After much angsting (what should I wear? will anyone come along? will I sell any books?), the London launch of Triptych Poets turned out to be a very enjoyable event. In a dimly-lit below-stairs bar, round the corner from the Friday night madness of Leicester Square, a good group of friends and acquaintances gathered to …
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.
happy national poetry day
On the radio this morning I hear a setting of a Robert Burns poem, My heart's in the Highlands, by Arvo Pärt, for counter-tenor and organ. An unexpected combination - Pärt and Burns - the ascetic Estonian composer and the libertine Scottish bard. But it works. A charming and wistful song, a perfect piece for …
about reading about writing
Working my way through the latest issue of the London Review of Books (I must finish it before the next fortnightly issue arrives, otherwise low-level panic sets in), which is chock full of far too stimulating reviews and articles. When will I find the time to read an actual book? This issue (cover date 23 …
lushness, sublimity and more
Summer is coming to an end. So are the Proms. Last night, we sat high up in the circle at the Royal Albert Hall to watch and listen to the Berliner Philharmoniker perform some sublime music. First up, Wagner's Prelude to Act 1 of Parsifal - love those lush strings. Then, the extraordinary soaring, immensely …
Lydia Davis at the London Review Bookshop
To the London Review Bookshop on Tuesday evening to hear Lydia Davis read and discuss her work with Kasia Boddy. My interest was piqued by a recent enthusiastic review in the LRB of Davis's Collected Stories. The collection runs to over 700 pages, yet I'd not come across her work before. Many of the stories …
The Land of Green Plums
I finished reading Herta Müller's The Land of Green Plums last weekend. There's a disturbing childlike quality to the writing, which reminded me a little of Unica Zürn's Dark Spring - the sense of pervasive threat, a thread of brutal violence beneath the sometimes fairytale atmosphere. I did find the novel difficult to get into …
autumnal leanings
It's only the second week of August, yet there's a definite sense that we're on the cusp of autumn. There's a nip to the air in the mornings. The sun is lower in the sky, the shadows are longer, more angled, and by 9 p.m the last light is draining from the sky. Most of …
the week that was
was rather high on stress and somewhat low on culture. The stress arose from a little spate of domestic/technological crises (yes, they do seem to come in threes), and the mundane but wearying frustrations of earning a wage. Still, I did manage an early-ish morning swim at the lido on Thursday, twenty lengths, beneath a …
The Slap
I've just finished reading The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas. And, like his previous novel Dead Europe, I'm quite bowled over by it. I really admire the way he's unafraid to tackle big subjects and modern taboos; how his characters argue and discuss issues many of us struggle with - how should we deal with religious …
dawn chorus
How long did it take me to adjust to the level of noise in London? I can't remember now. I think about this as I lie trying to sleep on another warm, muggy night, the windows open for the bit of breeze which shimmies through the plane trees outside. For about five hours, overnight, there's …
Hilaire 