creating what you want to see.

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