Not long back from a week in the French countryside. Time to reflect, to read, to sit and drink in the landscape, the deep blue sky and fields of maize and sunflowers. Terracotta tiled roofs, delicate orange poppies, pots of carmine geraniums, beds of red sage, lavender and rosemary. Self seeded walnut trees and catalpa. …
Author: Hilaire
I am a writer of poetry and prose. I was born and brought up in Melbourne but have lived in London most of my adult life.
the upsides of downpours
We've had a lot of rain recently. Slight understatement. And the weather seems to affect my spirits more than it used to. How I loved those grim louring skies when I first moved to London. And I do, still, sometimes, when I'm inside looking out, and not worrying about how drenched I'm going to get …
excuse me
Where have the last three weeks gone? (I could as well ask the same of the last six months...) I'm just about treading water. No new writing but I have submitted to a poetry pamphlet competition, and heard last week that I've had a short story accepted for Wet Ink magazine in Australia. Gold star …
mucking in and agitating
I've recently discovered a wonderful community garden less than 5 minutes' walk from our flat. Yesterday, the first properly fine day after a long wet week, I dropped by for an hour armed with some onion sets kindly sent to us by Nick's mother in Norfolk. I am a gardening novice, but the Doddington Community …
the write conditions
Mostly I write in the morning, when I have (or carve out) a couple of hours, before I get distracted by all the other calls on my time. But I'm not a 5 a.m. scribbler, straight from bed. I need to be dressed and breakfasted first. Then I sit at my desk with several sheets …
not lit crit
I've written before about my anxieties around reading. So, this post is just to record some personal responses to two (quite different) books I have actually read. Firstly, I recently finished The House on Paradise Street by Sofka Zinovieff. I was attracted to the book by a short and largely favourable review in the Guardian. …
evening buzz
A fine evening on Friday. Balmy would be overstating it, but spring was in the air, it hadn't rained for over a day, and it was light well beyond eight thirty. Near perfect conditions for the private view of the open studio exhibition at Johnsons Island. Brentford Is Brilliant, banners on the streetlights proclaimed, with …
stones and spots
Two cultural outings in this last week. On Monday, to Kings Place for an evening of challenging music performed by Ilan Volkov and friends. I know Volkov as a conductor and have seen him in this role at a couple of Proms concerts. Monday's event was a very different affair, much more initmate and informal. …
word association football
I seem to have a very associative mind. I recently ordered a copy of the literary magazine, The Wolf, and now every time I see its cover I hear the Duran Duran song 'Hungry Like the Wolf''. I observe that it's raining (a not infrequent occurrence at the moment) and straightaway Nick Cave booms 'And …
two for a tenner
To the Hayward Gallery yesterday evening and for one ten pound ticket got to see two stimulating exhibitions: Jeremy Deller - Joy in People - an overview of Deller's work from the last 20 years. I really like the spirit of his work: enquiring and politically engaged. He's interested in communities and their (often unheard) …
Hilaire 