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 …
Category: musings
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 …
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. …
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 …
a fair fortnight
Two weeks since we returned from Melbourne, and here are a few things that have eased my adjustment back into London life: The weather. We've had a spell of glorious, almost summery weather. Clear blue skies, temperatures into the low twenties, hazy sunshine. Crisp mornings and balmy evenings. Warm enough to sit outside a pub …
not quite dispelling the blues
A brisk walk around Battersea Park. Looking for signs of spring, and for the rhyme or reason that I'm still wedded to London. I need to gaze at water but The Thames is low, the tide right out. The brightest thing in the park is an out of place wattle tree, shaking its yellow blossoms …
pep talk
New year's resolutions are so last year, don't you think? Besides, I have a constant conversation with myself (mostly not out loud, but the occasional exhortation gets vocalised) about being more disciplined, focussing on what's important, keeping the day job in perspective, not giving in to diversionary tendencies (that sounds like a political crime in …
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 …
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 …
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. …
Hilaire 