CONTAINS SPOILERS! “…, what’s the point of having good things if you can’t touch them?” And Isabel would answer: “They are not for touching. They are for keeping.”[1] The Safekeep is well titled since it is a book about why we attempt to guard from others those things we find most precious, keeping them locked … More ‘The Safekeep’ is well titled since it is a book about why we attempt to guard from others those things we find most precious, keeping them locked from the touch of strangers. This is a blog on Yael Van Der Wouden (2024) The Safekeep: A Novel

Charlotte Wood told ABC News in Australia that, for her, writing is a vocation. “There is something sacred … or holy about it. When you’re fully engaged in it, when you’re fully absorbed in the practice of it, there is an almost prayer-like aspect”.[1] I think only Iris Murdoch has worked with materials of moral … More Charlotte Wood says, “There is something sacred … or holy about [writing]. When … you’re fully absorbed in the practice of it, there is an almost prayer-like aspect”. This is a blog on Charlotte Wood (2023) ‘Stone Yard Devotional’.

Rita Bullwinkel seeks for something in the progression of women’s competitive sport which  does not involve a ‘feeling of whittling, of a group of many reduced to a single champion, but’ rather ‘the feeling of accumulation’.[1]  This is a blog on Rita Bullwinkel (2024) Headshot London, Daunt Press. This is a superbly written book with … More Not a ‘feeling of whittling, of a group of many reduced to a single champion, but’ rather ‘the feeling of accumulation’. This is a blog on Rita Bullwinkel (2024) ‘Headshot’.

‘I wish I could tell my story with a sense of history as much as industry. … I can tell you that I am a man who is cognizant of his world, a man who can read and write, a man who will not let his story be self-related, but self-written’.[1] Percival Everett (2024) James … More James is ‘a man who can read and write, a man who will not let his story be self-related, but self-written’. This is a blog on Percival Everett (2024) James London, Mantle. BEWARE SPOILERS.

Updates: 02/08/2024, 03/ 08/ 2024, 05/08/ 2024, 07/08/24, 10/08/24, 13/08/24, 07/09/2408/09/2024, 12/08/24 (long-standing error corrected), 16/09/2024 WITH SHORTLIST Dates added as completed 2024 Booker Longlist – Template for the books I read or intend to read this year. To be edited again after the shortlisting, winning announcement, and of course, as I finish more books … More 2024 Booker Longlist – Template for updating the books I read or intend to read this year.

‘Full fathom five thy father lies’:[1] Sometimes sprites are wicked creatures but even they know not to disturb the deeply buried bones of one’s father’s reputation and accuse him (openly) of lying. Nevertheless, Ariel in The Tempest, like Puck, in that other great fairy play, knows: ’what fools these mortals be!’[2] This is a blog … More ‘Full fathom five my father LIES’: This is a blog on Rose Boyt (2024) ‘The Naked Portrait: A Memoir of Lucian Freud’.

Laura Cumming says of Ronald Moody’s Johanaan of 1936 that it is apparently  ‘named after John the Baptist’ but more tellingly and with the sensitivity usual of this critic that ‘this elm torso is curiously androgynous, swelling and undulating and shot through with the glimmering contour lines of the wood’.[1]  This is from a series of … More This blog on a beautiful retrospective of Roland Moody is from a series of blogs on a day visit to see the art in exhibitions at the Hepworth in Wakefield. This is number 6 of 6 & the final one.

Bharti Kher (born 1969) works with, amongst other things including fabrics dipped in resin and hardened, ‘bronze casts of broken clay objects, reconfigured in new ways’ in the words of Laura Cumming in The Observer.[1] Art that is always interesting does not necessarily leave a strong impression conceptually, emotionally or networked on our senses. This … More This blog on Bharti Kher is from a series on a day visit to see the art in exhibitions at the Hepworth in Wakefield and The Yorkshire Sculpture Park at Bretton Hall Country Park. This is number 5 of 6.

The Hepworth – a gallery where individual works of power can facilitate learning how to gain from a gallery visit – my way at least! This is from a series of blogs on a day visit to see the art in exhibitions at the Hepworth in Wakefield and The Yorkshire Sculpture Park at Bretton Hall … More The Hepworth – a gallery where you learn from artworks. This is from a series of blogs on a day visit to see the art in exhibitions at the Hepworth in Wakefield. This is number 4 of 6.

The Royal Society of Sculptors describes Elisabeth Frink’s ‘single-minded focus on the male form, the divine and animals, from which she never deviated’.[1] A look at a small exhibition celebrating The Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s being gifted 200 new works by Frink suggest, man, the divine and the animal are not mutually exclusive subjects. Blog 3 … More A look at a small exhibition celebrating The Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s being gifted 200 new works by Elisabeth Frink suggests, ‘man, the divine and the animal’ are not mutually exclusive subjects. My Yorkshire art day-trip – Blog 3 of 6