Thoughts about things I’ve written or read or heard or seen. An attempt to stay positive in a turbulent world.
Recent Articles
Rewrites and primroses
I’ve just delivered the rewritten manuscript of my second novel, WRITTEN in WATER (as it is now called) to my agent. Wish it luck, please. I’ve written about the novel before, here, but it was a while ago (writing a novel is like climbing a mountain, you keep reaching a summit which, you discover, has...Continue reading→
Just When … will we do something?
Just published by the wonderful Beautiful Books, is this volume of short stories: Inspired by Kipling’s Just-So Stories, the Just When Stories focus on the animals we need to protect today. There are stories about turtles and cranes, seahorses and chimpanzees, ducks and elephants and dolphins, tortoises and tigers and more. The stories are published...Continue reading→
Nine months later …
… and exactly the right amount of time since my last post, because I have just delivered the manuscript of my second novel to my agent. The process hasn’t been painless, but what birth is? But the most important thing I’ve discovered is that a story can be told in many different ways without its...Continue reading→
And now for a complete rewrite
When George Plimpton of The Paris Review [pages 6-7] asked Hemingway why he rewrote so many times, he said: I do it to get the words right He was right. Of course he was right. He always is. (He also wrote standing up. Perhaps I should try that.) Since 16 June, when I delivered what...Continue reading→
Thursday last …
… on Thursday last I gave my second novel, whose working title is Hope Remains, to my agent. And now I feel oddly bereft. I have become so used to spending my days immersed in the sadnesses and joys of the characters, in watching them move about in my head, in omitting long passages that...Continue reading→
Not posting, but writing
I’m working on my second novel so I won’t be posting for a while (not even to MAT). I don’t know how long a while is, and I won’t know until I get there, but the SOED says: A period of time, considered with respect to its duration. and, a little less obliquely: The time...Continue reading→
The White Tiger wins the Man Booker
Congratulations to Aravind Adiga whose first novel, The White Tiger, won the Man Booker prize last night. Michael Portillo – chair of the 2008 judges – said it ‘knocked his socks off’. I haven’t read it yet, so I’ve still got my socks on … but I heard Adiga interviewed this morning on the Today...Continue reading→
The Troubadour Cafe
The Troubadour is, as they say on their website, a proper cafe. It’s been around for years but it just gets better and better. It’s in London, find out where here, and it’s in Speaking of Love because, in the Sixties in London, it was the place for poets to read and perform their poetry....Continue reading→
The Man Booker Shortlist
So here they are: Aravind Adiga The White TigerSebastian Barry The Secret ScriptureAmitav Ghosh Sea of PoppiesLinda Grant The Clothes on Their BacksPhilip Hensher The Northern ClemencySteve Toltz A Fraction of the Whole Two first novels have made the shortlist, Adiga’s and Toltz’s, which is wondeful. But I’m very sad that John Berger’s book didn’t...Continue reading→
SW11 Literary Festival
I know I said I wasn’t going to post for a while because I’m writing … but I thought you might like to know that the SW11 (London) Literary Festival begins on Monday 8 September and ends on Monday 29 September. Here’s what Wandsworth Council – the organisers – say about it: The SW11 Literary...Continue reading→
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