Category: Education, Art & Writing

This is a blog in which I prepare to see Lila Raicek’s ‘My Master Builder’ on Tuesday 8th July at Wyndham’s Theatre, London.

July 2, 2025

How should we view the fall of a great man in a post-patriarchal age? A blog on preparing to see Lila Raicek’s ‘My Master Builder‘ on Tuesday 8th July at Wyndham’s Theatre, London. I consider some ways in which her play re-sees what Raicek calls Henrik Ibsen’s ‘autobiographical play’, ‘The Master Builder’ [‘Bigmester Solness’]. My … More This is a blog in which I prepare to see Lila Raicek’s ‘My Master Builder’ on Tuesday 8th July at Wyndham’s Theatre, London.

If I were a poet, then I might know how best to thank those who make life beautiful: Gillian Allnut thanks someone for showing her how to see the beauty of a ‘Golden Saxifrage’ and other kindness. This blog is about one poem in Gillian Allnut’s beautiful 2025 volume ‘Lode’. I wish I knew how to thank her.

June 29, 2025

I bought Lode from the Left bookshop in Durham where Gillian Allnut herself works as a volunteer, and I read it through for the first time last night before attempting to ignore the heat and sleep. What buzzed through my mind together with the gorgeous complex rhythmic adventures and associations with recall from past great … More If I were a poet, then I might know how best to thank those who make life beautiful: Gillian Allnut thanks someone for showing her how to see the beauty of a ‘Golden Saxifrage’ and other kindness. This blog is about one poem in Gillian Allnut’s beautiful 2025 volume ‘Lode’. I wish I knew how to thank her.

The future sounds a neutral enough subject but in truth it is a concept owned and shaped by the powerful few. This blog reflects on the republished ‘Young Palestinians Speak’ (2017, 2023) by Anthony Robinson & Annemarie Young.

June 28, 2025

One librarian at the Tamer Library, Haneen, interviewed by Robinson and Young devises activities for 8 – 13 year-olds in the area of Gaza where the Institutuon stands. When asked about their future lives, Haneen considers that the older children think mainly of emigration from Gaza, whilst ‘younger ones, without older siblings, do not think … More The future sounds a neutral enough subject but in truth it is a concept owned and shaped by the powerful few. This blog reflects on the republished ‘Young Palestinians Speak’ (2017, 2023) by Anthony Robinson & Annemarie Young.

Authority is a passing thing: The Story of one copy of the First Folio and an exhibition of its story in Durham

June 27, 2025

The First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays could be termed to give an authoritative statement of Shakespeare’s Plays. It does not. We think of authoritative things as things that can’t change. They do and must and authoring statements does not guarantee their infinite extension into wisdom that all must take on as belief. This is the … More Authority is a passing thing: The Story of one copy of the First Folio and an exhibition of its story in Durham

When lifestyle is less about style and more about the precarity of life itself. This blog is based on reading Curtis Garner ‘Isaac’ (2025) Harpenden, Verve Books.

June 25, 2025

Okay, lets deal with the elephant in the room first. When we hear the term ‘sustainable lifestyle’, we are perhaps meant first to look at how individuals manipulate the way or ‘style; of how they live to make it more possuible for that life mode to be sustained over time. It is meant to be, … More When lifestyle is less about style and more about the precarity of life itself. This blog is based on reading Curtis Garner ‘Isaac’ (2025) Harpenden, Verve Books.

Literally fabulous or confabulated – the dream of romance

June 24, 2025

As always with WordPress prompts there seems to be an agenda based on how a word is used in the immediate present of culture. After all only that could explain being asked for ‘your definition’ of a word, as if any words were amenable to purely personal definition and its use by that person validated … More Literally fabulous or confabulated – the dream of romance

Is patience is the name given by Stoics and Christians to ‘the time we waste in waiting and  longing for change’ so that it seems to be of the greatest value of all things?

June 22, 2025

Is patience is the name given by Stoics and Christians to ‘the time we waste in waiting and  longing for change’ so that it seems to be of the greatest value of all things? “It’s very dree work, waiting,” says ‘Old Alice’ in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton of waiting for news of her lost sailor … More Is patience is the name given by Stoics and Christians to ‘the time we waste in waiting and  longing for change’ so that it seems to be of the greatest value of all things?

Waiting for the Cage: apologies to Tom McGuinness

June 21, 2025

Above: Tom McGuinness ‘Waiting for the Cage’. Below: Charon the ferryman on the Styx: Gustav Dore illustrates Dante. It was not right that once you died, you’d haveTo wait in line for some old ferryman. We knew that warped boat from Charon’sBetter days, when tiaras and gildedMen of the church were the best passengers And … More Waiting for the Cage: apologies to Tom McGuinness

This whimsical blog comes from reading: Kit Fraser (1985) ‘Toff Down Pit’ London, Quartet Books.

June 20, 2025

‘So I have taken to projecting myself – a sort of caricature of a toff. … don’t you think it is ironic that to fit in to this alien society I have to highlight and exaggerate the differences between myself and the people I want to get on with’.[1] This whimsical blog comes from reading: … More This whimsical blog comes from reading: Kit Fraser (1985) ‘Toff Down Pit’ London, Quartet Books.

Let’s say my favourite ‘historical character’ is a mixture of Pedro Almodóvar and Jacques Lacan, who are both ambivalent about mirrors. This blog reflects on stories in Pedro Almodóvar (2025) ‘The Last Dream’

June 19, 2025

Let’s say my favourite ‘historical character’ is a mixture Pedro Almodóvar and Jacques Lacan, who are both ambivalent about mirrors. This blog reflects on stories in Pedro Almodóvar (2025) The Last Dream (translated by Frank Wynne) Harvill Secker London (Penguin, Random House). This blog has to be a bit circumspect about the concept of the … More Let’s say my favourite ‘historical character’ is a mixture of Pedro Almodóvar and Jacques Lacan, who are both ambivalent about mirrors. This blog reflects on stories in Pedro Almodóvar (2025) ‘The Last Dream’

“Can you decline history”(! Or ?) This blog digs into the deep soil out of which a new biography of Gertrude Stein grows: Francesca Wade (2025) ‘Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife’.

June 18, 2025

“Can you decline history”(! Or ?) [1] The meaning of Getrude Stein’s life, writing and relationships might lie in the fact that we do not begin to determine our futures without, in one way or other, deciding how we re-member and then revise the fragmented biographies of ourselves, others and our group histories. Can revised … More “Can you decline history”(! Or ?) This blog digs into the deep soil out of which a new biography of Gertrude Stein grows: Francesca Wade (2025) ‘Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife’.