I tell myself I can't draw, that I've got no visual sense. So what was I doing in an art workshop called Tell the Canvas on Saturday morning? Testing myself a little, and enjoying myself quite a lot. This was a one hour drawing and collage session facilitated by Mel Barry, and held in Thrive …
Category: London
nice bit of kit
Much as I love nature and spending time in parks and gardens, I also find heavy industry and construction work aesthetically interesting. Stimulating, even! So one of the highlights of my week was being invited to a viewing of the Tunnel Boring Machines at the Northern Line Extension's Battersea site, before the TBMs were lowered …
both ordinary and extraordinary
I went to a talk recently, organised by the Battersea Society, about an unlikely pair of spinster sisters, Ida and Louise Cook, who helped at least 29 Jewish people escape Nazi Germany before the outbreak of the Second World War. The invited speaker was Louise Carpenter. She'd researched the sisters for a potential biography but …
before dawn
I woke before dawn and couldn't get back to sleep. So I got up, made myself a cup of tea and sat on the window ledge in the studio with a blank sheet of paper and my pen. I wrote whatever came into my mind - which was mostly those things which were already in …
hip hip
Two of my poems appeared in print this week, a lovely boost as I'm in a bit of a writing lull at the moment. One poem is published in Brittle Star issue 39. I really like the mix of poetry, short fiction and articles in Brittle Star, and the magazine is nicely compact and handsomely …
writing ‘not yet Eden’
not yet Eden is the title of the poem I wrote for Lucy Cash's film A Song for Nine Elms. I explained how I got involved in Lucy's film in my last blog post. Lucy had asked me if I could write something that was, loosely, from the roof garden's point of view. I wanted …
reflecting on A Song for Nine Elms
We had a busy Saturday in the Doddington & Rollo Community Roof Garden recently. A shared harvest lunch, followed by an inspiring and practical workshop, Growing Edible Plants in the City, led by Sue Sheehan of Incredible Edible. And then, in the community centre downstairs, the first screening of the film A Song for Nine …
overdue debut
Last Saturday I braved the downpour and headed up to Kings Cross for a special evening at SLAM - the launch of four Green Bottle Press pamphlets. I'll declare my bias at the outset.* I was there for one poet - Claire Booker - and this post is mostly about her pamphlet Later there will be …
farewell, unknown gardener
When did I first notice the magical little world contained in a front garden on Macduff Road? I can't remember exactly, but for years it's been one of my local landmarks, a spot I'll swing past on my way back from the park, wondering what's changed, stopping to gaze in childish delight. The front garden …
in Time Out 20 years ago
Nicholas Royle wrote some lovely words about my writing in Time Out back in 1996, as part of a feature profiling four up-and-coming London writers. I'm still not there yet (wherever 'there' may be) but the support of people like Nicholas Royle is what keeps most writers (wherever they are) plugging away. My novel The …
Hilaire 