Belinda Webb

General

2012-01-29T17:51:00.001Z

I'm in Starbucks, partaking of the free wifi until I set off to Kingston to have dinner with my former phd supervisor. I'm still waiting to collect my iPhone back from being repaired, which has meant much less procrastination throughout the week. Yesterday I went to the London Library and after a couple of hours of writing I borrowed a couple of books. The first one was the new 'Nine Lives of

Writers and honours

2012-01-28T11:56:00.001Z

If I were ever invited to accept an honour by my country would I take it? Should I? It may seem like a grandiose assumption to think of this even in hypothetical terms, but it is merely the entrance to a wider discussion of honours, what with it being the season for them. On the basis that they are bestowed for some extraordinary achievement that has benefitted society then an honour is a fitting

Howards End

2012-01-22T17:55:00.001Z

I've just finished Howards End by EM Forster. Like The Fear Index, by Robert Harris, I read it completely on my iPhone. Howards End was one of the books that had rested in the periphery of my constant 'to read' pile. The only other Forster book that I'd read was Maurice, which I liked very much, although the misogyny is clearly there. Howards End, despite being denser in its prose style than

Aged perspectives

2012-01-21T23:14:00.001Z

Whenever the poet, Hugo Williams, is not writing the Freelance column in the Times Literary Supplement I feel tempted to pass by to the next page. Often, when I don't, I'm surprised. Sometimes not. Williams has a way with prose that I find characteristic of many poets changing form. Concise, as if keen to keep it plain and simple lest they be accused of being a purple proser! It works to lend

Lagging on the cultural front

2012-01-21T19:36:00.001Z

If there's one cultural event I regret not having seen it's Jerusalem. It totally passed me by. I had been about to book tickets before Christmas and then didn't. What made it worse was when my colleague arrived into wirk last week and said: 'you'd love it'! And as of last week it is over. Today I found myself trawling the online news to see whether it would go to Broadway for another run -

Balance

2012-01-15T22:19:00.001Z

There's not enough time to write and it's frustrating; but that's life when you have a full on full-time job. No time to stop and stare, which one also needs to write. I have, however, began work on revising half of my phd 'novel'. I've even given it a title: Bar-Chords on Barbed Wire. It's from a poem. It resonates. The imagery it conjures, as well as the attempt at sound, feel right for the

My PhD critical paper

2012-01-07T22:21:00.001Z

I thought I'd upload the critical element of my PhD thesis. Hopefully, for those who are interested enough to read it, it will make sense despite the references to my creative work, which I can't upload as I'm seeking publication. And besides, at 68,000 words... I'm also going to tweak section one of this three section critical paper with a view to journal publication because of the academic

That was the year that was

2011-12-31T23:48:00.001Z

Like most years 2011 was both good and bad. For the most part though, it was somewhere in between. Try as I might, though, I doubt I could write this without referencing the political climate. My stint teaching poetry and creative writing at Kingston University came to an end with my decision that academia would not be the path I would walk down - not least because Tories in power seem to hate

Judas' Gift

2011-12-27T17:31:00.001Z

The current (Christmas) issue of the London Review of Books features a one-page essay by writer and psychoanalyst (psychoanalyst writer?), Adam Phillips. The last essay I read by Phillips, In Praise of Difficult Children, was - what other word can I use except 'brilliant'? From that can be unpacked: Insightful, thought-provoking, reassuring... Well it is the same of this current one, Judas' Gift.

Hitchens

2011-12-17T19:22:00.001Z

Yesterday began with the sad news that Christopher Hitchens had died. He had only been in the periphery of my mind until his book, God is Not Great, joined Dawkins's, cementing that ever-increasing movement, The New Atheists. A force for good simply because they questioned and interrogated the authorities that too many have been dominated by - within and without - for many a long century. There

It figures

2011-12-10T13:51:00.001Z

In the Dec/Jan issue of Literary Review Frances Wilson opens in Pulpit with a piece on Titanoraks. The centenary of the Titanic is April 2012 and Wilson has a book due out in time - but then so do plenty of others, keen to capitalise on the widespread hunger of the tragedy that still exists, even for those who learned of it only through Winslet and di Caprio. Wilson likens Titanorachia (?) to a

Iceland

2011-12-10T13:08:00.001Z

This is, frustratingly, my third attempt at writing this post. The previous two attempts were gobbled up by my iPhone blog app. Anyway, here goes nothing. I took a long anticipated short break to Iceland last week in the hope of seeing the northern lights. I didn't see them, which means I'll probably go off to Norway next year to see if they can be viewed from there instead. It was a refreshing

