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Finding some inspiration

By On 15 February 2012 · 5 Comments

Sometimes, as much as I like writing, I get tired of it. Towards the end of last year, it became difficult, and I started to dread it, and I wasn’t happy with what I was producing, and I let myself get too busy with other things. I needed a change of scene.

I am [...]

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books

On the Holloway Road – free sample

By On 24 December 2011 · 7 Comments

My publisher, Legend Press, is offering a free sample of the first two chapters of On the Holloway Road as a special Christmas giveaway. Click here to access it – not sure how long it’ll be available.

Merry Christmas to all my readers, and thanks for all the wonderful comments over the year [...]

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nii-parkes

“Tail of the Blue Bird” by Nii Ayikwei Parkes

By On 3 December 2011 · 6 Comments

This is a VERY belated post for Ghanaian Literature Week, organised by the wonderful Kinna. I signed up for it back in October, but since then a few things have sucked up a lot of my time and energy.

Anyway I did read a Ghanaian book during the week itself, and it was [...]

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German Literature Month readalong, Effi Briest – part 3

By On 21 November 2011 · 8 Comments

So it’s week 3 of German Literature Month, organised by Lizzie and Caroline. We’re reading Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane.

Why do you think Effi kept Crampas’s letters?

I found it a little implausible at the time, because it was such a huge risk for her to take, and she must have [...]

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German literature month readalong – part 2

By On 14 November 2011 · 6 Comments

It’s the second week of the Effi Briest readalong, hosted by Lizzy and Caroline as part of German Literature Month. Here are Caroline’s questions and my answers.

What strikes you most in this novel, what do like or dislike the most?

One thing I like about the novel is the gradual [...]

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German Literature Month readalong – part 1

By On 5 November 2011 · 12 Comments

I am participating in the readalong of Theodore Fontaine’s Effi Briest as part of German Literature Month. Here are my reactions to the first 15 chapters. Questions posed by Lizzy.   Q1: Welcome to the 1st German Literature Month Readalong!  Had you heard of Theodor Fontane and Effi Briest before now?  What enticed [...]

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“The Problems of Philosophy” by Bertrand Russell

By On 31 October 2011 · 8 Comments

This book is pitched just at the right level for me. I am interested in philosophy, but don’t have enough knowledge of it to be able to understand some of the more complex works. I tried Wittgenstein recently, for instance, and it didn’t take. But this short introduction to some of the basic problems [...]

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The Secret Life of Pronouns, etc…

By On 24 October 2011 · 7 Comments

My Dad sent me an interesting article from New Scientist magazine recently called “The Secret Life of Pronouns”. It’s based on a book of the same name by James W. Pennebaker. Now the article was fascinating (I’ll get to it in a minute), but I just wanted to put in a quick plea first.

Please, [...]

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Congratulations, Julian Barnes!

By On 18 October 2011 · 5 Comments

So he won his Booker after all, the man who’s been shortlisted three times but never won before, and who once famously referred to the prize as “posh bingo”.

To be honest I’m a bit sick of the Booker by now – there seems to have been more publicity about it than usual, [...]

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“C” by Tom McCarthy

By On 17 October 2011 · 11 Comments

Well, that was a bit different. Don’t come to this book expecting plot, character development or anything like that. The main character, Serge, is like a conduit for signals from the radio that his father is experimenting with when he’s born and that he himself develops a fascination with as he gets older. He’s [...]

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