The Triumph of Triviality
We are the people of tomorrow, we have more stuff than anybody's ever had before, and we are so stupid and self-absorbed that we can't even bring ourselves…
Americans in the gulag
Just caught a fascinating piece in the Times Literary Supplement about the thousands of Americans who, either out of idealism or to…
Proofing
Have been immersed in reading the proof copy of my novel for the last few days. I hate this part. Not reading…
RIP Pick More Daisies
My favourite cafe in Crouch End, the cafe where I wrote most of my novel On the Holloway Road, has just put…
New short story published
My short story Safety was recently published in Carillon Magazine. A woman tries to keep herself safe from life by never leaving…
Consume less, live more!
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4OPFl2Kxhs&hl=en&fs=1] From Friends of the Earth, https://www.foei.org/en/get-involved/livemore. Seen originally as a cartoon in New Internationalist, August 2008
Books not to miss in 2009
I’m never sure how these lists get created. In any case, the Guardian has named it’s books not to miss in 2009. Odd…
“A Pale View of Hills” by Kazuo Ishiguro
Most of this novel is memory: a woman thinking about her daughter’s suicide and remembering an earlier summer in post-War Nagasaki. Almost…
"Three Stories" by Alan Bennett
All three of these stories have a deeply satirical flavour, with dry, mostly successful humour and pointed observations on the various absurdities…