D.Phil/PhD

2011-12-09T17:52:00.001Z

I had my phd viva this afternoon. I was grilled for over an hour on both the critical and creative elements of my thesis, and then it was suggested I go and get myself a coffee for twenty minutes. When I was called back I was put out of my misery with hearty congratulations from my internal examiner, Vesna Goldsworthy, and external examiner, Francis Spufford. I have minor revisions to make: add

Lasn & White unite

2011-11-26T22:15:00.001Z

The current issue of The New Yorker features a long read by Mattathias Schwartz on the roots of Occupy Wall St. 69-year-old Estonian Canadian Kalle Lasn and 25-year-old Micah White. Marx & Engels for the twenty-first century? One can hope. Location:Kew

Shelagh Delaney

2011-11-22T20:51:00.001Z

Salfordian writer Shelagh Delaney, 71, died on Sunday after battling with cancer. There then came the tranche of obituaries proclaiming her debut work, A Taste of Honey. I wrote a piece on the Guardian's CiF today, drawing on my well-worn themes of class and literature. I ask where are all the equivalents today, for there's just as much to portray - just as much to get riled up about - just as

Group of seven

2011-11-22T20:44:00.001Z

It's heartening to read an article in The Guardian urging people not to be so quick to queue for hours to get into the 'blockbuster' Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the National Gallery when at the quaint-in-comparison Dulwich Picture Gallery the Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven exhibition is on.Location:Kew

Reading, planning

2011-11-19T23:03:00.001Z

I've been feeling a tad excited at the prospect of a trip to Iceland this Xmas. I've wanted to go for as long as I can remember. Perhaps one of the reasons I haven't made the relatively short flight thus far is that I don't want to be disappointed by the reality - the imaginary idyll can be a far greater place to inhabit and hanker after. I hope, then, that when I go I am not disappointed too

Magnitude

2011-11-13T22:11:00.001Z

I've only today realised the magnitude of my current, new, writing project. The week's previous block had, I think, arisen because this hadn't been sufficiently acknowledged, sitting instead like a huge fur ball in the gullet. So - despite having had a weekend long headache - I spent a bit of time today listing the tasks that will hopefully illuminate the way forward. It is a bigger undertaking

Researching

2011-11-08T21:17:00.001Z

I felt a bit blocked on the current writing project at the weekend and yesterday and this evening it resulted in the usual doubt that we all face - no matter what the project is. But, even if I take my feelings out of the equation and look at the stark facts, there is still scope for a very interesting, colourful story. Because it's partly historical it reassures me that bit more than it would if

Saved - Edward Bond

2011-11-05T21:10:00.001Z

Fortuitously, I was able to get a ticket to see the last matinee performance of Edward Bond's play, Saved, at the Hammersmith Lyric. I first read the play text in 2004 and it left a strong impression - a baby being stoned in its pram in a scene of tormentingly rising violence and hatred had a lot to do with it. I felt that the vitriol the young men aimed at the infant was because it represented

2011-10-30T20:11:00.001Z

I couldn't upload this to my Facebook feed, and I think it looks so nice (yes, I doctored it) that I thought I'd post it here instead. I like church buildings - quiet, cool places in which one can sit and reflect - its just a shame that they come with clergy and doctrine.

Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, and showing the seams of work

2011-10-30T16:29:00.001Z

Painting Canada - Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven - Dulwich Picture Gallery, LondonTom Thomson's Sketch Box is appropriately situated a footstep from the opening to this exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery; seeing the artist's equipment before viewing what he created from the splodges of layered paints that have aged within for almost a century is an appropriate start to the work of Tom

Citric reviews and a poet's burglaries

2011-10-29T22:57:00.001+01:00

I feel as though the weekend has barely started and yet I'm already thinking about the Monday return to work! I've managed no writing at all this week - I'm never in the right frame of mind on the commute. I could have done some today but spent half the day faffing around - downloading iOS 5 on the iPhone took almost two hours! Still haven't done the iPad. Then there was the ironing, cleaning,

Reading migraine...

