I realised I haven’t written anything here for a week. The official reason is that I was busy – the unofficial reason is that I was in a constant state of nervous anxiety and couldn’t concentrate on anything for more than a few seconds at a time. The reason for the nerves is pictured here: [...]

On not knowing very much about anything
Even Tolstoy and Goethe and Proust must have had the odd moment when they wondered if they really knew what they were talking about. Somehow I find that heartening.

Post-racial America
Please, somebody give me a non-racist explanation for this cartoon. Please.

“Amsterdam” by Ian McEwan
This was a good, quick read. An interesting story that explores several moral issues such as euthanasia and privacy rights. Another theme is the yearning for greatness and the sacrifices involved, often in vain. For example, Clive is a famous composer trying to create a “Millennial Symphony” and struggling with the pressure. He feels on [...]

Books arrived!
When I first decided to quit my sensible career job and focus on writing, I suppose this is the day I had in mind. At the end of all the early mornings and late nights and rejection letters and self-doubt and setbacks and new starts and hating the chapters I loved yesterday and editing and [...]

“An Artist of the Floating World” by Kazuo Ishiguro
An elderly, celebrated artist, Masuji Ono, is living in retirement in Japan just after the end of World War Two. His daughter is having trouble in her marriage negotiations for reasons he can’t understand: gradually he realises it’s because he is associated with the rise of Japanese militarism in the 1930s, a period now discredited [...]

Article in The Bookseller
There was a nice piece about my novel On the Holloway Road in The Bookseller recently. It’s the main business magazine for the book industry in the UK, so hope it will get some people’s attention. There’s a scan of the article below, and you can also read it on my publisher’s website. Gives some [...]

Extract from Susan Sontag’s diary
“X” is when you feel yourself an object, not a subject. when you want to please and impress people, either by saying what they want to hear, or by shocking them, or by boasting + name-dropping, or by being very cool. …… The source of X is: I don’t know my own feelings….. ….So I [...]

“The Question of Bruno” by Aleksandar Hemon
The writing grabbed me from page one: there is a real rhythm to it, and the description is beautiful. The first story in the collection is the sort of “lazy childhood summer holiday” tale that you expect to be idyllic, until the writer throws in really gruesome details, like a dog killing a mongoose, dead [...]
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“The Sense of an Ending” by Julian Barnes
19 September 2011
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Introducing “A Virtual Love”, coming to a bookshop near you in Spring 2013
12 March 2012
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Finding some inspiration
15 February 2012
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Beauty is a sleeping cat
26 April 2012
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“Half Blood Blues” by Esi Edugyan
10 October 2011
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Learning from Derek Walcott: Bim Literary Festival, day one
18 May 2012
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Great opportunity for unpublished UK writers
14 May 2012
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How to write a book review
11 May 2012
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How writers generate ideas
7 May 2012
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The Sense of an Ending, explained
2 May 2012
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Andrew Blackman: Hello HeeKyung! I'm glad to hear that - it was wh...
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Andrew Blackman: Hi HPM, thanks for visiting! I do agree to a certa...
- Learning from Derek Walcott: Bim Literary Festival, day one | Andrew Blackman: [...] of it.” This made me think of a wonder...
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HeeKyung: I couldn't quite understand the ending until I re...
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Bruno D\'Itri: How Veronica really behaved towards Tony is up for...




