The Happy Reader, Issue 17 – Mark Leckey

For avid readers and the uninitiated alike, The Happy Reader is a magazine-shaped book club to inspire and entertain.

A collaboration between Penguin Classics and Fantastic Man, the concept is simple: the first half is a long-form interview with a notable book fanatic and the second half explores one classic Book of the Season from an array of surprising and invigorating angles.

In this issue:

On the cover, legendary artist MARK LECKEY is photographed by Mark Peckmezian. The artist as ravenous consumer of horror books, political books, small fragments of poetry… This issue’s interview offers an illuminating journey into the mind of one of the most influential artists at work today.

The Book of the Season is MIDDLEMARCH: A STUDY OF PROVINCIAL LIFE by Mary Ann Evans who, for reasons of societal sexism, wrote under the pen name George Eliot. This sprawling English novel tends to be accompanied by phrases like ‘but it’s just so long’ from those who haven’t read it, and ‘the best novel in the English language’ from those who have. Contributors include: Rebecca Mead, Rob Palk, Jean Hannah Edelstein, Deborah Friedell, Jordana Brewster, Yelena Moskovich and Tara Isabella Burton.