“ Kate Kellaway in her recent interview in The Observer with Ruby Wax about Ruby’s latest book says: ‘I’m Not As Well As I Thought I Was will enlighten, entertain and comfort others – but is also self-help for Wax herself. “I’m not thinking: how will the audience like this? I write because I am … More ‘”I write because I am obsessed with something.” And she adds: “And because I don’t know how it is going to end.”’ This is a blog that attempts to understand the complicated contribution of Ruby Wax  to thought about the nature of depression in Ruby Wax (2023) ‘I’m Not As Well As I Thought I Was’

The feminist philosopher Clare Carlisle says that ‘marriage is rarely treated as a philosophical question’ despite the fact, being a ‘leap into the open-endedness of another human being’, it is ‘difficult to look at directly’, ‘difficult to think that thought’ just like any other ‘shifting, shimmering question, all indeterminacy and iridescence’.[1] Yet despite the language … More Clare Carlisle says that ‘marriage is rarely treated as a philosophical question’. This is a blog that tries to enter this debate on Clare Carlisle’s (2023) ‘The Marriage Question: George Eliot’s Double Life’.

‘I think this happens often to many of us, … something lost between expression and emotion. Sometimes, silence … allows time for those grieving to mourn, to organize, for a feeling to lose its haze and ossify, and to try and give words to what has been done unto us. And if not words, then … More ‘I think this happens often to many of us, … something lost between expression and emotion’.  Caleb Azumah Nelson worries critics who want clarity about the relationship between the experience of emotion and its expression. A blog on Caleb Azumah Nelson (2023) ‘Small Worlds’.

‘A girl is a pit oss, a thrush, a white ferret, a lark. / A girl is cream rising thick as desire in the dark’.[1] The edginess involved in an attempt to truly represent girl children in narrative formed from lyric verse. I am not fit to judge this but stand back amazed in my … More ‘A girl is a pit oss, a thrush, a white ferret, a lark. / A girl is cream rising thick as desire in the dark’. The edginess involved in an attempt to truly represent girl children in narrative formed from lyric verse. I am not fit to judge this but stand back amazed in my blog on Liz Berry (2023) ‘The Home Child’.

‘… I heard the wings of something enormous shuddering on the air. /…/ … The difference between this and the normal embodying of staged emotion was basically, I think, one of degree and duration. My fear was like a child’s play-fear, it had that prolonged innocent intensity, blending the unreal with the real . The … More ‘… I heard the wings of something enormous shuddering on the air. … The way the body rehearses for danger. I was having the flight reaction I would have once had, a long time ago, to shadows in a bedroom. Now I was both the child and the shadows’. This is a blog to show that ‘acting’, whatever we mean by that word, occurs on the cusp of what is outside and inside the body and the state in which it lives. This blog examines the phenomenology of a great novel:  Isabella Hammad (2023) ‘Enter Ghost’.

‘But  they seem to work, accompanied by an ensemble of silence’, says Simon Armitage in the ‘INTRO’ to his new collected versions of the song lyric.[1] This blog reflects on the published song lyric as part of the ‘repertoire’ of an oral poet. It focuses on Simon Armitage (2023) ‘Never Good with Horses: Assembled Lyrics’ … More ‘But  they seem to work, accompanied by an ensemble of silence’. This blog reflects on the published song lyric as part of the ‘repertoire’ of an oral poet. It focuses on Simon Armitage (2023) ‘Never Good with Horses: Assembled Lyrics’. and on seeing him read, with @JustinCurley4 at The Queens Hall.

An update after viewing ‘Alice Neel: Hot Off The Griddle’ at The Barbican Centre Gallery, London, with reference to the beautiful innovate catalogue: Will Gompertz & Eleanor Nairne (2023) Alice Neel: Hot Off The Griddle  Munich, London & New York, Prestel-Verlag. An update of part of the blog that can be found at this link: https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2023/02/25/new-events-to-a-preview-of-the-highlights-on-my-visit-with-justin-to-london-from-monday-17th-wednesday-19th-april-2023-alice-neel-hot-off-the-griddle-at-the-barbican-19th-april-1100/ The … More An update after viewing ‘Alice Neel: Hot Off The Griddle’ at The Barbican Centre Gallery, London.

An update on ‘Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance’ at the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, Tues. 18th April. 3.45 p.m. This is an update of relevant text in past blog: Visiting London: A Preview of the Highlights on my visit with Justin from Monday 17th – Wednesday 19th April 2023! Available at: https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2023/02/18/visiting-london-a-preview-of-the-highlights-on-my-visit-with-justin-from-monday-17th-wednesday-19th-april-2023/ Justin took this picture on … More An update on ‘Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance’ at the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, Tues. 18th April. 3.45 p.m.

An update on ‘David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)’ a light show involving the artist’s own collaborative input at Lightroom in Kings Cross (the launch show for this venue). Thurs. 18th April. 11.30 a.m. Updates part of a blog to be found at: https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2023/02/18/visiting-london-a-preview-of-the-highlights-on-my-visit-with-justin-from-monday-17th-wednesday-19th-april-2023/ LIGHTROOM is a new venture. A beautiful … More An update on ‘David Hockney: ‘Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)’ a light show involving the artist’s own collaborative input at Lightroom in Kings Cross (the launch show for this venue). 18th April. 11.30 a.m.

An update blog on seeing Good by C.P. Taylor on Thursday 20th April 2023 7.00 p.m. A post viewing update on ‘C.P. Taylor’s Good livestreamed from London’s Harold Pinter Theatre to The Gala Theatre, Durham (and nationwide various venues) with reference to text: C.P. Taylor Good (2022, first produced by the RSC in 1981) London, New York, New Delhi … More An update blog on seeing ‘Good’ by C.P. Taylor on Thursday 20th April 2023 7.00 p.m.

An update blog on seeing Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel on Monday 17th April 2023 7.30 p.m. This is an update of relevant text in past bog: Visiting London: A Preview of the Highlights on my visit with Justin from Monday 17th – Wednesday 19th April 2023! See: https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2023/02/18/visiting-london-a-preview-of-the-highlights-on-my-visit-with-justin-from-monday-17th-wednesday-19th-april-2023/ In my preview blog I said that … More An update blog on seeing ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ by Brian Friel on Monday 17th April 2023 7.30 p.m.

Alan Bennet’s play Allelujah, a fable on the institutionalisation (and misgovernance) of love, death, and the NHS, as captured on film deserves more than to be called ‘sweet but slight’.[1]: A blog on Allelujah (2022) with screenplay by Heidi Thomas and directed by Richard Eyre. The film poster It may be unfair to pick out Peter … More Alan Bennet’s play ‘Allelujah’, a fable on the institutionalisation (and misgovernance) of love, death, and the NHS, as captured on film deserves more than to be called ‘sweet but slight’: A blog on ‘Allelujah’ (2022) with screenplay by Heidi Thomas and directed by Richard Eyre.