2011-10-22T16:49:00.001+01:00

The past day and a half have been wretched for my poor head. Migraine. I got onto the tube yesterday evening after work, my body vibrating and weak, and my head in a throbbing vice-like grip that also ached my neck. All I could tell myself as I closed my eyes and rested my head against the window that divided the carriage of the tube from the next were the words from Jonathan Sachs. He wrote a

New Van Gogh biog

2011-10-19T20:02:00.001+01:00

A new biography of Van Gogh, which hit the bookstores this week, is causing a stir. Van Gogh: The Life, written by Stephen Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, claims that the painter was shot by two teenage boys known to Van Gogh, in a tragic accident. The claim runs counter to the long held notion of suicide. Yet, intriguingly enough, the gun was never found. Apparently, the authors contend, Van

Booker Prize

2011-10-18T21:58:00.001+01:00

Repeating the scenario of last year, when the winner was the bridesmaid of too many previous years - Howard Jacobson - tonight's Booker prize has just been awarded to Julian Barnes for The Sense of an Ending. It has to be particularly poignant for Barnes, given the death of his partner, the brilliant literary agent Pat Kavanagh. I have yet to read it, but I shall. Location:Kew

Beautiful Books

2011-10-17T22:41:00.001+01:00

The publisher of A Clockwork Apple, Beautiful Books, has gone into administration. It's such a shame. Simon Petherick, the MD, who set it up from his home in Clapham about four years ago before moving to a small west-end office had the passion for reads that were away from the mainstream. I'm not at all too disheartened. I'm just glad that I was one of the early authors; I know I'd have felt

Reading

2011-10-17T22:27:00.001+01:00

The Collector by John Fowles has been on my mental 'to read' pile for years. Perhaps I never got round to it because I didn't want another of his to usurp what was one of my favourite, The French Liutenant's Woman? I borrowed The Collector from the library a few weeks ago, as I have on several occasions without actually reading it, but I started reading it today and am intrigued by the set-up,

Want to read

2011-10-16T23:46:00.001+01:00

The problem with being a regular reader of Literary Review, TLS, LRB, et al, is that I am constantly aware of a great number of new books that pique my interest. This may not sound like a problem, but it is when one is trying also to write. And has no more room for additional books unless I make moving to somewhere larger a priority. However, it's also an advantage that, through these reviews I

Libero

2011-10-08T17:07:00.001+01:00

Watching Libero this afternoon served to remind me that Italians do film exceedingly well. Better than fashion, food, and football; film is more often than not shown with the inherent ability to convey that heat-seeking gem of all arts: clean emotion. Each of the performances of the four main family members: Kim Rossi Stuart, Barbara Bobulova, Alessandro Morace, and Marta Nobill, are first rate -

Steve Jobs, TLS, really writing...

2011-10-06T20:07:00.001+01:00

I can't ever remember reading the TLS Freelance column when it's been written by a woman. If it's not Hugo Williams, it's Michael Caines. I like Williams's, Caines not so much because he bangs on about the band that he's in. But this week's, by avid reader and critic Regina Marler, was perfect - if anything can be. She simply shares her years' long habit of recording what she's read - her book

Ford Madox Brown, and Protests

2011-10-02T17:19:00.001+01:00

This weekend I went up to Manchester for three reasons: to visit family, to see Manchester Art Gallery's exhibition on Ford Madox Brown, and to take part in the anti-Tory protests on what is, today, the first day of the Cons Party Conference. Why on earth they saw it fit to hold a Tory conference in a city that has bore the brunt of their ideology over the years is best known to them. But first

A fair day, Mayo sells for 1m Euro

2011-09-29T18:57:00.001+01:00

A fair day, Mayo has sold for a million Euros. The artist, Jack Yeats, was the artist brother of poet William Butler. Location:Kew

Watts Gallery, Compton

2011-09-29T18:17:00.001+01:00

Having submitted my PhD thesis a couple of days early I took today to visit the Watts Gallery in the rural village of Compton, Surrey. Ever since it was refurbished, and opened in June this year (thanks to funds from the National Lottery, amongst others), and a review featured in The Guardian, I'd been meaning to go. The only work of Watts that I knew, like many others, was Hope (or, as some

Nausea

2011-09-27T21:42:00.001+01:00

No, its not a review of Sartre's novel, but my current state. It's been a regular lechorous companion since I was young. One of my earliest memories was feeling trapped in nausea, my toddler self clinging onto the coarse orange cushion of our old second-hand settee, limpet-like, as the room became full of visiting Irish voices. My Dad's relatives on a rare visit to Hulme, Manchester circa 1975/6

