Tom Dunne: A revealing look inside the fascinating but damaged life of Shane MacGowan
Shane MacGowan with Richard Balls, author of A Furious Devotion. Picture: Paul Ronan
Confident Christmas prediction: In 50 years time, there will be still be a place on our screens for A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life. And, possibly performed by that era’s ‘Stars du Jour,’ there will still be a place on the airwaves for A Fairy-tale of New York. Yep, Dickens, Capra, MacGowan: the giants of Christmas.
It is that towering a work, a little nugget of Christmas reality amongst the schmaltz. It’s you making exorbitant demands for toys while your mother frets and tots up sums on an envelope. It’s where you hoped to be versus the reality of a kitchen table on a cold December morning. It is genius.
