The actor and musician Johnny Flynn was born in South Africa in 1983 and moved to England aged two. He studied acting at Webber Douglas, going on to star in films such as Beast and Emma and as David Bowie in Stardust. His TV credits include Vanity Fair and the forthcoming Sky Atlantic drama The Lovers. As a musician, he has recorded several albums including 2021’s Lost in the Cedar Wood. Now Flynn is playing Richard Burton in The Motive and the Cue at the National Theatre, from 20 April to 15 July. He lives in east London with his wife, Beatrice Minns, and their three children.
1. Fiction
Gilgamesh: A New Translation of the Ancient Epic by Sophus Helle
Gilgamesh is an ancient Mesopotamian myth that was buried for thousands of years and then rediscovered in the 19th century. People have been translating it ever since. This recent translation by Sophus Helle is the best I’ve read: the writing is so fresh. The story – about bad governance and ecocide and grief, among other things – feels very present and is full of warnings. I’ve been involved in an ongoing project around Gilgamesh with Robert Macfarlane – we made an album loosely based on it – so I was really interested to read this.
2. Nonfiction
In Search of the Dark Ages by Michael Wood
I loved studying history at school, but we never did anything on the dark ages. This book about the period between the Romans and the Norman conquest, originally published in 1981 and recently updated, is just amazing, so well written and readable. With so much talk nowadays about migration and English identity, it shows that we’re just this flowing tribe of migrants ourselves and in our ancestry there was wave after wave of people coming and going. I would like to put it in the hands of Suella Braverman and Priti Patel.
3. Theatre
I’m a huge fan of the site-specific theatre company Punchdrunk. I’m drawn to their visual storytelling, and as an introvert I enjoy the anonymity afforded by the masks that audience members wear as they move around the space. The classical world that they’re exploring in this new production, taking you through the fallen city of Troy, is so fantastically realised. I’ve been twice now, and the scale of it and what it demands from the performers is just incredible.
4. Music
The Circle
The Circle is a collective of musicians including AK Patterson and Finnegan Tui that makes really bold and interesting acoustic music with electronic elements. They put on a performance last month at the Brunel Museum in London and I took my son, who’s just getting into playing music. It blew us away. Each of them is a brilliant musician in their own right, but together it’s just this lovely thing. They perform with a very beautiful egalitarian spirit and the music is really inspired and unique.
5. Lecture
I recently discovered the Temenos academy in London, which calls itself an ancient wisdom school. They invite amazing people to give lectures and I went to one recently called The Art of Mandala, about sacred geometry. I took my 12-year-old son, who can’t stop talking about compasses and shapes and patterns. The lecture also covered geometry in nature and in classical architecture. It was really inspiring and gave a sense of continuity with the ancients. They have an archive on their website where you can listen to the lectures online.
6. Shop
Patina on Chatsworth Road, London E5
I do all my Christmas shopping at this antiques shop in east London. I’ve befriended the lovely Polish couple who run it. The man’s mother weaves traditional Polish socks that they sell in the shop, along with old Polish crockery, traditional dress and religious iconography that they bring over from Poland in a van. As a bit of a hoarder, I love going in there. Every present I’ve ever bought from Patina goes down a treat. It’s overflowing with the most beautiful objects from a culture that’s different from ours in a wonderful way.