First-person narratives

2011-09-27T14:35:00.001+01:00

Today's Five Books interview on The Browser is with William Fiennes. I found it to be both interesting and odd, however, that Fiennes chooses such a great selection of first-person narratives, including Edmund Gosses's Father & Son, but then keeps going on about how self-centred and egotistical the first-person narrative is, an attitude perhaps more at home with Phillip Gosse than the son Fiennes

Movement and moving

2011-09-19T08:02:00.001+01:00

I took myself off to the Royal Academy yesterday, having pre-booked for the Degas exhibition. Degas is of course known for his pictures and sculptures of ballerinas, at rest and dance. The opening to the gallery was barely lit with projections of spinning dancers far up the wall. It was enchanting. But once the first room was through the dim light - which was throughout - started to give me a

Jane Eyre

2011-09-17T21:14:00.001+01:00

I went to watch the latest adaptation of Jane Eyre last night. I had been a little apprehensive - how could it possibly be told from a unique enough angle that would differentiate it from all the others? Well, it wasn't - and yet it worked fine. This gothic story is powerful enough not to need any new fireworks. The chronology was spliced somewhat though - a meek attempt at a different angle. It

Lost data

2011-09-13T22:42:00.001+01:00

Hugely pissed off that I finally got to post a longish piece on here on my way home from work this evening, and somehow it's disappeared; at least, I can't see it. It was on the novel that I've recently read, Alistair Morgan's 'Sleepers, Wake'. The upshot was that it draws on what is now a familiar motif of White (male) South African writers. Violent threats don't just hang over the text but

2011-09-13T22:15:00.001+01:00

British Library

2011-08-27T11:35:00.001+01:00

Under the Influence

2011-08-27T11:28:00.001+01:00

One of the best apps on the iPhone is The Browser. Similar to Arts & Letters Daily it collates and selects quality articles and then categorises them - this way I get to read a wide range of material from international journals and magazines that I may not know about otherwise. However, it also has its own material. FiveBooks conducts interviews leading figures to ask what they think are the best

London

2011-08-24T21:10:00.001+01:00

Next month I hope to write a London specific range of posts. September marks sixteen years since I arrived in London, and I took to it like the duck to the proverbial. As I walked down Embankment on my way to work this morning I realised that I love it now more than ever - its extremes, its history present everywhere, its amazing greenery, the river (both sides), and the diversity of people, and

Next book

2011-08-21T21:00:00.001+01:00

The reason for the 3-week gap in posts is due to my starting a new full-time job. I've still tweaks to make to my PhD but it's basically there. So the other week I said to myself, I'm not going to try too hard to think about what I should write next - I'll see what rakes root. And I've been brought back to my Mum's book. When I think of the last version of it - for which I was granted an Arts

Presidential reading

2011-08-21T20:49:00.001+01:00

The reason I opened the last post asking what Cameron may have been reading (not the thinking public's mind or mood, that's for sure) was because it was going to lead into a comment on an article into the books that Obama has read since assuming office. The list is here, and it is fairly impressive. I was glad to see that Pultitzer Prize winner Paul Harding's Tinkers is there - a gem of a book.

Cameron on morality

2011-08-21T20:46:00.001+01:00

What was the last book that David Cameron read? I don't know, but maybe it would be about learning to delegate public relations, because he's making a hash of it, as with much of everything else. Having just gone on his fifth break in 7.5 months the Express published commentary by him in which he talked of the UK in slow motion moral decline, whilst hinting that human rights are a waste of time.

Dreamers of a New Day - Sheila Rowbotham (Verso)

2011-08-02T16:14:00.001+01:00

Sheila Rowbotham has a new book out. Dreamers of a New Day: Women who Invented the Twentieth Century (Verso), is described as 'a lively, groundbreaking study in women's history that diversifies our understanding of the early women's movement'. Im hoping it will be the first book I read once this PhD is submitted. There's a very good outline of it here, with glowing encomiums. The cover's nice too

British Library

2011-07-31T16:58:00.001+01:00

Whenever I'm at the British Library, which hasn't been for a while now, and emerge from the concentration in the humanities reading room, I am always much taken with the lines and curves of the interior. Last time I was there I took this pic.

