The Booker shortlist and my plan of possible INACTION The List came out yesterday and I updated the last of my longlist blogs last night accordingly (see it at this link). As you can see there, my predicted shortlisted included four of the actually shortlisted novels. The other two were novels I had not read, … More The Booker shortlist and my plan of possible INACTION
In Simon Stone’s The Oresteia, the character Alice says to her brother, Augie, of their family tragedy: ‘it has to stop’.[1] Does it stop? Does it even have to? This is a blog on reading, long after seeing Simon Stone after Aeschylus and Others (2026) The Oresteia London, Methuen Drama. I saw Simon Stone’s The … More In Simon Stone’s ‘The Oresteia’, the character Alice says to her brother, Augie, of their family tragedy: ‘it has to stop’. Does it stop? Does it even have to? This is a blog on reading, long after seeing Simon Stone after Aeschylus and Others (2026) The Oresteia
In Freud, the ‘unheimlich’ and the ‘heimlich’ are a kind of equivalence. Is what ‘feels like home’ really the ‘uncanny’? Even if we do not invoke Freud, the doubt about the comfort conveyed by this prompt question is in the prompt question itself: ‘What’s a place you visited that felt like home?’ There are two … More In Freud, the ‘unheimlich’ and the ‘heimlich’ are a kind of equivalence. Is what ‘feels like home’ really the ‘uncanny’?
Should we start much earlier than we do learning about ‘Life, the littleness of it’.[1] Do little books about littleness in enlarged contexts need prizes or forgetting? Do little books about littleness in enlarged contexts need prizes? This is a blog on Emma Cline (2026) Switzy London, London, Chatto & Windus (Penguin). In a final … More Should we start much earlier than we do learning about ‘Life, the littleness of it’. Do little books about littleness in enlarged contexts need prizes or forgetting? This is a blog on Emma Cline (2026) ‘Switzy’.
What’s one thing that would instantly improve your city? Durham city lacks the cultural vibration of constant reinterpretations of great works that a living professional theatre company gives any city. I am using this graphic of the Empty Space of the Gala Theatre in Durham to denote a wider absence, brautiful theayre though it is: … More Durham city lacks the cultural vibration of constant reinterpretations of great works that a living professional theatre company gives any city.
As I said in an earlier blog, some books say we are already switching lives with a ‘fictional character’ in order to survive. The absolute best and most comprehensive writing of our time must ask, as Marlon James allows his characters to do, ‘Why am I writing this shit?’1 Is it because our characters switch … More As I said in an earlier blog, some books say we are already switching lives with a ‘fictional character’ in order to survive. The absolute best and most comprehensive writing of our time must ask, as Marlon James allows his characters to do, ‘Why am I writing this shit?’ Is it because our characters switch to fictional form so often? This is a blog on Marlon James (2026) ‘The Disappearers’.
Did I have to look up that idiomatic term ‘life-hacks‘ because of my age and slow adaptation to computer technology? Perhaps that is the case but it soon dawned upon me that the term ‘Life-hacks’ is yet another example of itself, a way of pretending to understand a more complex explanation of the process by … More ‘Life-hacks’ is yet another example of itself, a way of pretending to understand a more complex explanation of the process by which human understanding of a problem and its solution is reached and implemented. It is also perhaps a ‘democratisation’ of that understanding, – creating a term more clearly understood by more people in a rising generation.
There is, of course, an important and inalienable link being writing and reading, for nothing that is written isn’t from its inception being read, even if only by its writer who assesses as they proceed that the writing is satisfactory to them or its intended audience. The standards of reading judgement vary of course and … More Do I write what people actually want to read? The issue here is not whether writing can be called writing only because it is read by someone, even if only by yourself, but whether writing appeals to what those people,or person, think that they want.
Making time to fill with self-care Leaves no time still to stand and stare: Help me W.H. Davies! I have no great love for W.H. Davies’ poem Leisure, but it feels relevant to this question, opening up the terrible gap in time that cultural ideologies create around words so that a question like our prompt … More ‘Making time to fill with self-care / Leaves no time still to stand and stare’: Help me W.H. Davies!
Do Booker winners become so for a reason? The 2026 Longlist came out on 28 July. Update. Daily writing prompt Do you think everything happens for a reason? View all responses Do Booker winners become so for a reason? The 2026 Longlist came out on 28 July. The shortlist is on 22nd September. THIS IS MY … More Back to the Booker longlist with wishful predictions before shortlist on 22nd.
Sometimes our prompts invite us to validate a proposition that, to say the lest, is questionable and is, at the most a deliberate untruth. Look at this question, for instance: ‘If you had to switch lives with a fictional character for a week, who would you choose?’. It starts with a conditional phrase, ‘If you … More ‘Don’t get me into some philosophical bullshit about lie versus fiction. Fiction is creation. Lie is distortion. One don’t have a fucking thing to do with the other’. Words from Marlon James ‘The Disappearers’ (2026).
To like the ‘villain more than the hero’ is not an eccentric thing at all, neither is it a thing to be confessed, for without this trope of literature and literary readings it is doubtful story-telling or even the more numinous concept poetry as means of artistic and humane expression could exist at all. Usually … More Without Satan, Milton’s poetry would be bereft of the means of a story and even more bereft of the nuanced glance of life turned into a kind of song where contraries separate and come together in conflict and eternal bondage that poetry is, and is ever condemned and blessed to be at its best.
