“Let our imagination guide us – and never cease to follow it, for if we do, we grow up and the child inside us is no more.” – seen in Starbuck’s, Muswell Hill
Archive | February, 2010
Reading 8 or 9 hours a day
George Lamming also said something quite amazing in his speech, and I forgot to mention it in my last post. He mentioned that he reads for 8 or 9 hours a day, and has done throughout his life. If he doesn’t read that much, he feels – I forget the word he used, but basically [...]
George Lamming on “The politics of reading”
While I was in Barbados over Christmas and New Year, I went to a literary event – the 12th annual award ceremony for the Frank Collymore Literary Endowment, on Saturday 9 January 2010. The keynote speaker was George Lamming, probably Barbados’s best-known writer. He gave a fascinating speech on the politics of reading, which I [...]
Monday morning inspiration
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up. – Thomas Edison
I’m old
It was one of those moments when you realise you’re old – or at least no longer young. I am working on editing the draft of my next novel, and decided to go to a cafe – somewhere I hadn’t been before, a fresh location for a fresh perspective on the manuscript. All was going [...]
British “state of the nation” novels
One of my fellow Legend Press authors, Mark Piggott, wrote an interesting article in the Independent about ‘state of the nation’ novels. I thought it would be complaining that nobody’s writing about contemporary British issues these days – there’s been quite a bit of that recently, because historical novels have been getting a lot of [...]
“Gustave Flaubert” by Andrew Brown
This is not your standard biography. Translator Andrew Brown abandons the usual chronological approach in favour of an entertaining, thematic narrative that moves through Flaubert’s life by a kind of free association. The first chapter, for example, is on the spire of Rouen cathedral, and the second on the spiral of Flaubert’s life, “a matter [...]
“The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger
When I talked about why I blogged, I used to use this book as my stock example. Here I am in September 2008, for example: The original idea of this blog was to provide somewhere for me to record the books and articles I read. I forget things so easily: I know I’ve read “Catcher [...]
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“The Sense of an Ending” by Julian Barnes
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Introducing “A Virtual Love”, coming to a bookshop near you in Spring 2013
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Finding some inspiration
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Beauty is a sleeping cat
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“Half Blood Blues” by Esi Edugyan
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Great opportunity for unpublished UK writers
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How to write a book review
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How writers generate ideas
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The Sense of an Ending, explained
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How much would you pay for a short story?
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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...
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HPM: Why does Veronica behave so obstructively? Yes, i...
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Andrew Blackman: Yes, that would be good! I like contests with no g...
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Geosi: I wish it was extended to africans as well....lol!...