Wordless story

2011-07-30T17:57:00.001+01:00

I often see, whilst out walking, the odd small shoe, mitten, or anything else that can be dropped from a buggy. Inevitably someone will pick it up and position it prominently. I saw this shoe on my way to the shop; it was at the side of the pavement. Within the short time of my return it was placed thus, someone's front garden wall. I wonder if the parent will retrace his/her steps in order to

Lady Chatterley's Defendant

2011-07-28T22:38:00.001+01:00

Lady Chatterley's Defendant & Other Awkward Customers by Horatio Morpurgo - Just Press (www.justpress.co.uk) (2011) £8.00Having recently reviewed for Tribune, Paul Goodman - A Reader, I remarked on what a revelation Goodman's writings were, having been ignorant of him up to that point. I resolved to delve further but, as so often happens, I got caught up in other things - until I came across

Booker Prize Longlist

2011-07-28T14:32:00.001+01:00

Ok, so the Booker Prize long list announcement was made two days ago, but I've been hither and tither, with one thing and another. Certainly no surprise to see Julian Barnes on the list - for the third time - maybe this will be the year that he will be the groom, as opposed to the long standing best man. Ok, so that analogy doesn't quite work - I didn't want to emasculate him by using the bride/

Save EMA

2011-07-23T20:37:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I wrote a piece for the Guardian on why it is important that we keep the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA).Location:Kew

Storytelling and tragedies

2011-07-23T20:34:00.001+01:00

This week's issue of the Times Literary Supplement includes a review by Terri Apter, of two memoirs - the first being One Hundred Names for Love by Diane Ackerman, and Strange Relation by Rachel Hadas. The books seem very moving. Ackerman's book is sub-titled 'A Stroke, A Marriage, and the Language of Healing', which seems to sum up the story. Ackerman's husband, Paul West, is a Professor of

Birthday

2011-07-21T13:27:00.001+01:00

I am thirty-eight today, and will continue to be - with increasing degrees - until a day before this time next year! I don't mind ageing, I mean, what's the alternative? My twenties were, for the most part, a mess. My thirties, thus far, have been all about education, writing... It is a sobering thought to realise that my Mum, who didn't have her first child until she was twenty-seven had, by my

Migraine

2011-07-21T00:31:00.002+01:00

I felt a twinge of empathy with that Republican nut-job, Michelle Bachmann, this week. She is a fellow migraineur, which has seen the media asking whether she should run for Presidency. This is despite the fact that Ulysses S Grant, Jefferson, and JFK suffered them. But the empathy comes from my being walloped by them since I was a child. I know it's a migraine when I'm being sick, like I was at

Samuel Palmer

2011-07-17T14:18:00.001+01:00

Today's Observer reviews a biography of Samuel Palmer, by Rachel Campbell-Johnston. Who is Samuel Palmer? Well, he's another artist who was overlooked, neglected, abandoned (need I add more?) in his lifetime as well as well after it. There's nothing a biographer likes than to find a gem of a subject; one they can rescue and show how great and deserving they were. I know, I'm doing a bit of that

Why some politicians are more dangerous

2011-07-16T16:21:00.001+01:00

James Gilligan's new book, 'Why Some Politicians Are More Dangerous Than Others' (Polity Press, 2011) could be reduced to a few key statements, the main one being 'Republicans are very bad for your health'. Gilligan, Professor and MD at New York State University, has combed the statistics on violent deaths (homicide and suicide), from 1900 through to 2007 in order to determine political

Cringe

2011-07-01T20:06:00.000+01:00

intriguing piece on the AHRC and the Big Society: Cringe

Self-taught

2011-06-30T00:35:00.001+01:00

The thing that struck me as I surveyed the work featured in the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery yesterday was the mention of 'self-taught'. It's odd, I thought later, how in writing it hasn't tended to matter which college or university one attended, whilst artists are more often than not described as, for instance, having studied at Slade/Thameside/Camberwell. But then again,

2011-06-23T18:16:00.001+01:00

My latest blog for The Guardian's CiF questioned extended hours, which could mean kids will be at school up to 10/11 hours a day. And Saturday. -Location:Free Schools

Red dog, Red dog

2011-06-22T03:13:00.001+01:00

I've just finished Red dog, Red dog, by Patrick Lane. Set in British Colombia in 1958 it covers a week in the lives of brothers Tom and Eddy Stark, and their parents, Elmer and Lilian. But to say it covered a mere week would be wrong, for Lane produces, here and there, every piece of the jigsaw that makes up the lives of these four individuals. The novel is narrated by one of Tom and Eddy's dead

