Simon at Stuck-in-a-Book tagged me for this meme, which began on Heather’s site, Errant Thoughts. Thank you , Simon … . 1. Who’s your all-time favourite author, and why? John Fowles because his use of language is astonishing, glorious, erudite and because it teaches me, without patronising, and because he creates worlds that I never … Read More
Month: May 2008
Foot Planning
In the poem called ‘Words’ for Lucy in Don’t Let them Tell you How to Grieve, there are these lines: one foot in front of the otherand don’t forget to breathe They are the last lines in a poem which is full of the words of comfort that people send to a grieving person, and … Read More
Don’t Let Them Tell You How To Grieve
I read about this extraordinarily beautiful, touching, poignant, funny, sad, life-affirming, illuminating, comforting and grief-understanding collection of poems by Gina Claye on dovegreyreader’s blog at the end of April. I ordered myself a couple of copies which arrived this morning. I know we all talk about essential books, but this one is quintessential. Buy it … Read More
Lost in Translation … ?
I found a clever little widget over at Bookersatz which translates your blog for you. It’s called Altavista Babelfish Translator and you can see it over there on the right and down a bit. But because the title of my blog includes a neologism the translations are hilarious. In French MATs translate as NATTES (plaits … Read More
RESEARCH, AND FICTION
It is an extraordinary thing (although obvious I’m sure to all except me) the way that research informs fiction and changes its direction. Several years ago, when I was writing a series of Just-Soesque short stories for children, I spent hours in the Zoological Society’s library because I wanted the anatomical details of the animals … Read More