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 am no great fan of ‘success’. Hence the Gore Vidal quotation. But whilst we are on Gore Vidal’s sayings we might strike a note of caution. The better known quotation of his (which may well turn out – as much he mouthed or wrote did – to be someone else’s saying) seems to suggest … More ‘It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail’.
Forgive the ponderousness of what follows. I am in that mood again! In that aspect of my character I sometimes talk like a preacher of holy text, though I am neither a Christian nor what one might call ‘religious’. However, it is to Biblical text I turn when faced with defining what is a GOOD … More A good neighbour is not someone you know but someone who stays close to you when others don’t.
‘If I cut these strings / Set myself free. / Let myself fly, / What could I be?’[1] A journey through the life-transitions of Mike Johnston-Cowley and in the hope of their beautiful future. A blog to honour the life-blood in the anticipatory heartbeat of my friend, Mike, as they bring out their first little … More ‘If I cut these strings / Set myself free. / Let myself fly, / What could I be?’ A journey through the life-transitions of Mike Johnston-Cowley and in the hope of their beautiful future. A blog to honour the life-blood in the anticipatory heartbeat of my friend, Mike, as they bring out their first little volume of poems, covering parts of the story of their life and struggles others too will recognise. I am blogging on Mike Johnston-Cowley (2023) Through These Words: A journey of poetry
What could you try for the first time? I have felt defeated by this topic for discussion and I turned to references to the ‘first time’ on the web. In large, and on an inspection of them that probably lacked rigour, the pages thrown up by both Google and Bing search engines seemed to fall … More The last of the ‘the first time’ I tried it syndrome.
In terms of how and why we imagine and articulate queer desire this book suggests ‘….how narrow our popular vision is, even now’.[1] It also emphasises the ‘imperfections and the alterity of’ the ‘idealized societies’ of Ancient Greece and Rome.[2] A personal look at Sean Hewitt (translator, commentator and poet) & Luke Edward Hall (illustrator) … More In terms of how and why we imagine and articulate queer desire this book suggests ‘….how narrow our popular vision is, even now’. A personal look at Sean Hewitt & Luke Edward Hall [2023] ‘300,000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love From the Ancient World’.
What principles define how you live? Life needn’t end. That gnomic sentence does not mean I think I or anyone else will not die ( nor that an endless personal life is a desirable idea). Nor does it mean that I believe, and urge belief in others, in a personal afterlife. Personally I find the … More Let it be continuous …
What have you been putting off doing? Why? When I puzzle about an issue in my life I often turn to poetry for help. We live in a world where time is literally money and action matters more than reflection, which is too often considered passive. It is as if clichés like ‘time waits for … More Never let ‘ the good minute’ go. Find a thing to do and do it. The importance of not acting on desire.
A blog intended to offer a brief and inadequate overview and taste of the new Faith Museum at the Bishop’s Palace in Bishop Auckland without offering knowledge or interpretive skill. The Faith Museum from the entrance to the Bishop’s Park at Bishop Auckland: A kind of Tardis offering an overview of faith and belief in … More A blog intended to offer a brief and inadequate overview and taste of the new Faith Museum at the Bishop’s Palace in Bishop Auckland without offering knowledge or interpretive skill.
To be ‘grown up’ names, apparently at least, the end of a process of ‘growing up’ and like all ideologies buried in common terms, it assumes a teleology, in brief (though see the Wikipedia definition at the link by all means) a teleological process is defined by its outcomes and / or its purpose. If … More To be adult or not to be? That is, in truth, not a question.
This blog is a sequel to seeing Lemn Sissay’s Kafka’s Metamorphosis, an adaptation, retelling (and more) in a new dramatisation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis with the company Frantic Assembly. I saw it at York Theatre Royal on Thursday October 12th at 2.00 p.m. In my earlier blog on this play, I previewed my expectations of the … More This blog is a sequel to seeing Lemn Sissay’s ‘Kafka’s Metamorphosis’, an adaptation, retelling (and more) in a new dramatisation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis with the company Frantic Assembly. I saw it at York Theatre Royal.
Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for? All is silver-grey, Placid and perfect with my art: the worse! I know both what I want and what might gain, And yet how profitless to know, to sigh “Had I been two, another and myself, “Our head would have o’erlooked … More ‘I know both what I want and what might gain, / And yet how profitless to know’. A blog on the importance of your ‘reach’ exceeding your ‘grasp’.
What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself? To tell a story about giving up alcohol as a means of embracing life ought to be a humbling experience for the amount of self-congratulation for having made that choice needs the perspective of stories of people for whom this choice was both starker in … More Alcohol promises to enhance your life. In fact, it impairs the internal biochemical machinery with which to choose life as your primary goal. I decided to live clean of it. That machinery does repair.
