Tag: Literature

I’m off to old student country, Wales, this weekend. Haven’t been back in a while and very much looking forward to it.

Discovering that the adaptation of Any Human Heart (Boyd again, sorry if it’s getting repetitive) was going to be shown prior to Christmas in a four-part dramatisation series was a bit of a gift. I instantly called my Dad and told him to Sky Plus it (we are mutual Boyd …

I seem to be at least a fortnight behind with my recent blogging. All I can say is that unprecedented distractions (in a variety of guises – work, play and otherwise) have resulted in minimal writing time.

I love this time of year: low sunshine, crackling leaves, and not a sign of the abuse of one’s senses that is the absurd Christmas build-up. I also really love Halloween (or to give it its proper abbreviation, Hallowe’en) for its sheer seasonal impact. In other words, it’s an annual, …

Last year, I read Elizabeth M. Gilbert’s quest story Eat, Pray, Love. Taglined as ‘One woman’s search for everything’, and based on Gilbert’s own experiences, the book is the kind of popularised self-help/spiritual crossover that appeals to the specific female market that made Chicken Soup for the Soul a global …

To preface this belated follow-up to my Boyd post: I did of course promise to offer my thoughts on Ordinary Thunderstorms about a month ago, but I’m both forgetful and busy, for which I make no apologies. I’ve just finished a trio of books that all happen to be set …

Discovering a new author is like that moment of realising that someone who you thought was just an acquaintance might actually become a huge part of your life: you’ve got more in common than you previously thought. You rebuke yourself with the obvious question: “Why didn’t I see it before?”

My commute home is generally spent trying to ignore other commuters. I adopt a comatose and defensive stance: arms folded, massive earphones blocking out the sound, eyes happily closed. If someone nudges me, I nudge them back. You have to be very territorial on the Underground.