#26 Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga

Posted by on Jan 31, 2016 in book review, novel review, Uncategorised | No Comments

  In Kittur, a fictional small town very much like many South Indian coastal towns, the usual hive of Indian life takes place. Aravind Adiga takes the reader on a dual tour – of the town itself in sententious guidebook excerpts which are supposed to introduce us to the highlights of the place but actually […]

Blogging or not blogging

Posted by on Nov 2, 2012 in Uncategorised | No Comments

Well – I can’t help feeling this may be where I’m at:

Posted by on Mar 7, 2011 in Uncategorised | 5 Comments

Radio Adventures This is what a radio studio looks like. If you are likely to be on t’radio, it’s a good idea to take a bottle of water so you can moisten your throat, to have a few key words written down so you can remember them (like the names of the people you are […]

Posted by on Feb 28, 2011 in Uncategorised | 4 Comments

The rarely wordless one becomes muteI am struggling to know what to say on this blog at present. My book ‘Minding My Peas and Cucumbers’ is due out on 7 March, but people have already been in touch to tell me they have received copies ordered from the Book Depository. There is nothing more guaranteed […]

Posted by on Jan 11, 2011 in Uncategorised | One Comment

Janathon Day 11 – the keeping company day Stats at the bottom for the lovely Janathon checkers. Today I ran with @janathon_ – a shortish loop from Jew Street (where we left our non-running kid with the excellent folks from New Writing South: you know you belong to a really good membership organisation when they […]

Posted by on Jan 28, 2010 in Uncategorised | 4 Comments

What I really wanted for Christmas And have been wanting for years, is something like an atlas of physiognomy. I want to be able to judge, definitively, whether the character I have in my mind’s eye really has hooded eyes, or not. What, exactly, is a Roman nose or a Grecian brow and if I […]

Posted by on Nov 10, 2009 in Uncategorised | 2 Comments

Missing In Action That’s what I am, and I apologise to you for it. But by next week I hope to be back with: 1. A book review2. Commentary on a day in the life of a writer3. A short rant about writers who won’t start and writers who won’t stop. Until then, I beg […]

Posted by on Aug 14, 2009 in Uncategorised | 5 Comments

Another reason writers should challenge themselves (aka, you may not be as rubbishy as you think) I am having a drought year. By this time last year I’d won a competition and been shortlisted for three more. And I’d been commissioned to write a story broadcast on national radio. This year. Nothing. Nada, zip and […]

Posted by on May 21, 2009 in Uncategorised | 6 Comments

My absence has been noted And I apologise to people who emailed me and asked if I was dead (no, but thanks for your generous enquiries anyway) or had writer’s block. Do I detect a touch of schadenfreude in those questions? Anyway, it’s not exactly writer’s block either. It’s workshop season. For some reason my […]

Posted by on Mar 31, 2009 in Uncategorised | 7 Comments

When good writers go bad … No, seriously that’s just to get your attention. Although, having said that, I could, if I allowed myself to, be completely depressed by the amount of depression I have been exposed to recently. There is something very special about writers: in aggregate, we’re like the bit of seaweed hung […]