books The Memory Of Pablo Escobar James Mollison [Chris Boot] “Escobar and Gacha gained the dubious honour of being the only men to appear in the top 10 in both of the Forbes list of the world’s richest men and the FBI’s Most Wanted list in the same year.” With characters like Pablo Escobar and his men as the subject of anything, it’s almost impossible to make it boring. James Mollison’s The Memory of Pablo Escobar a mindblowing biography following Escobar’s rise from petty thief to his fall as the largest drug supplier in the world, with words from his friends, family, enemies and capos. Esco’s stories are jawdropping as the book covers his fight against rival suppliers and the Government. The book also acts as a photo album, with hundreds of photos collected by James Mollison while he researched Escobar, and the pictures show both the brutality and the large-scale that his operations were, but also the softer “human” side of him when the man behind thousands of murders was around his family. This is a must read for the Scarface/ Cocaine Cowboys/Miami Vice fans.
All photographs © James Mollison / Chris Boot Ltd 1 mug shot of Escobar taken after his arrest for cocaine smuggling in 1976, from a polaroid by Javier Peña. 2 Escobar and his wife, Victoria Henao, early 1980s, from the files of El Espectador. 3 Photos from Hugo Martinez’s album, 2 December 1993
The Books of Albion Peter Doherty (Orion Books // Hachette Livre) Peter Doherty’s art has been heavily over shadowed by a tabloid hell mainly due to his headline grabbing relationship with Kate Moss and dependence on any number of drugs at any given time. At the same time his two bands The Libertines and Babyshambles have had a profound effect on the post-2000 music scene and after several biographies written by everyone from "journalists" from The Sun newspaper to his own mother Jacquie, this publication is in some respects Pete's attempt to set the record straight. Having long been available on the internet the diaries are a compilation of Pete's own "books of Albion" which he has kept since he moved to London in 1999. His blood, sweat and tears literally stain the pages of his literature obsessed poet/singer/junkie. At times indecipherable, his notes contains journal entries, poems, lyrics in work (such as his recent hip-hop debut with The Streets), sketches (mainly of mini-Martell bottles which he and his cat smoke crack from) defaced pictures of Kate and himself as well as more mundane entries like looking for a new flat. Highly presentable even a good read if you’re a fan, the sort of thing that makes you wonder whether one day he'll be revered as a genius out of our time, but in the meantime he'll no doubt continue to sell records and newspapers.
Callum Vass
Vincent Tang
Icepick Icelandic Street Art Thordis Claessen (Gingko Press // Bookwise International) Iceland has more green than Greenland and Greenland has more ice than Iceland and I would assume Iceland also has more graffiti that Greenland. Icepick is Thordis Claessen's documentation of Icelandic street art, presented in a scrapbook like format. There is very little text or history which is a real downside because it would be an interesting subject to cover. That said, it’s a presentable book and it’s pretty cool to see that Iceland has it’s own unique spin, including AA stickers that read Halló Nafn mitt er (HELLO My name is). One interesting character essential to the Reykjavik scene is a tunnel security guard named Joí who allowed writers to paint in his tunnel provided that the content isn’t violent or pornographic, he also photographed the pieces over the years and his albums are to Iceland what Martha Cooper is to New York.
Callum Vass
The Godfather Classic Quotes Carlo De Vito [Cider Mill Press] In theory, this should be a killer book of quotes from a true classic of modern cinema. The thing is, aside from the infamous lines that everyone's already familiar with, this isn't the type of film to lend itself to entertaining snippets. Something like Scarface, for example, would have lent itself to this format far more effectively, since pretty much every phrase that Tony spits over the course of that flick is priceless. Not to say that The Godfather isn't ripe with timeless lines, but recalling lawyer Tom Hagan saying: “Well, if I accepted that – in a court of law, they could prove that I had knowledge of his whereabouts” isn't a patch on Tony Montana declaring “You wanna waste my time? Okay. I call my lawyer. He's the best lawyer in Miami. He's such a good lawyer, that by tomorrow morning, you gonna be working in Alaska. So dress warm.” Regardless, The Godfather Classic Quotes is a nice little coffee table joint, complete with stylish design and photography from the movie. Just let me know when the Scarface one drops, OK?
Robbie Ettelson