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’.

Leanne, your name sounds softer now, your loss Echoing still, and making space between stars A little greater. But spaces are to cross Not linger in. They are not prison bars Nor vast and empty soundless, sightless holes. Endings were just stage-light that dare our souls   Live larger like that fine actress you are … More Our friend Claire asked us to write some words on the loss of our dear friend and her mother, a woman who gifted us and the world with someone who ought to be our ‘daughter’.

In yesterday’s blog I wrote, referring to Ralf Webb’s fine book (Strange Relations: Masculinity, Sexuality and Art in Mid-Century America, [2024] London, Hodder & Stoughton) and referring to his section on Baldwin Of James Baldwin I could not get enough. I will read him again, when I have finished Colm Tóibín’s new book on him at least, but … More ‘The “road” means my return South’. The mission that was the life and witness of James Baldwin. This blog reflects on the great film ‘I Am Not Your Negro’, with the writing of Baldwin himself.

When Kathryn Hughes reviewed Ralf Webb’s (2024) Strange Relations: Masculinity, Sexuality and Art in Mid-Century America, London, Hodder & Stoughton in an otherwise highly positive review she picks out the necessary negative, in order to prove her credentials as a critic. She says that Webb ‘feels obliged to include chunks of plot summary’ (of the … More I think a lot can be learned by just ‘relating’ stories. This is is a short blog on Ralf Webb (2024) ‘Strange Relations: Masculinity, Sexuality and Art in Mid-Century America’

In a poem called There’s a Problem in the Arts, the voice of a lyric says of literature that, ‘it’s an industry / for cunts! / Where’s the fucking poetry in it?’ [1]. What is that problem? This is a blog on Jenni Fagan (2024) A Swan’s Neck On The Butcher’s Block Edinburgh, Polygon. It … More In her new volume Jenni Fagan has a poem called ‘There’s a Problem in the Arts’. What is that problem? This is a blog on Fagan’s (2024) ‘A Swan’s Neck On The Butcher’s Block’.

It isn’t all that ‘crazy’ to experience a ‘time warp’ in a structure ‘shaped by time’. A novelist ‘obsessed by time as a structure’.[1] This is a blog on a beautiful, readable comedy of a transatlantic impossible meeting of ‘two sides of a single. A-side and B-side’.[2] Benjamin Myers (2024) Rare Singles London & Dublin, … More It isn’t all that ‘crazy’ to experience a ‘time warp’ in a structure ‘shaped by time’. A novelist ‘obsessed by time as a structure’. Benjamin Myers (2024) ‘Rare Singles’.

The second of 2 days at the Edinburgh Festival: A blog covering events on 23rd August 2024. This diary blog covers the things I did at Edinburgh on the 23rd August after staying over from the 22nd August at Novotel Central Edinburgh. There is a record of other times at Edinburgh at these links: 14th … More The second of 2 days at the Edinburgh Festival: A blog covering events on 23rd August 2024.

Amy Liptrot’s ‘The Outrun’ performed by the Lyceum Theatre Company for the Edinburgh Festival at Church Hill Theatre on Thursday 22nd August 2024, 8.00 p.m. I might as well start with publicity images from the space because in truth, getting there to the actual space on time, where I might have taken my own was a … More Amy Liptrot’s ‘The Outrun’ performed by the Lyceum Theatre Company for the Edinburgh Festival at Church Hill Theatre on Thursday 22nd August 2024, 8.00 p.m.

‘The edge is where I’m from. It’s my home’.[1] From an autobiographical account of recovery containing encounters with representations of worlds considered as both real and only liminally so to the making of performance-oriented art forms. Preparing to see a performed adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s ‘The Outrun’ by reading the book. Sometimes a memoir’s significance hangs … More ‘The edge is where I’m from. It’s my home’. Preparing to see a performed adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s ‘The Outrun’ by reading the book.

Gifted with this picture, Joanne, that laughterBonding mother’s cheer with daughter hereafter. Acrostic! you silly thing!So let concrete verse take wing Joanne, let my caring love, see you safe Over bridges where danger flows beneathAnd praise those careful steps across the heathNo person treads without storms, skin will chafeNow and thin in inclement weather, But … More An acrostic and a concrete verse with wings, for dear friend, Joanne, and daughter (as promised in a foolish moment).