Did you know, I have a Newsletter?

Blog

Ernest Hemingway: Genius has its drawbacks

What does it take to win the Nobel Prize for Literature for heaven's sake. I mean, to WIN THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE!!!!! It makes the Man Booker, or the Orange, or the Costa Award - or indeed anything else - look like... peanuts. To be honest, and with some shame, I must admit that, while being aware that Ernest Hemingway knew a thing or two about the craft of writing and had churned out some…

Saturday 26th March, 2016 | undefined min read

The New Year

"Time" is a man-made construct.  As far back as the Neolithic period apparently, our ancestors were looking at the moon and devising 'calendars' to mark the phases of the periods they were living through.  Sometimes I like to imagine what it would be like if they (and later, the Gregorians) hadn't bothered: No seconds or minutes or hours or days or weeks or months or years.   No regular markers…

Tuesday 19th January, 2016 | undefined min read

Human Endeavour

So.  We are in the thick of the Olympics, and no, I didn't think I would get sucked in, because how could I ever care as much as I did four years ago, and besides, I am having a busy summer - places to go, people to see, stuff to write.......... But somehow the sucking in has happened anyway.  Reader, I have been glued to: The riders with the double-barreled names who were too slow or knocked down…

Friday 12th August, 2016 | undefined min read

Getting A Dog

Once upon a time, a million years ago, in answer to the question 'What do you want to be when you grow up', I would always reply - without hesitation, and certainly no trace of irony - "a kennel maid".  As a child I could conjure no better employment prospect than working with animals as wonderful as my grandparents' lab, Kim.  Not even getting bitten on the nose by Kim put me off.  The poor dog…

Thursday 29th September, 2016 | undefined min read