Muse, Odalisque, Handmaiden

★★★★

Rose Simpson STRANGE ATTRACTOR PRESS. £20

Insightful and beautifully written recollections of the Incredibles’ singer/bassist.

Between 1968 and 1971 Rose Simpson was integral to The Incredible String Band, singing and playing bass guitar, violin and percussion. Her writing style in this captivating memoir, subtitled A Girl’s Life In The Incredible String Band, is like her musical contribution; deeply stirring, it ripples with a quiet power and beauty. It also brings sharp focus to the struggle of finding space in a male-dominated world, both musically and personally, the joy of succeeding and the sacrifices in so doing. There are stories of Swinging London, New York’s Chelsea Hotel with Andy Warhol and Woodstock ’69, but it’s those that concern domesticity and the everyday that reveal Simpson’s magic. “The children have gone to bed and the house is all locked up,” she writes, “it is the enchantment of one of those evenings, in an oasis surrounded by night, that floats me off again into the past time.”