Tag: writing

Heather Christle‘s (2025)  ‘In The Rhododendrons’: thank you Kaveh Akbar for your recommendation on the book’s jacket that made me buy this. You have great friends.

May 22, 2025

In Heather Christle‘s (2025)  In The Rhododendrons many people (with effects of pleasure and pain or hope and despair) continually strike ‘the same pose’ that made images of a possible past recur. Christle tells us that is what family albums do, but that recurrence or repetition within them can, and perhaps should,  be perceived ‘differently’. … More Heather Christle‘s (2025)  ‘In The Rhododendrons’: thank you Kaveh Akbar for your recommendation on the book’s jacket that made me buy this. You have great friends.

Putting Love and Death on the screen in the context of the greatest of the dead Masters. A tentative new beginning with WordPress blogs.

May 21, 2025

I am returning to WordPress blogging after a break, including a short break in Amsterdam, which I will no doubt make many blogs about in the near future. But I, like the wedding guest in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, felt that my taking leave of WordPress was not unlike … More Putting Love and Death on the screen in the context of the greatest of the dead Masters. A tentative new beginning with WordPress blogs.

Why does Simon Armitage dwell on dwelling? A blog on Simon Armitage (2025) ‘Dwell’ London, Faber & Faber.

May 9, 2025

Why does Simon Armitage dwell on dwelling? A blog on Simon Armitage (2025) [with illustrations by Beth Munro} Dwell London, Faber & Faber. The new poems by Simon Armitage that were published yesterday are inextricably linked to  the Lost Gardens of Heligan, ‘Europe’s largest garden restoration project’, in Cornwall. They will also be ‘manifested physically … More Why does Simon Armitage dwell on dwelling? A blog on Simon Armitage (2025) ‘Dwell’ London, Faber & Faber.

Children Processing the Hard Stuff in Dying County Durham Mining Communities

May 9, 2025

Geoff brought me a gift from his day volunteering at Oxfam to include in my mining books. It is a pamphlet published in 1990 by Durham Arts Association.  It charts encounters by a retired miner, of 40 years work down pits, who was dedicating the time released to his lifelong wanting to produce art with … More Children Processing the Hard Stuff in Dying County Durham Mining Communities

‘The Story of the Stone”: the artist and shaman come nearest to us in sharing an acknowledgement of the opaque density of our experience.  New short stories by James Kelman.

April 30, 2025

“The Story of the Stone: Tales, Entreaties & Incantations“: the artist and shaman come nearest to us in sharing an acknowledgement of the opaque density of our experience.  New short stories by James Kelman I have already referred to this set of stories in a past blog [see this link to read if you wish]. … More ‘The Story of the Stone”: the artist and shaman come nearest to us in sharing an acknowledgement of the opaque density of our experience.  New short stories by James Kelman.

It’s all bananas: theatre posters and Samuel Beckett’s ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’.

April 21, 2025

It’s all bananas: theatre posters and Samuel Beckett’s ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’. The poster for the rather famous production starring Rich Cluchey; the lower photograph is Cluchey in the role Tomorrow I am going to see Krapp’s Last Tape at York Theatre Royal. The show booked up a long time ago but I managed to get … More It’s all bananas: theatre posters and Samuel Beckett’s ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’.

I decided never to rely on my very first impressions of what is likable or not. Why I persevered then with Rupert Everett’s short stories in ‘The American No’. This blog is mainly on his Oscar for A Last Season.

April 14, 2025

I decided never to rely on my very first impressions of what is likable or not. Why I persevered then with Rupert Everett’s (2025) short stories in The American No London, Abacus Books. This blog is mainly on his Oscar for A Last Season The American No is a new set of short stories by … More I decided never to rely on my very first impressions of what is likable or not. Why I persevered then with Rupert Everett’s short stories in ‘The American No’. This blog is mainly on his Oscar for A Last Season.

‘The School Play’: Growing up Queer amid so many manly performances. The poet James Merrill on the perils of a “small part”, “but an important one”, when: ‘What was not important to the self / At nine or ten’.

April 6, 2025

As I sort my library, I come across writers I have long meant to read. Such a one is the poet James Merrill, who I came across in relation to reading novels of his period some years ago. I know nothing really of Merrill.  I read through the selection I have in the Everyman Library … More ‘The School Play’: Growing up Queer amid so many manly performances. The poet James Merrill on the perils of a “small part”, “but an important one”, when: ‘What was not important to the self / At nine or ten’.

‘For the Mesopotamians, truth was not contained ….’: was their culture such a one that norms existed alongside happily alongside their contradiction, and repression was unnecessary. This blog reflects on a first reading of Selena Wisnom [2025] ‘The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History’.

April 4, 2025

When Alexander Pope warned that ‘a little learning is a dangerous thing,’ he was warning that, since error lies everywhere, we need exposure to all the evidence that supports the one and only version of knowledge of the world that is the truth. The real danger is that there are so many statements that claim … More ‘For the Mesopotamians, truth was not contained ….’: was their culture such a one that norms existed alongside happily alongside their contradiction, and repression was unnecessary. This blog reflects on a first reading of Selena Wisnom [2025] ‘The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History’.

The art of not being looked at comfortably: Ron Mueck

March 27, 2025

I am still cataloguing books, clearing away rejects as I go and re-reading when I feel the curiosity. I placed the 2826th book for keeping on the catalogue I am making tonight (the rest boxed for various Fates) and then sat down to read that little book through again and reflect. It was a volume … More The art of not being looked at comfortably: Ron Mueck

A distant memory of a distant Peter Avery: “Between my vice and my religion, I find myself continually on my knees.” A ‘straightened’ memory of a queer Fellow.

March 25, 2025

A distant memory of a distant Peter Avery: “Between my vice and my religion, I find myself continually on my knees” A straightened memory of a queer Fellow. I have just read Simon Goldhill’s wonderful book published this year (2025) Queer Cambridge: An Alternative History and will, when I am able and have reflected a … More A distant memory of a distant Peter Avery: “Between my vice and my religion, I find myself continually on my knees.” A ‘straightened’ memory of a queer Fellow.