‘… stood kind of hyper’ and ‘itching for some … some fucking … ‘action.’ You know. “Drama”’. Another play to see and to make Geoff think his birthday present to me takes me and him back to Nottingham. The line here is supposedly said on ‘Trent Bridge’!

October 19, 2025

‘… stood kind of hyper’ and ‘itching for some … some fucking … ‘action.’ You know. “Drama”’. Another play to see and to make Geoff think his birthday present to me takes me and him back to Nottingham. The line here is supposedly said on ‘Trent Bridge’! Clearly I have added to my birthday treats. … More ‘… stood kind of hyper’ and ‘itching for some … some fucking … ‘action.’ You know. “Drama”’. Another play to see and to make Geoff think his birthday present to me takes me and him back to Nottingham. The line here is supposedly said on ‘Trent Bridge’!

Anthony Delaney’s ‘Queer Georgians’: queer tales from history ambitiously takes Foucault to task for the misrepresentation and cancellation of queer history and charms with the author’s personality at the same time.

October 19, 2025

Anthony Delaney’s ‘Queer Georgians’: queer tales from history ambitiously takes Foucault to task for the misrepresentation and cancellation of queer history and charms with the author’s personality at the same time. If you had to give a prize for the readability of queer history, this book would have to take it. Moreover, it does not … More Anthony Delaney’s ‘Queer Georgians’: queer tales from history ambitiously takes Foucault to task for the misrepresentation and cancellation of queer history and charms with the author’s personality at the same time.

The 2025 Booker Shortlist – My experience & predictions for those I read

October 18, 2025

The 2025 Booker Shortlist – My experience & predictions for those I read The Longlist blog is still available – and still messy. It is here at this link, if you want to access link to blogs on books not shortlisted. Tash Aw was definitively cheated of a shortlist place with his best book ever … More The 2025 Booker Shortlist – My experience & predictions for those I read

A speculative blog on Kiran Desai’s ‘The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny’. My Booker winner.

October 17, 2025

At one point in the latter parts of The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny two women, Babita and Sonia, alone in separate rooms in a huge mansion from the Portuguese era in Goa, an era established from 1510, that has all the characteristics of a Gothic Castle of Otranto, speak between the sound-porous walls of … More A speculative blog on Kiran Desai’s ‘The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny’. My Booker winner.

Those events within the period of my life that I can not remember and claim not to be my historical experience need committing to memory more than anything else. How else do we become whole persons and communities? Geoff and I see a performance of contemporary Indian classical dance at Bishop Auckland Town Hall. Family and distance is a theme that applies to personal and cultural experience, yet we shun the relevance of migration stories to our ‘entitled’ Britishness.

October 16, 2025

Geoff and I see a performance of a contemporary version of Indian classical dance at Bishop Auckland Town Hall on Wednesday 15th October, 7.30 p.m. It is on a vitally important theme of the moment: family and distance in migrant experience Fatherhood Imagine a performance in which one man invests himself in the personality of … More Those events within the period of my life that I can not remember and claim not to be my historical experience need committing to memory more than anything else. How else do we become whole persons and communities? Geoff and I see a performance of contemporary Indian classical dance at Bishop Auckland Town Hall. Family and distance is a theme that applies to personal and cultural experience, yet we shun the relevance of migration stories to our ‘entitled’ Britishness.

If once you haven’t been able to take that risk, let’s face it is not because you could not (or ‘were not able to’) but because you are risk averse and don’t wish to admit it. Naming that risk without taking it is just a way of dealing with your risk-aversion by indulging in a projected and insubstantial self-image.

October 15, 2025

Risk is universal in all engagements with life. It is impossible to act or even to stay passive in any prompt to action without incurring risk, for even disengaging from activity has risks involved, increasingly serious as the degree of disengagement increases. To harbour the wish to take a risk is merely a denial of … More If once you haven’t been able to take that risk, let’s face it is not because you could not (or ‘were not able to’) but because you are risk averse and don’t wish to admit it. Naming that risk without taking it is just a way of dealing with your risk-aversion by indulging in a projected and insubstantial self-image.

What happens when artists are asked: “What have you been working on?”

October 13, 2025

What happens when artists are asked: “What have you been working on?” What have you been working on?” is a catch-all question? Does it ask what task are you currently working towards completion. It might mean that and it might at the same time refer to a task in at your paid work role. Alternatively, … More What happens when artists are asked: “What have you been working on?”

If pride comes before a fall, then admire the ‘fallen’ who remain proud of what is to be learned in the process.

October 11, 2025

Whatever the meme above was meant to signify in its original use, it speaks volumes about the ethical nature of pride as mode of self-congratulation. Pride is an error only when divorced from an object in which to be proud, when it refers not to some achievement in actual time and space that will lose … More If pride comes before a fall, then admire the ‘fallen’ who remain proud of what is to be learned in the process.

Malevich’s ‘Taking in the Rye’, looks like the dissection of a rainbow! Aim to be lazy!

October 10, 2025

I suppose the key word here – the one that should set warning bells ringing is ‘unproductive’, for as a word it has long differentiated from what seem to be a synonym, non-productive. Yet since the words are often confused the term ‘counter-productive’ has been invented to show that their scale of the unproduction from … More Malevich’s ‘Taking in the Rye’, looks like the dissection of a rainbow! Aim to be lazy!

The role of expert and intellectual in the politics of social change and trust in the concept of a leadership that achieves the sense of stability conducive to effective change.

October 9, 2025

The role of expert and intellectual in the politics of social change and trust in the concept of a leadership that achieves the sense of stability conducive to effective change. As I opined about Elon Musk yesterday, I  wondered whether I was oversimplifying the phenomenon he represented  – a man keen to assert his origins … More The role of expert and intellectual in the politics of social change and trust in the concept of a leadership that achieves the sense of stability conducive to effective change.

Elon Musk poses as Success Embodied and looks like the epitome of Shelley’s Anarchy, feeding his lapdog, Yaxley-Lennon the bodies of the naive and self-oppressed: “And with glorious triumph, they / Rode through England proud and gay, / Drunk as with intoxication / Of the wine of desolation”.

October 8, 2025

The Peterloo Massacre: flying the St George Cross has accompanied the success of Anarchy, Murder and Fraud in internal politics and always has. Below the equivalent, which Shelley might have described as the chanting of: ‘Anarchy, to thee we bow,Be thy name made holy now!’ As we peer through the dark of our current political … More Elon Musk poses as Success Embodied and looks like the epitome of Shelley’s Anarchy, feeding his lapdog, Yaxley-Lennon the bodies of the naive and self-oppressed: “And with glorious triumph, they / Rode through England proud and gay, / Drunk as with intoxication / Of the wine of desolation”.

‘Be near me’: A good neighbour is one of those near to me who are willing to be still closer.

October 7, 2025

‘Be near me’: A good neighbour is one of those near to me who are willing to be still closer. I will keep the English spelling of neighbour that is not used in the prompt question, that question having come from the United States who dropped the ‘u’ in words ending ‘-our’ long ago. However, … More ‘Be near me’: A good neighbour is one of those near to me who are willing to be still closer.