‘I could hear the father talking / through the window to his daughter. / It was low and tender. / Intensely private. / dark field, dark road, / the night sky clouded over. /  It felt rude to listen, even to the cadence of his words.’ [1]Speaking to Emily Dinsdale of Dazed (online magazine), Ella … More Speaking to Emily Dinsdale of ‘Dazed’, Ella Frears says of her new artwork that: “It’s not verse, but I guess when I started writing through this angry voice, I found a cadence that makes it slightly unsettling”. Why do cadences unsettle us? This is a blog on ‘Goodlord’ (2024) by Ella Frears.

It is ‘not for those above us to tell us what we believe’, says Anne Askew (Erin Doherty in Firebrand (2023 film). This blog discusses the problem of enacting what you believe yourself capable of becoming for female actors in that film. Poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2024/firebrand_xxlg.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77103656 We have to forget about any idea … More It is ‘not for those above us to tell us what we believe’, says Anne Askew in ‘Firebrand’. This blog discusses the problem of enacting what you believe yourself capable of becoming for female actors in that film.

Creation Lake “was the most fun I’ve ever had doing anything in my life” said Rachel Kushner in a recent interview with Lisa Allardice. [1] This is not a review: ‘Close in the name of jesting! / Lie thou there, / for here comes the trout that must be caught with tickling. / — Maria, … More ‘Creation Lake’ “was the most fun I’ve ever had doing anything in my life” said Rachel Kushner in a recent interview with Lisa Allardice. This is not a review: ‘Close in the name of jesting! / Lie thou there, / for here comes the trout that must be caught with tickling. / — Maria, from ‘Twelfth Night’’.

‘Real, unreal; inner, outer – always debatable land to her. … He sees his dead daughter. What’s that if not a disputed boundary?’ [1]Greek myth contained numerous contesting stories about its protagonists. The point always was to choose a story that revealed people who experience the world, and describe and act in it in ways … More ‘Real, unreal; inner, outer – always debatable land to her. … He sees his dead daughter. What’s that if not a disputed boundary?’ This is a blog about Pat Barker (2024) ‘The Voyage Home’

The fratricidal protagonist of his novel ‘Falconer’ (the name of the prison setting of the novel), Ezekiel Farragut eventually leaves Falconer. Though a laundromat shop-front he examines the ‘bull’s eye windows of drying machines’ in which there are ‘clothes tossed and falling, always falling – falling heedlessly, it seemed, like falling souls or angels if … More The fratricidal protagonist of his novel ‘Falconer’ (the name of the prison setting of the novel), Ezekiel Farragut, eventually leaves Falconer. Though a laundromat shop-front he examines the ‘bull’s eye windows of drying machines’ in which there are ‘clothes tossed and falling, always falling – falling heedlessly, it seemed, like falling souls or angels if their fall had ever been heedless’.[1] This blog is a comment on John Cheever  (2014, first published 1977) ‘Falconer’.

Talbot Rice Gallery, aided by the artist, this year shows us the continuing newness and vitality of the work of the artist El Anatsui for the Edinburgh Art Festival. This blog interrogates the exhibition with the help of Susan Mullin Vogel (2020) El Anatsui: Art and Life Munich, London, New York, Prestel Verlag. It concludes … More Talbot Rice Gallery, aided by the artist, this year shows us the continuing newness and vitality of the work of the artist El Anatsui for the Edinburgh Art Festival. This blog interrogates the exhibition with the help of Susan Mullin Vogel (2020) El Anatsui: Art and Life Munich, London, New York, Prestel Verlag. It concludes I need to learn more, and see more, of this artist.

Daisy, our recue Staffy is a roller. She always has been. As she has aged, some of her nervous disposition has increased. She is easily frightened by loud noises, especially hunting gun shots, which happen a lot over the field behind our house. But one thing she has always done is roll. I have to … More Roll, Daisy, roll!

Speaking of his novels and short stories, Colm Tóibín says of James Baldwin’s prose style that, ‘I have no memory of being impressed or even detained much … . I just read it. I wonder if it was designed for that purpose: to be read without noticing the style’. This is a blog on style … More This is a blog on style that uses dramatic tension and ordinariness together, and, what readers ‘notice’ in their reading and what they don’t notice as discussed in both noticeable and hard-to-notice ways in Colm Tóibín (2024) ‘On James Baldwin’.