Simon Armstrong 'The Culture Wars - and why everything interesting is happening at the edge'

Series One In this early episode of #TheNewAbnormal, I interviewed Simon Armstrong, who has the incredibly enviable job of being the book buyer for The Tate. He's a fascinating individual, with a background across an array of leading-edge cultural positions. In this interview, he describes his journey from a working-class background in the North East, to running what many consider to be the finest art bookshop in the world. (Where the subject matter of the stock includes Modern & Contemporary Art, Photography, Design, Fashion and Architecture, etc). We discuss the highly divisive culture wars, the search for artistic authenticity (with an obligatory nod to Sartre), and why actively supporting counter-culture / sub-culture is so important, because - as ever - the most interesting things happen on the periphery 'where everything influences everything else'. Finally, he emphasises how crucial it is to promote fresh thinking and to have 'thoughtful disagreements'.