Hashish, Wine, Opium Not my methods for getting through convalescence, sadly, but an excellent book published by Oneworld Classics and which they were kind enough to send to me. I’ve said before that Charles Baudelaire has a strange place in my heart, having been both my introduction to French literature and my introduction to the […]
The present moves into the past, carrying us with it This week has seen the departure of two icons of my youth: Farrah Fawcett with her improbable hair, and Michael Jackson with his improbable life. They both shone out of television sets across a Britain struggling to compete with the shiny glamour of all things […]
Not a Writing Neurosis but a Writing Indulgence For years I resisted the Moleskine notebook, believing it to be the preserve of the poseur writer (and I’m not wrong about that, but it’s not the SOLE preserve of the poseur writer, that’s the point) but a clever friend gave me a Moleskine and immediately I […]
Honesty in Writing There are things we’d all rather not remember, and certainly don’t want to find ourselves writing about: our sad childhoods or pathetic teenage years, our failed marriages or disastrous career experiences. And there’s no reason, unless we particularly desire to produce a misery memoir, or are writing for self-development purposes, that we […]
Aaargh! Library fail From the Brighton and Hove Library website: Reservation charges from June 1, 2009 – From June 15 2009 there will be a reservation charge of 50p (concessionary rate 25p) for items in stock in Brighton & Hove Libraries. This will apply to people aged 16 and over. Reservations for people aged 15 […]
Literature, outsiders and welcoming them in Thanks to the excellent Baroque in Hackney my stuporous misery has been punctured by the reminder that it is Refugee Week. Hurrah! Following the Griffin pelting, which still makes me smile despite my long-standing conviction that even symbolic violence is wrong, I am motivated to do something. On the […]
“The rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated” But not utterly exaggerated … Yes I have been absent on more dramatic terms this time. Two hospital interludes: the second one planned, the first an impromptu response to something (virus? bacterium? body attacking itself out of sheer boredom?) that left me so weak I was […]
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 […]
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