Raymond Carver, tedium and (re)writing

2011-06-18T10:19:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I found myself with a bit of time to spare on Marylebone High Street. Daunts Books beckoned and I found myself asking for The Paris Review interviews. The first thing I was aware of was that I knew these interviews are freely available on the internet, just like Raymond Carver's, here - but I felt compelled to buy the book (£14:99). I read Raymond Carver's 'The Art of Fiction' almost

The Waste Land

2011-06-10T21:35:00.001+01:00

I bought The Waste Land as an 'app' on the iPad 2. This sort of offering is what pushed me to buy what I first thought would be little more than an oversized iPhone. But Faber has outdone itself. The touchscreen 'book' of this genius of a poem is arranged in sections. There is the main performance of the poem by the absolutely mesmeric actress Fiona Shaw, who resembles my Mum! She embodies each

Tribune Review

2011-06-08T04:15:00.001+01:00

My latest Review of the Paul Goodman Reader for Tribune Magazine.

Crimes against punctuation

2011-06-06T09:44:00.001+01:00

I believe there are two things that separate humans from animals: table manners and the use of the apostrophe. There is nothing guaranteed to irritate me more than someone slurping, slopping, and slobbering their way through food as though it had been served in a trough. There are also the seemingly trivial boiled-sweet crunchers, teeth clankers, tongue rollers, for whom boiled sweet mouth

Reading...

2011-06-06T07:01:00.001+01:00

I'm currently about two thirds of the way through Red Dog, Red Dog. Written by the Canadian poet Patrick Lane, it seems like every sentence drips with insightful and enriching metaphor. Despite portraying a sparse, arid landscape, the prose is achingly rich, drawing pictures in the dirt. Jon McGregor calls it a 'shock of a novel' and he's right. I shall post a review once I've reached the end.

Le Quattro Volte

2011-06-06T06:45:00.001+01:00

Snowed under with work all weekend I decided to take a break and head down to the Richmond Curzon to watch Michaelangelo Frammartino's film Le Quattro Volte. It received four stars from The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw, and a big thumbs up from a friend who went to see it during the week. It seems this film is best appreciated in art house cinemas, it being an art house film and all. Said friend

Reading

2011-06-01T16:57:00.001+01:00

Today I took delivery of a second-hand book that I forgotten I'd ordered: Red Dog, Red Dog, by Patrick Lane. On my to-read pile is also The Cunning Man by someone Robertson. I'll post more anon.- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

An Angel Visits - Paul Wilson

2011-06-01T16:53:00.001+01:00

I stayed up late last night (the best opening to a book review) to finish reading Paul Wilson's A Visiting Angel (Tindal Street). Set in Manchester the main character is Patrick Shepherd, a man who manages The Limes, a type of halfway house/sanctuary for people who've 'fallen down'. It was a role he took up by chance; some would say serendipity, and was taken under the wing of The Limes original

Go against the grain

2011-05-25T20:53:00.001+01:00

Beautiful Books, the publisher of my debut novel, A Clockwork Apple, are this summer running a promo campaign with independent bookshops throughout the UK. Details on the poster:

Philip Roth - Nemesis

2011-05-24T17:26:00.001+01:00

I'm just reaching the end of Nemesis by Philip Roth, which I borrowed from the library. It is the final short novel of a quartet that began with Everyman, the tale of mortality from its ageing author. The third title was The Humbling, which I also enjoyed, although I've yet to read Indignation, but most who have read it say I'm not missing much. That is far from being the case with Nemesis though

Intl Man Booker

2011-05-18T09:38:00.001+01:00

Philip Roth has been announced as the winner of the $100,000 International Man Booker Prize for his body of fiction.

Paul Graham

2011-05-17T15:27:00.001+01:00

The exhibition is spread out in galleries 1,8 and 9 and arranged in titled sequences. The value of Graham's work is not only in the dignifying of seemingly mundane places, like the Little Chef in Cambs, part of the sequence depicting the A1 - The great north road 1981-1982', but in documenting those decades in which Thatcher was in power and the bleakness of it all. These are powerful political

The Semantics of Murder

2011-05-09T14:34:00.001+01:00

I stayed up late last night to finish Aifric Campbell's The Semantics of Murder. The novel, which she wrote whilst studying at the University of East Anglia, is based on the real case of the murder of Robert Montague, a gifted Professor of Philosophy at UCLA. Montague was found strangled in his home in Beverly Hills in 1971. His killer has never been caught. The story opens, however, by

