Since a teenager Benjamin Myers has written about music, literature, nature, crime, memoir, politics, the arts and manner of other subjects for publications including The Guardian, New Statesman, Mojo, NME, New Scientist, The Spectator, Q, Uncut, Caught By The River, Time Out, Arena, The Author, The Morning Star, Shortlist, Melody Maker, The Big Issue, The Quietus, Vice, Storgy, 3:AM Magazine, Metal Hammer, Drowned In Sound, Prog, Plan B, The Big Issue, The Book Of Man, Classic Rock, Playlouder, Careless Talk Costs Lives, Kerrang!, Alternative Press, Bizarre, Record Collector, Loose Lips Sink Ships and others….
The full Guardian archive is here. The New Statesman archive is here. The Caught By The River archive is here.
The majority of reviews, essays and interviews have appeared in print but below are a select few more recent critical pieces that have also appeared online.
Archive
Personal story: One fall and whole new world. New Statesman. September 2019
The Role Of The Middle Aged White Man. Storgy. August 2019.
The Anxiety of Writing. The Book Of Man. August 2019.
Pleasures of…July. Caught By The River. July 2019.
Monster mash: Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein suffers from an identity crisis. New Statesman. June 2019.
Black Car Burning by Helen Mort: a mature and evocative debut. New Statesman. May 2019.
Alan Trotter’s Muscle turns the crime/noir novel on its head. New Statesman. February 2019.
Serfs Up!: some promotional words for Fat White Family. Domino Recordings. January 2019.
Working class vegan vigilantism: Slaughterhosue Prayer by John King. New Statesman. January 2019.
In Epping forest’s dark undergrowth: Out Of The Woods by Luke Turner. The Spectator. January 2019.
An authentic novel of island life: The Valley At The Centre of the World by Malachy Tallack. New Statesman. December 2018.
Made In…Durham: I spent a lot of time up trees. The Guardian. October 2018.
Shaun Prescott’s debut The town: a gripping Australian existentialism. New Statesman. September 2018.
Francis Plug: Writer In Residence by Paul Ewen. The Spectator, September 2018.
Vignettes of a bygone English childhood: Where Shall We Run To? by Alan Garner. The Spectator, August 2018.
‘It is like being on psychedelic drugs’: the strange world of literary prizes. The Guardian, June 2018.
Arkady by Patrick Langley. New Statesman, February 2018.
If you don’t know who Willy Vlautin is, you should. Don’t Skip Out On Me by Willy Vlautin, New Statesman, February 2018.
Blood, blades and bitter: how ice hockey bloomed in 1980s Britain. Feature, New Statesman, February 2018.
Nightmare on sea: a strange, once-forgotten history of the Kent coast. All The Devils Are Here by David Seabrook. New Statesman, February 2018.
Ted Lewis: The Godfather of Brit Noir. Getting Carter by Nick Triplow, January 2018.
Shadows & Reflections. Caught By The River, December 2017.
Hare And Raptor Country. Caught By The River, November 2017.
The Dark Mountain Project and a plan to save the planet through writing. Walking On Lava: The Dark Mountain anthology. New Statesman, August 2017
Folk horror, a history: from The Wicker Man to The League of Gentlemen. Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful And Things strange by Adam Scovell. New Statesman, July 2017
Peasant by Richard Dawson. Caught By The River, May 2017
Withnail & I: 30 Years on, it’s the perfect film for Brexit Britain. New Statesman, March 2017
Shadows & Reflections: 2016. Caught By The River, December 2016.
Mourning In America. A poem written on the day after the US election. Caught By The River. November 2016.
His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet. Reviewed of the Booker shortlisted novel. New Statesman. October 2016.
The cult of Wetherspoons: why does the pub chain inspire such devotion? New Statesman, October 2016.
Wolf People: Ruins. September 2016.
After Roger Deakin (2006-2016). Caught By The River, September 2016.
Content Provider: Selected Short Prose Pieces 2011-2016 by Stewart Lee. Caught By The River, August 2016.
Memory flash: can you reach creative writing? On D B C Pierre’s Release the Bats: Writing Your Way Out of It. New Statesman, July 2016.
Snakes on a plain: the gloriously eerie boglands of The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry, New Statesman, July 2016
Cold comforts: exploring the uncertainty of climate change through fiction: The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan. New Statesman, June 2016.
