As a writer, I'm allergic to themes. Or, perhaps more accurately, I have an intolerance of themes, rather than a full-blown allergy. I can see why magazine and anthology editors like themes - to give structure and shape, an overall coherence to the final selection. The theme may also help restrict the volume of submissions …
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.
all quiet on the literary front
Not much writing going on, for various reasons (excuses?). I'm still adapting to (resisting) the full time work routine. And then, last week, there was my significant other's significant birthday to celebrate. Cue: midweek break to Margate for bracing walks, sea air, magnificent skies and a visit to the new Turner Contemporary gallery - unprepossessing …
big paintings, small review
Well, hardly even a review. But I've been thinking about the Gerhard Richter retrospective, Panorama, on at Tate Modern at the moment. I've been twice now, and there is so much to see, and the work is so varied, which is one of the things I like about Richter. The same artist can produce bleak …
less is more, more or less
To Kings Place on Friday evening for a concert billed as 50 Years of Minimalism: Europeans & Experimentalists, featuring the sibling pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque, alongside musicians involved in Katia Labèque's 'contemporary rock band'. It turned out to be quite a varied programme, ranging from incredibly quiet and delicate pieces to the cacophonous. Now, …
immersive states
On Friday evening, we went to see the Pipilotti Rist exhibition, Eyeball Massage, at the Hayward Gallery. 'See' is not quite right; 'experience' is more accurate. And what a joyous, enriching and somehow also calming experience it was, and a wonderful transition out of - far away from - the working week. I'm worried now …
a few dread words
Goals. Targets. Prioritising. Career. The language of business and the grown-up world. I resist, buck against it, my contrary side fights through. I think I can safely say I have succeeded (watch it!) in my stated desire not to have a career (with all its overtones of ambition, monetary motivation, seriousness, achievement over integrity). Writing …
masks and wings
On Tuesday night, we found ourselves standing in a street in Shoreditch with a hundred or so others, all sporting plastic Alfred Jarry masks. The occasion: a group photo to mark the launch of Alastair Brotchie's handsome and indispensable tome on the great 'Pataphysician. Inside The Griffin pub, the pool table had been temporarily transformed …
no boundary condition
I've been twice so far to see the current exhibition at the Lisson Gallery: No Boundary Condition - paintings and sculptures by Shirazeh Houshiary. It's the paintings I'm most drawn to - shimmering, shifting, mirage-like pieces, with their captivating titles ('Wither', 'Sigh', 'Ebb', 'Between'); the intense, bruised colours; and the surfaces, which appear to have …
a crumb of literary comfort
On a lunchtime wander this week, I came across this plaque: There I was, dragging about in a fog of head-cold and office blues, and suddenly I'm connected to Eliot - his 'lonely cab-horse steams and stamps' only a few streets away from where I earn the crust that keeps the wolf from the door. …
how to save eight hundred and ninety-five pounds
You find yourself, on a weekend away from London, in the rather randomly chosen town of Lewes (but what a good choice it turns out to be), on the Saturday morning, after a superb breakfast of eggs Florentine in the swishy hotel you've indulgently booked - you find yourself at a book fair in Lewes …
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Hilaire 