Depression

2011-05-06T20:21:00.001+01:00

I am not going to write about the various books on depression that I have read over the years, there are too many of them. I can see one on my shelf from here, called Undoing Depression. There are those hardliners who see it as some sort of choice that is simply made or reneged. The choice to be balanced, rational, emotionally healthy, mentally well. There are those who claim that it is not a

Kingston Writers School

2011-05-04T11:21:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I went to the official launch of the Kingston Writers School, held at the Royal Society of Arts. It was a jolly gathering, with writers including Rachel Cusk, Jane Jordan, Heidi James-Dunbar, Lillian Pizzichini, Nicky Matthews-Brown and a host of others in attendance. I, however, had to leave after an hour as I had been grappling with a bad headache that was threatening to develop into

Waterstone's Waterman's

2011-05-02T23:30:00.001+01:00

Late yesterday afternoon I was mooching my way down Kensington High Street when I thought I may as well mooch around inside Waterstone's. This was despite the fact that I already had an unread book (Campbell's The Semamtics of Murder) in my bag. I was drawn to Tove Jansson's novel The Great Deceiver by the name, then the cover, then the back cover, then the first page. All standard criteria for

The Loss Adjustor

2011-05-01T16:26:00.001+01:00

I've just finished reading The Loss Adjustor, by Aifric Campbell. Born in Ireland, as a young woman Campbell moved to Sweden where she studied and taught linguistics. So why she then went into London banking for 17 years poses a question. Money, probably. But in The Loss Adjustor it's words that matter - Campbell excels in two things that make a great novel - pace and description. The Loss

Reading

2011-04-27T23:33:00.001+01:00

I have two new books waiting for me to read - both by Irish writer Aifric Campbell: The Semantics of Murder and The Loss Adjustor.

Verdict

2011-04-27T23:31:00.001+01:00

Today I went to the Richmond Theatre for the first time. It's a quaintly grand building - a proper theatre. I saw a friend, Cassie Raine, play Anya Hendrik in Agatha Christie's 'Verdict'. It was a good play - twists and turns - and I didn't fidget once - despite suffering from a headache. Cassie played the Hungarian wife of Prof Hendrik, with whom she has had to seek exile in London because of

Reading...

2011-04-26T23:00:00.001+01:00

I haven't quite finished Dermot Healy's A Goat's Song. I'm not even a third of the way into Lionel Shriver's So Much for That - the problem with the latter, thus far, is that it contains soooo much information on the US healthcare system; I've decided it is the one reason I could never live over there. It's shockingly profiteering and conniving and terribly difficult to work out with reams of

Oranges and Sunshine

2011-04-26T22:52:00.001+01:00

Last night I took myself off to my local cinema - Waterman's, just around the corner from Kew Bridge. It was my first time there, and I must say, it wasn't exactly an environment conducive to sitting back and relaxing in front of the big screen. It's a large, somewhat Brutalist council building overlooking the Thames. Yet it seemed fairly popular. Maybe it had something to do with the Indian

The Upright Piano Player

2011-04-23T17:37:00.001+01:00

David Abbott was a founder of Abbott Mead Vickers, one of the most successful advertising agencies. Abbott served as both copywriter and creative director. No surprise then that The Upright Piano Player, his debut novel from the Maclehose Press (imprint of Quercus) would bear some of the hallmarks of his previous career. The prose is that of a consummate and measured professional, although

This week

2011-04-21T14:21:00.001+01:00

This week has been a right old trudge. Wading and treacle inevitably come to mind. I always seem to feel heavier and bleaker in warm weather. My bones are Celtic. I can't bear heat-induced enervation. I need to feel a spring in my step. Or an autumn! Anyway. I took myself off to two photography exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery on Tuesday. For a tenner I gained dual admission (student

Samuel Johnson prize longlist

2011-04-16T06:57:00.001+01:00

The Samuel Johnson Prize, the UK's top literary award for non-fiction, has announced its longlist. Biography dominates, comprising 8 of the 18 titles, including Edmund de Waal's The Hare with the Amber Eyes and Andrew Graham-Dixon's tome on the artist Caravaggio. List:Tolstoy - Rosamund BartlettAfghansty - Rodric BraithwaiteThrough the Language Glass - Guy DeutscherThe Hare with the Amber Eyes -

Reading...

