‘He had a sudden strong desire to tell his story to someone, as long as it was to someone without ears. … Billy and June would have different versions. They were sort of uncompleted chapters, and even when he put them together in his own mind it was hard to find where they joined. Even … More ‘He had a sudden strong desire to tell his story to someone, as long as it was to someone without ears. … Billy and June would have different versions. They were sort of uncompleted chapters, and even when he put them together in his own mind it was hard to find where they joined. Even to believe half of it. But he was obliged to believe it. Because in the first instance a witness should be believed. … He felt he should believe – believe himself’. Stories are not evidence of the truth, are they? But if they aren’t why do we need them? This blog is on Sebastian Barry (2023) ‘Old God’s Time’.

A blog: Steven the ballet virgin visits Birmingham Royal Ballet performing Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake at the Sunderland Empire on the 10th of March 2023, 2.00 p.m. performance. Once, long ago my husband Geoff and me visited the Soviet Union (it existed then) on a gruelling but wonderful Intourist programme seeing Moscow and what was then … More A blog: Steven the ballet virgin visits Birmingham Royal Ballet performing Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake at the Sunderland Empire on the 10th of March 2023, 2.00 p.m. performance.

Tom Crewe writes in an ‘Afterword’ to his novel The New Life that ‘I have written a novel, purely with a novelist’s intentions’, despite any other effect of his writing including that of incorporating queer sexual diversity across any supposed binary.[1] I think that not all of what the latter diversity entails is overtly explored … More Tom Crewe writes in an ‘Afterword’ to his novel ‘The New Life’ that ‘I have written a novel, purely with a novelist’s intentions’, despite any other effect of his writing including that of incorporating queer sexual diversity across any supposed binary. This blog queries what  Tom Crewe might ‘intend’ in his novel and what that says about what makes a novel a good novel? It is about Tom Crewe’s (2023) ‘The New Life’

Mark McGurl asks what he believes is a new question in querying the ontology of the novel ‘when intermixed with the rough-and-tumble of real-time global communication and social media’. It is, in brief, no longer an issue to talk about the commodification of the novel, since we need instead to focus on the ‘progressive commoditization … More Mark McGurl insists it is no longer an issue to talk about the commodification of the novel, since we need instead to focus on the ‘progressive commoditization of the novel. The commodification of the novel by contrast is an old story, a given, as important as the fact remains: novels are offered for sale’. This blog attempts to come to terms with Mark McGurl’s (2021) ‘Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon’.

NEW EVENTS ADDED: 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) and a streamed event on return (20th April – Good C. P. Taylor live-streamed from Harold Pinter Theatre! The Barbican … More 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) and a streamed event on return (20th April – Good C. P. Taylor live-streamed from Harold Pinter Theatre!

‘Even now, depending on the situation and who I’m with, an infinite number of adjustments, changes and corrections occur in my body. I recalibrate my movements, my thoughts, my words, my accent; I switch roles to be the masculine working-class boy that I was supposed to be’.[1] This blog is about the personal challenges posed … More ‘Even now, depending on the situation and who I’m with, an infinite number of adjustments, changes and corrections occur in my body. I recalibrate my movements, my thoughts, my words, my accent; I switch roles to be the masculine working-class boy that I was supposed to be’. This blog is about the personal challenges posed to me by Michael Handrick’s (2022) ‘Difference Is Born on the Lips: Reflections on Sexuality, Stigma and Society’. @MichaelHandrick

In Henry James’ Roderick Hudson, a plain but wealthy young urban American man, Rowland Mallett, uses his great fortune to nourish in Rome the talent of a potentially great sculptor, Roderick Hudson, who is also a young, beautiful, and naïve new male acquaintance from rural America. Many conversations between them sound odd out of context, … More In Henry James’ ‘Roderick Hudson’, a plain but wealthy young urban American man, Rowland Mallett, uses his great fortune to nourish in Rome the talent of a potentially great sculptor, Roderick Hudson. Many conversations between them sound odd out of context, such as this one: ‘“It was your originality then – to do you justice you have a great deal of a certain sort – …… You were awfully queer about it.” / “So be it!” said Rowland. “The question is, Are you not glad I was queer?”’ A set of reflections based on Henry James (1875) ‘Roderick Hudson’.

Visiting London: A Preview of the Highlights on my visit with Justin from Monday 17th – Wednesday 19th April 2023! First section including National Theatre visit is updated here: https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2023/04/21/an-update-blog-on-seeing-dancing-at-lughnasa-by-brian-friel-on-monday-17th-19th-april-2023-7-30-p-m/ The National Theatre, Southbank hosting Dancing at Lughnasa, The Lightroom at Kings Cross hosting Hockney, Victoria & Albert museum hosting Donatello. I always prepare for … More Visiting London: A Preview of the Highlights on my visit with Justin from Monday 17th – Wednesday 19th April 2023: on Brian Friel’s ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’, The new David Hockney light show and Donatello at The Victoria and Albert!

Jonah Raskin in a waspish review in The New York Journal of Books says that Nino Strachey’s new book on the extended life of the Bloomsbury generation has ‘opted to focus on gender and sex …. In an era of LGBTQIA+ that might be an opportunistic choice in terms of publication and readership’.[1] This blog … More Jonah Raskin says that Nino Strachey’s new book on the extended life of the Bloomsbury generation has ‘opted to focus on gender and sex …. In an era of LGBTQIA+ that might be an opportunistic choice in terms of publication and readership’. This blog shows why we still need to deplore the sad need of academic values to seek to prolong its hegemony over the priorities for human development and growth and the even more sorrowful (to me) sectarianism of a sexual politics that is ‘LGB without the TQI+’. It praises the simple honesty of Nino Strachey (2022) ‘Young Bloomsbury: The Generation that re-imagined love, freedom and self-expression’.

The ‘Elephants in the Room’: racism in the British artistic ‘heritage’. This blog written to prepare me to see new productions of Othello (National Theatre Live streaming 23 February 2023 at Gala Theatre Durham) and The Merchant of Venice (Watford Palace Theatre tour at Home theatre, Manchester 16th March 2023). In a previous blog: I … More The ‘Elephants in the Room’: racism in the British artistic ‘heritage’. This blog written to prepare me to see new productions of ‘Othello’ (National Theatre Live streaming 23 February 2023 at Gala Theatre Durham) and ‘The Merchant of Venice’ (Watford Palace Theatre tour at Home theatre, Manchester 16th March 2023).

Visiting Manchester: A Preview of the Highlights on my visit to Justin from Monday 15th – 17th March 2023. It’s gonna be a blast! I am visiting Justin soon in Manchester. He is in possibly in everyday and practical turmoil just now and probably wishes I wasn’t going for he has just been offered and … More Visiting Manchester: A Preview of the Highlights on my visit to Justin from Monday 15th – 17th March 2023. It’s gonna be a blast!

Speaking of an early short story in an interview with Deborah Triesman of The New Yorker in 2018, Taymour Soomro says: ‘Power is such a traditional expression of masculinity, which is why the power dynamics in relationships between men fascinate me’.[1] This blog examines a great new novel, and heir to Turgenev, that examines the … More Speaking of an early short story, Taymour Soomro says: ‘Power is such a traditional expression of masculinity, which is why the power dynamics in relationships between men fascinate me’. This blog examines Taymour Soomro’s (2022) ‘Other Names for Love’. SPOILERS WITHIN WARNING.