Iain Sinclair FRSL (born 11 June 1943) is a writer and filmmaker. Much of his work is rooted in London, and influenced by psychogeography.

Early life and education

Sinclair was born in Cardiff, Wales, on 11 June 1943. a boarding school for boys, followed by Trinity College, Dublin (where he edited Icarus). He attended the Courtauld Institute of Art and the London School of Film Technique (now the London Film School). The 2012 games mark a shift in Sinclair's psychogeographical writing, moving to a more documentary mode with fewer semi-fictional elements included in his work. In 2017 Sinclair published The Last London, a conscious move away from writing about "A city so much estranged from its earlier identities (always shifting and revising) that it is unrecognisable." This marked the culmination of a series of works that detailed Sinclair's attempts to grasp the changing nature of London and to re-map his own experiences of the city.

Sinclair's own view of psychogeography later echoed many of the earlier criticisms of his work which focused on the commodification of 'heritage zones' in less affluent areas of the city. In a 2016 interview, he stated: "I don’t think there is any more than can be said. The topic has outlived its usefulness and become a brand." These writers predominantly focus on London, particularly the East London districts in which Sinclair has lived and worked. He has written about, championed and contributed introductory notes to novels by authors such as Robert Westerby, Roland Camberton, Alexander Baron and John Healy. His 2016 work My Favourite London Devils focused on his rediscovery and appreciation of these writers, often while working as a used book dealer.

Peru

In June 2019, Sinclair travelled to Lima to begin retracing the journey of his great-grandfather, Arthur Sinclair, to "the source of the Amazon" as described in the 1895 book In Tropical Lands. Travelling with his daughter, Farne, filmmaker Grant Gee, and poet and translator Adolfo Barberá del Rosal, the journey was expected to result in a range of artistic responses including podcasts, film and various books. The journey was partly funded by the British Film Institute's documentary fund and part by crowdfunding. The expedition provided material for an essay-feature film entitled The Gold Machine, released in 2022. A book by Sinclair with the same title was also published in 2021. A small selection of prose-poetry inspired by the trip was published by Earthbound Press.

Recognition and awards

In an interview with This Week in Science in 2004, William Gibson said that Sinclair was his favourite author.

Sinclair was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2009.

In 2013 he became a visiting professor at the University for the Creative Arts.

In October 2018, the University of Surrey reported that Sinclair had been appointed "distinguished writer in residence" with their School of Literature and Languages.

Personal life

Sinclair lived in Haggerston, in the London Borough of Hackney, and had a flat in Marine Court, a building designed in the Streamline Moderne style in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex.

Bibliography

  • Back Garden Poems, Albion Village Press, 1970
  • The Kodak Mantra Diaries, Albion Village Press, 1971
  • Muscat's Würm, Albion Village Press, 1972
  • The Birth Rug, Albion Village Press, 1973
  • Lud Heat, Albion Village Press, 1975
  • Suicide Bridge, Albion Village Press, 1979
  • Flesh Eggs and Scalp Metal, Hoarse Commerce, 1983
  • Autistic poses, Hors Commerce, 1985
  • White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings, Goldmark, 1987
  • Significant wreckage, Words Press, 1988
  • Flesh Eggs and Scalp Metal: Selected Poems 1970–1987, Paladin, 1989
  • Downriver, Paladin Grafton, 1991
  • The Shamanism of Intent: Some Flights of Redemption, Goldmark, 1991
  • Jack Elam's Other Eye, Hoarse Commerz, 1991
  • Radon Daughters, Jonathan Cape, 1994
  • Conductors of Chaos: a Poetry Anthology, (Ed.), Picador, 1996
  • Penguin Modern Poets Volume Ten: Douglas Oliver, Denise Riley, Iain Sinclair, Penguin, 1996