First Light: A Celebration Of Alan Garner. Caught By The River, May 2016
Maybe it’s time for Jesse Hughes to take a break. Team Rock, May 2016.
Tyson Fury is a victim of racism – from white people. New Statesman, April 2016
Director Carol Morley’s debut novel joins a rich canon of writing by working-class women. New Statesman, February 2016.
The North has some of the best museums in Britain. Why are we letting them close down? New Statesman, February 2016.
The non-fiction novel that takes readers inside the head of Raoul Moat. New Statesman, February 2016.
Little earthquakes: In The Outrun, you want to go wherever Amy Liptrot takes you. New Statesman, January 2016.
The Kindred Of The Kibbo Kift: Intellectual Barbarians. Caught By The River, December 2015
The Violent Death Of Rock Music: Fat White Family. Drowned In Sound, December 2015.
I’m Being Haunted By Richard Dawson. Caught By The River, November 2015.
Dan Fante: underground writer expressed madness of the US workplace. The Guardian, November 2015.
The Real Thing, Prog, November 2015.
Reclusive novelist Dominic Cooper: what do writers do when the words no longer come? New Statesman, October 2015
On PiL’s Metal Box, Prog, October 2015
Shifting Sands: The Loney is a novel of “eerie England”, New Statesman, September 2015
Nextinction by Ralph Steadman and Ceri Levy, Caught By The River, August 2015
I’m Jack, New Statesman, August 2015.
Sick On You: The Disastrous Story Of Britain’s Great Lost Punk Band, Caught By The River, July 2015
Zolar X: Timeless, Prog, July 2015
Imagined utopias: the history and future of Britain’s modern towns, New Statesman, May 2015.
On Approaching Pendle Hill, New Statesman, April 2015.
Nothing’s Shocking, Prog, April 2015
One Hundred Years Of Ronnie, New Statesman, March 2015.
Girl In A Band: A Memoir by Kim Gordon, The Guardian, February 2015
Shadows & Reflections: 2014 In Culture, Caught By The River, January 2015
National Readathon Day: Top 10 Novellas, The Guardian, January 2015
Eyes On The Prize: Francis Plug – How To Be A Public Author by Paul Ewen, New Statesman, November 2014
A Bird In The Hand: H Is For Hawk by Helen MacDonald, New Scientist, July 2014
Heavy Meta: The Fifty Year Sword by Mark Z Danielewski, New Statesman, June 2014
Prince & 3rdEyeGirl Live In Manchester, The Quietus, May 2014
Behemoth – The Satanist, Metal Hammer, 2014
Joey Ramone: The Ultimate Punk, Team Rock, April 2014
Rock Music Isn’t Evil – it’s the Rock Star Myth that Creates Men like Ian Watkins, New Statesman, 2013
The Modern Writer Has To Be A Hustler, The Guardian, December 2013
Hebden Bridge: A Hippy Idyll Scarred By Heroin, New Statesman, November 2013
What Gordon Burn Taught Me: Write, Write, Write, New Statesman, October 2013
Somewhere Over The Rainbow: Bosnian Rainbows, Prog, 2013.
The Libertines Were An Accident At Birth: Pete Doherty and Carl Barat interview, The Guardian, October 2012
Criminalising Squatters Will Hurt British Music, The Guardian, September 2012
Pig Iron & The One-Book Bookshop, The Guardian, June 2012
My Half-Life Of Grime, The Quietus, February 2011
Wild Beasts: An Oasis In The ‘Desert Of The Real’, The Quietus, 2011
My Time Undercover at the News of the World, VICE, 2011
Remembering Darby Crash, the John Lennon of LA Punk, NME, 2010
RSI: A Very Sore Point for Writers, Guardian, 2010
The Amber Film Collective, Caught by the River, 2010
Common People: The Story Of Britpop, The Quietus, 2009
Jim Carroll’s Death Leaves a Void in Poetry, Guardian, 2009
An Appreciation of Tweed, Caught by the River, 2009
Future Mods; The Future of Body Modification Explored with Kevin Warwick, Stelarc and Samppa Von Cyborg, Bizarre, 2009
A Day in the Life of a Music Journalist, Drowned in Sound, 2009
