Born in 1954. Chequered career including Lecturer in English, Social Worker and Lecturer in Social Work. Had breaks related to mental health that also meant I worked in social care. Now retired.
I thought with this one, I might not want to interrogate the prompt question asked but I find I cannot do so with the question: ‘Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?’ In general I hate the idea of life quotes and their command on social media – … More ‘HERE the frailest leaves of me, and yet my strongest lasting’:
Describe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow. Neel Mukherjee’s opening story in his novel ‘Choice’ has helped me realise that, if to develop as people is to value the uncertain ethics of all decisions and choices, it must be our decision not to become a gay male couple … More Neel Mukherjee’s opening story in his novel ‘Choice’ has helped me realise that, if to develop as people is to value the uncertain ethics of all decisions and choices, it must be our decision not to become a gay male couple pioneering adoptive parenthood & that this helped us grow together.
Dedicated to Joanne When I worked as a social worker I believed in and promoted in my own practice, and in the learners I worked with at Teesside University later as Subject Leader in Social Work, a concept called ‘positive risk-taking‘. It was a concept first popularised by Steve Morgan in an important article and … More A ‘risk you took that you do not regret’ is called life. It has to be chosen by the person living that life, not be IMPOSED on them.
What makes you nervous? This a daily prompt blog that I am basing on visiting what would once have been classed as a vampiric B-movie, Abigail. What does it mean to be nervous? Wikipedia defines the most usual form as another name for anxiety. We use it far too widely – no doubt of it … More What makes you nervous? This a daily prompt blog that I am basing on visiting what would once have been classed as a vampiric B-movie, ‘Abigail’.
The only way be a Notman like Philip, the anti-hero of How To Make A Bomb, is to mistake inescapable memory of unconscious trauma for existential nausea and make it the basis for a political ‘notmanifesto’. Yet it may still be necessary to face the feeling that: ‘We’ve been raped while we were sleeping’.[1] Rupert … More The best straight writing is necessarily queer. This is a blog on Rupert Thomson (2024) ‘How to Make a Bomb’.
Describe something you learned in high school. Remember, of course, when you read this that I started ‘High School’ [not a phrase used in the UK then much] in 1966 and at a Northern semi-rural UK grammar school where conventions and ideological rigidity passed themselves off as the nature of things. But the idea of … More That men also make up their faces.
Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind. The ‘first-thing-that-comes-to-mind’ game is one sometimes used in psychoanalysis to find out how symptomatic connections might occur in the mind that reveal something of how that same mind is structured. Since minds are wily and use both conscious and unconscious filters to hide thoughts felt … More The first shall be last. No creation ex nihilo.
Yesterday I visited with my husband Geoff, the Live Theatre at Newcastle, to see a show that has received multiple awards for its contribution to the art and functionality of different modes of social art – documentary, immersive theatre and digitally innovative theatre. Audiences don digital headsets and then enter a room of unadorned stands … More The many times when action matters in social work. Memories whilst Visiting ‘The Museum of Austerity’ at Live Theatre, Quayside, Newcastle on Wednesday 17th 2024
What place in the world do you never want to visit? Why? I would not visit the Tundra in Alaska. I have not Jamie’s grit or the steel-edged beauty of her imagination. But in her I can see a reflection of it. The feelings it raises are complicated. Of course, worthwhile experience always is. I … More Kathleen Jamie chose to visit the Alaskan Tundra and help with an archaeological dig. Would I?
The shooter shot – a name for the meta-art of civil disturbance. This is a blog on Alex Garland’s Civil War. See it. The film company A24, mainly responsible for this film takes the civil war scenario in the USA we might think seriously, else it would not have produced a map showing the distribution … More The shooter shot – a name for the meta-art of civil disturbance. This is a blog on Alex Garland’s ‘Civil War’. See it.
Francis Spufford(2024) Cahokia Jazz London, Faber & Faber. A preparatory look at the novel prior to seeing the author on the 27 April 2024 at 4.15 – 5.15 at the Queens Hall, Hexham For my review blog of an earlier novel, Light Perpetual, by Spufford see this link. In fact, I think my take on … More Francis Spufford(2024) Cahokia Jazz London, Faber & Faber. A preparatory look at the novel prior to seeing the author on the 27 April 2024 at 4.15 – 5.15 at the Queens Hall, Hexham
What is your favorite restaurant? The Duke still exists on Duke Street, as does Davy Byrne’s eatery, but I do not know if The Duke in which we know Joyce dined regularly was also the ‘Burton restaurant’ referred to Episode 8 of James Joyce’s Ulysses. That episode is usually known as the Laestrygonians, since it … More Join me and James Joyce at Burton’s Restaurant, Duke Street, Dublin. Let your gorge rise.
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