<!-- Lights out for the Territory, non-fiction, 1997 -->

  • , non-fiction
  • The Ebbing of the Kraft, Equipage, 1997
  • Slow Chocolate Autopsy, Phoenix House, 1997
  • Liquid City, Reaktion, 1999 (with Marc Atkins)
  • Rodinsky's Room, Granta, 1999 (with Rachel Lichtenstein)
  • Crash, British Film Institute, 1999
  • Sorry Meniscus (Excursions to the Millennium Dome), Profile Books, 1999
  • Landor's Tower, Granta, 2001
  • London Orbital, Granta, 2002
  • Saddling The Rabbit, Etruscan Books, 2002
  • White Goods, Goldmark, 2002
  • The Verbals - in conversation with Kevin Jackson, Worple Press, 2003
  • Dining on Stones, novel, 2004
  • Edge of the Orison: In the Traces of John Clare's 'Journey Out Of Essex, non-fiction, 2005
  • The Firewall (selected poems 1979 – 2006), Etruscan Books, 2006
  • Buried At Sea, Worple Press, 2006
  • London: City of Disappearances, editor, various essays about London psychogeography etc., 2006
  • Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire: A Confidential Report, non-fiction, 2009
  • “Sickening”, in Restless Cities, Edited by M. Beaumont and G. Dart, London: Verso, 2010. 257–276.
  • Ghost Milk, non-fiction (memoir), 2011
  • Blake's London: The Topographical Sublime, The Swedenborg Society, 2012
  • Kitkitdizze... Seeing Gary Snyder, Beat Scene, January 2013
  • Swimming To Heaven: The Lost Rivers of London, The Swedenborg Society, 2013
  • Austerlitz and After: Tracking Sebald, chapter deleted from 'American Smoke', Test Centre, 2013
  • Red Eye, Test Centre, 2013
  • Objects of Obscure Desire, Goldmark, 2013 (illustrated by Sarah Simblet)
  • American Smoke: Journeys to the End of the Light, 2014
  • Cowboy / Deleted File, chapter deleted from 'American Smoke', Test Centre, 2014
  • London Overground: A Day's Walk around the Ginger Line, 2015
  • Black Apples of Gower, Little Toller Books, 2015
  • Westering, Test Centre, 2015
  • Liquid City, Expanded edition, non-fiction, Reaktion Books, 2016 (with Marc Atkins)
  • Seeschlange, Equipage, 2016
  • My Favourite London Devils: A Gazetteer of Encounters with Local Scribes, Elective Shamen & Unsponsored Keepers of the Sacred Flame, Tangerine Press, 2016
  • The Last London: True Fictions from an Unreal City, Oneworld Publications, 2017
  • Living with Buildings: Walking with Ghosts – On Health and Architecture, Wellcome, 2018
  • Dark Before Dark, Tangerine Press, 2019 (photography by Anonymous Bosch)
  • Fever Hammer Yellow – Earthbound Poetry Series Vol.1 No.7, Earthbound Press, 2020
  • Our Late Familiars – Goldmark, 2020 (photography by Ian Wilkinson)
  • The Gold Machine - In the Tracks of the Mule Dancers - Oneworld Publications, 2021
  • The Gold Machine Beats: A Jungle Death Photo Album - Beat Scene, 2021
  • (with artwork by Dave McKean, postscript by Chris McCabe)

Filmography

As well as writing and directing a number of documentary and semi-documentary films, Sinclair has appeared as himself in a number of films by other directors:

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable"

|+ Film performances

|-

! scope="col" | Year

! scope="col" | Title

! class="unsortable" | Notes

|-

| 1967

! scope="row" | Ah! Sunflower

|Featuring Allen Ginsberg, Co-Directed by Robert Klinkert

|-

| 1992

! scope="row" | The Cardinal and the Corpse

|Featuring Martin Stone, John Latham, Alan Moore, Driff Field, Brian Catling, Directed by Chris Petit

|-

| 1997

! scope="row" | The Falconer

|Featuring Françoise Lacroix, Peter Whitehead, Stewart Home, Howard Marks, Francis Stuart, Directed by Chris Petit

|-

| 2000

! scope="row" | Asylum

|Featuring Marina Warner, Michael Moorcock, Françoise Lacroix, Directed by Chris Petit

|-

| 2002

! scope="row" | London Orbital

|Directed by Chris Petit

|-

| 2009

! scope="row" | The London Perambulator

|Featuring Nick Papadimitriou, Russell Brand, Will Self, Directed by John Rogers

|-

| 2012

! scope="row" | Swandown

|Featuring Alan Moore, Stewart Lee, Directed by Andrew Kötting

|-

| 2013

| scope="row" | Journeys to the End of the Light: a filmed interview

|Featuring Kevin Ring, Directed by Sam Johnson

|-

| 2015

! scope="row" | By Our Selves

|Featuring Toby Jones, Directed by Andrew Kötting

|-

| 2016

! scope="row" | London Overground

|Featuring Andrew Kötting, Chris Petit, Cathi Unsworth, Bill Parry-Davies, Directed by John Rogers

|-

| 2017

! scope="row" | Edith Walks

|Featuring Alan Moore, Claudia Barton, Jem Finer, Directed by Andrew Kötting

|-

| 2019

! scope="row" | The Whalebone Box

|Featuring Steve Dilworth, Anonymous Bosch, Eden Kötting, Kirsten Norrie, Philip Hoare, Directed by Andrew Kötting

|-

| 2021

! scope="row" | The Gold Machine

|Featuring Farne Sinclair, Directed by Grant Gee

|}

Discography

  • Downriver, (UK, King Mob Records, CD), 1988
  • Dead Lead Office - Poems 1970-2004, (UK, Optic Nerve, CD), 2004
  • Stone Tape Shuffle, (UK, Test Centre, LP), 2012
  • Edith Field Recordings with David Aylward, Anonymous Bosch, Andrew Kötting, Jem Finer, Claudia Barton, (UK, BadBloodandSibyl, CD), 2016
  • London Overground with Standard Planets, (UK, Fin-A-Dee Six Records, 12" Single), 2016
  • Dark Before Dark with The London Experimental Ensemble, (USA, 577 Records, CD), 2021

References

<!---too many, per WP:EL - need checking for currency, then prune--->

  • Iain Sinclair Official Unofficial WebSite (Sanctioned by Author)
  • "A Small Catalogue of the Uncurated" by Sinclair (archived 2009-11-24) at Untitled Books
  • "Iain Sinclair" (2002) in The Literary Encyclopedia
  • Iain Sinclair at Complete Review
  • "Reader Flattery – Iain Sinclair and the Colonisation of East London" (2006), a critical analysis by John Barker in Mute (MetaMute.org)