Ordering review copies of ‘The Angel Child’ – always the excitement of seeing what is my invention, from my imagination, in book form. And yet I no longer own the characters; they are real and have been for a long time. The truth is that unless they become people in their own right early in […]
Posted onBird’s foot trefoil, sweet cicely, shepherd’s-purse and vetch. Cow parsley or Queen Ann’s lace, hemlock, the poisonous witchy plant, wild carrot, angelica, all of umbrella form. Buttercup, forget-me-not, bitter cress, hogweed, groundsel and clover. All the flowers that haunt my memory of childhood walks. They sing the song of our countryside, native or home grown.
Posted onThe last two months spent marking English exam papers from around the world precludes any other creative thought processes. At times it’s inspiring to hear the young voices, idealistic, wanting a better place to live. Not just for themselves but for everyone. They speak of a world without borders and enemies, that technology must improve […]
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This began with a newspaper cutting given to me by one of my writing friends, Henrietta Branford. It was the true story of a woman who had lived outside in her garden for years, shielded by umbrellas. It seemed that she died of old age rather than hyperthermia; no one knew why she had take […]
If they could tell stories, those drystone walls, would we listen? Their purpose from the Iron Age through Medieval England to The Enclosures to keep,out and in, often questioned. Whose right, whose ownership, whose sheep? But of those men, and I have to say mainly men, I guess, what were their thoughts and feelings as […]
An image – sitting on a bench beside a stranger reading a book, and he commenting on the author, having read his books too; I think it was a William Boyd. That’s all – a brief meeting. Another moment – hearing the announcement ‘incident on the line’ – a train delayed. A feeling – the […]
That is a dull title and I will change when I’ve managed a few thoughts, expressed a few ideas. Letter writing, a diary kept; both good practice as otherwise the clog of what has filtered in, brewed and been unexpressed, becomes like tea stewed and stale. It takes on a banal shroud, too much to […]
Can I describe the condition of love as of ‘barnacles attaching to a ship’s bottom’? This is not the grand falling of one enchanted evening with her or him across a crowded room. No, it’s that gradual accumulative effect of liking aspects of a person, the familiarity of friendship which can eventually lead to full […]
Posted onLooking for a photographer or illustrator. All ready to go except for a front and back cover. How difficult to communicate your ideas and then not getting very far? A Chagall, images of fire, balloon, fair ground, flowers, lovers; it seemed so simple. My efforts at illustration are limited; excuses like working with child’s poster […]
‘I wasn’t the first man to put a pillow over a woman’s face, even with love. … “I don’t want to live anymore, let me go!” That’s what I’d heard her say, my mother. When it was all over, I stood beneath the cherry tree, the blossom growing whiter as I watched, more glorious than […]