In a way, Damon Galgut’s “In a Strange Room” only comes to life in the third and final section. This is where there is real pace and drama and is so different to what comes before that the novel eventually seems more like a loose collection of novellas. Yes, there is a constant character throughout… Read More “In a Strange Room”
What can you tell from the title of a book, its cover, the blurb that goes with it? Too often these prove insufficient clues as to what might be hidden inside – good or bad. Sometimes when we’re buying a new book we’ll take a punt; but more often than not, we probably settle for… Read More Openings
I recently published a post on the Coverstory books website that started like this: As a Writer there’s nothing quite like seeing your words coalesce, watching characters develop and take on a life of their own, or weaving meaning and narrative into a poem. As an Editor and publisher there’s nothing like that frisson of… Read More Another step forward in a writing life…
Since my original post (appended below) I have now completed 30 stages (from a revised 60) of my journey since ‘leaving’ Land’s End, cycling some 747km. Progress was a little slower in December than previously, but I hope to ramp it up again during Q1’22. In a virtual sense, therefore, I am now just about… Read More Sound body, sound mind – another update
As much as I like and admire William Golding’s work, “Darkness Visible” missed a beat for me. It almost felt as if his characters had gifted him with multiple themes yet he hadn’t been able to exactly settle on the central one when he was writing it. Thus the focus seems to shift been the… Read More “Darkness Visible”
mid-night soliloquy the remorseless clock beats a tattoo against the window-black the cathedral bells chime four in the semi-dark kitchen drinking decaf tea remembering what pilfered sleep a restlessness crescendoed by the headlights of the milkman’s truck stealing through inadequate blinds a little later the crush of the clock’s ticking trumps the sunrise-gloom and the… Read More Mid-night Soliloquy
I am delighted to announce that I have a new book out today. Neither fiction nor poetry, “Shrapnel from a Writing Life” isn’t easily categorised. Here’s an excerpt from the blurb: “Shrapnel from a Writing Life” is not a conventional book. It is neither fiction nor poetry, though it contains elements of both; nor is… Read More Published today: “Shrapnel from a Writing Life”
What can you say about Samuel Beckett? If you have ever seen “Waiting For Godot” performed live you’ll know the genius of the man. Beckett is a supremely visual playwright, and so simply reading “Krapp’s Last Tape and other shorter plays” was never going to be an excessively rewarding experience. But having a sense of… Read More “Krapp’s Last Tape and other shorter plays”
Have you ever thought about how you navigate through Time? Because we do. Unlike a map however, which has references to the concrete and physical – those hills, that river – and which articulate means to get from one place to another – roads or railway lines, for example – Time has no such attributes,… Read More The Lure of Time
Jan and the team at Writers’ Retreats UK have their next three-day event scheduled for the 11th February 2022 in the northern Lake District, not far from the Scottish border, and I am delighted to have been invited as a guest in order to run some workshops and offer a little ad-hoc mentoring as and… Read More Writers’ Retreat – The Lake District, February
It was mere coincidence that saw me reading Denis Johnson’s short story collection “Jesus’ Son” immediately after Kevin Barry’s “That Old Country Music” – but it was a coincidence which served to throw the two into sharp contrast. Where Barry’s stories are softer, somewhat gentle, filled with ‘Irishness’, Johnson’s are raw, hard, uncompromising, and paint… Read More “Jesus’ Son”
Kevin Barry’s collection of short stories, “That Old Country Music” is, in its own way, a gem. Although the subjects of the stories are often serious and sombre (e.g. teenage pregnancy, abandonment, failed love), Barry handles his material with such subtlety that at times you perhaps can’t help but wonder if the tone isn’t a… Read More “That Old Country Music”
There is something of the fairy story about Fredrik Backman’s “Anxious People” – which probably shouldn’t be a surprise from the man who have us “A Man Called Ove”. You might also argue that “Anxious People” is a rare novel these days: one which, in the flurry of positivity towards the end, manages to resolve… Read More “Anxious People”
I am delighted to announce that I have a new book coming out in January. Neither fiction nor poetry, “Shrapnel from a Writing Life” isn’t easily categorised. Here’s an excerpt from the blurb: “Shrapnel from a Writing Life” is not a conventional book. It is neither fiction nor poetry, though it contains elements of both;… Read More New book out in January!
Having loved Fiona Mozley’s Booker-nominated debut “Elmet”, I simply wasn’t prepared for “Hot Stew”. To my mind the two books are so ‘chalk and cheese’ that they could have been written by different people. Not that “Hot Stew” is a ‘bad’ book. It isn’t. But it is remarkably different in subject matter, style and tone.… Read More “Hot Stew”
Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. George Orwell, from “1984” Airbrushing history does not make the future any… Read More It will soon be 1984…
The premise behind Nick Bradley’s “The Cat and the City” is sound enough: a series of short stories or vignettes that are linked together by a range of characters who variously flit in and out of each – and by the appearance of a calico cat in just about every one. The collection starts out… Read More “The Cat and the City”
Drawing Breath at the National Trust Her voice carries. No full stops she is all conjunctions: ‘but’ and ‘so’ and ‘yet’ and ‘and’. Sixty-five years of catching up to do chasing herself through unpunctuated sentences. And then the crows come to pick at crumbs from the cheese scone taken an age to eat, minor mouthfuls… Read More Drawing Breath at the National Trust
Thirteen months ago I stepped off the edge of a cliff. In my post “The Daunting Prospect of Reinvention” I described how I was about to leave my most recent job – well paid, professional work – and embark on what had been loosely termed ‘the glide path to retirement’. It was, I told myself… Read More Brave new world?
I suspect just about everyone who attends a Writers’ retreat uncovers a nugget of some kind. Often these priceless finds will be unearthed through informal interaction with other attendees, conversations over dinner, sharing writing experiences – or even experiences of life. At my first retreat four years ago (at Garsdale Retreat in North Yorkshire), my… Read More Writing Retreats: panning for gold…
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