2011-04-12T13:38:00.000+01:00

I'm currently reading Georgina Harding's The Spy Game, Alain de Botton's How Proust Can Save Your Life and Dermot Healy's A Goat's Song (which, based on the first few pages, has the potential of special!).

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

2011-04-12T13:35:00.000+01:00

Monday saw the announcement of the shortlisted authors for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, with Spanish language authors making up half: Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Susan Bernofsky from the German, published by Portobello Books Kamchatka by Marcelo Figueras, translated by Frank Wynne from the Spanish, published by Atlantic Books The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk,

Orange Shortlist

2011-04-12T13:32:00.000+01:00

The Orange shortlist has been announced, with debut novelists making up half of the six: Emma Donoghue - Room Kathleen Winter - Annabel Emma Henderson - Grace Williams Says it Loud Aminatta Forna - The Memory of Love Téa Obreht - The Tiger's Wife Nicole Krauss - Great House I have read none of them. I read Krauss's The History of Love, and that was a favourite for a while. Emma Donoghue's Room

of Beasts and Beings

2011-04-11T20:00:00.002+01:00

Of Beasts and Beings is the second novel by Zimbabwean writer Ian Holding. I was haunted by his debut a few years ago, Unfeeling, in which the protagonist, sixteen-year-old Davey Baker, witnesses the murder of his parents by Mugabe's followers who have come to 'reclaim' their farm. Davey is taken in by neighbours and then goes off to school but he escapes and sets off on a journey across Africa

Whispers and Ripples

2011-04-11T11:00:00.001+01:00

One of my closest friends, Laura Solomons, is a photographer and has, with a group of others, collaborated on a blog called Whispers and Ripples. Each member posts a response to the previous post, and so on. It's a great, creative idea and I particularly like Laura's posting of a photograph of her great uncle and the love letter and poem he wrote for his wife-to-be. Romantic.

Then Came the Evening - Brian Hart

2011-03-30T18:11:00.001+01:00

I've always had a thing for log cabins. They convey solitude; being in the margins. Some of my favourite books have also featured log cabins - Julius Winsome, by Gerard Donovan; Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson; The Solitude of Thomas Cave by Georgina Harding. The book I've just this minute finished reading has a log cabin on its cover. It's ablaze. And so begins the the story of Bandy Dorner

Reading

2011-03-28T20:54:00.001+01:00

I read Northline by Willy Vlautin in an evening. It was shorter than 'Lean on Pete', but no less powerful. It was about Allyson, a 19 year old waitress who drowns her sorrows in alcohol. In order to get away from an abusive boyfriend, to whom she has discovered she is pregnant, she goes to Reno. She lives in a house with other pregnant girls and she is paid a monthly stipend to then allow a

Willy Vlautin

2011-03-24T11:45:00.001Z

It's been a tough couple of weeks. Stress. Black dog. Call it what you will. It's not as bad as it has been in previous years. I've been in states before where I have been barely able to read a sentence and when I can it seems to deconstruct the minute it hits my mind - slippages of meaning - no fixed meanings, just a slip-slide into postmodern meaninglessness. Maybe that's a truer state? Anyway.

Ted Hughes award shortlist announced

2011-03-11T19:07:00.001Z

This blog is like waiting for the bus - wait for one post and two come almost at once. Anyway, the Ted Hughes award for New Work in Poetry shortlist has just been announced so thought I'd be a bit quicker off the mark:Martin Figura for Whistle - 'the personal story of the death of Figura's mother at the hands of his father (!)Katie O'Reilly for The Persians, a site-specific Theatre of Wales

Too busy reading, writing and working to blog!

2011-03-11T18:12:00.001Z

I haven't posted in a while. I've been up to my ears in the written word - be it in my PR day job, writing my PhD novel or simply reading - there has been too little time to post. And yet I often find myself thinking what the next post should cover. Last weekend I stayed in Manchester. It was a good weekend. My sister and I took our two nephews - 6 year old Keenan and 2 year old Caleb - to the

Eagleton on Hobsbawn on Marx

2011-02-25T01:58:00.001Z

The current issue of the London Review of Books features Terry Eagleton reviewing Eric Hobsbawm's How to Change the World: Marx and Marxism 1840-2011. I wish, however, that in referring to Friedrich Engels, he hadn't said he had a mistress in Mary Burns. She was much more than that. She was his partner. His common-law wife. They lived together. She guided him around many of the slum areas that

Time for the Angry Young Women?

2011-02-22T16:36:00.001Z