London Review of Books shop window, London, 2016. (Image by Howard Trent)
‘Possible Worlds’ is the website of John Scanlan.
Scanlan is a writer and researcher and the author of eight books including Easy Riders, Rolling Stones: On the Road in America from Delta Blues to 70s Rock (2015), described in the Guardian as ‘a wonderfully evocative musical odyssey,’ which was also optioned for film, and the widely-cited On Garbage (2005), described by the London Times as ‘a small masterpiece.’
He has published academic articles on subjects related to a wide range of cultural phenomena — such as time, creativity, language, design, sensory experience, visual images, place and waste — in journals including History of the Human Sciences, Places, Time & Society, Techniques & Culture, Space and Culture, as well as in edited volumes such as The Acoustic City and Recycler l’Urbain. His work has appeared in Italian, French, Croatian and Arabic translations. He has spoken about his work on national and international media, including BBC Four TV, BBC Radio 3’s ‘Night Waves’, ABC National Radio in Australia and the BBC World Service.
Scanlan is also the co-founder and series editor of Reaktion’s ‘Reverb’ series of books about the relationship between music and place, which was established in 2010. To date the series has commissioned some two dozen titles. Recent successes include Seth Bovey’s acclaimed Five Years Ahead of My Time: Garage Rock from the 1950s to the Present (Shindig! magazine’s book of the year, 2019) and Mark Doyle’s widely-praised The Kinks: Songs of the Semi-Detached.
Other info
‘Reverb’ book series at University of Chicago Press
Recent articles
‘Mythical Past, Infinite Future: A Journey Through Britain’s Energy Coast’, Architecture and Culture, Vol. 11/3 (2025): 1-24.
‘Waste / Art,’ in Throwaway: The History of a Modern Crisis (Luxembourg: Publication Office of the EU, 2023): 126-143.
‘Raymond Moore’s Uncertain Places’, in Photographies, Vol. 15/2 (2022): 225-239.