There’s nothing wrong with being local. In today’s all-encompassing world where your best mate may well be straddled to a microphone/webcam on the other side of the world, there’s a refreshing element to calling in at your local bookshop and seeing how things are. Saying a personal hello even. We’re based in Twickenham and we’re happy to say we’re supported by our local bookshop, Langton’s Bookshop. I know it well. In fact I did a reading there a few years back when I was trying to get my poetry heard. They had wine. And applause. I remember that wine.
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Articles
We’re Local and Proud
Monday, August 22nd, 2011The Snob
Friday, August 5th, 2011In the world of literature, you don’t have to throw a stone far to hit a snob. Snobbery takes many forms. It can form around social class, or material possessions, or workplace achievements. All types of snobbery are worth writing about (and mocking). Yet for me, it’s the intellectual snob that is most tedious of all. (more…)
A Private Confession
Monday, August 1st, 2011Back in 1980s Romania it was a given that you were being listened in on. It was just one of those things, normal. Green meat. Normal. Bribing. Normal. Being extremely careful about what you say and who you share it with. Normal. Nothing unusual there at all. (more…)
Revolution
Sunday, July 24th, 2011Over the past year there has been a lot of incredible and newsworthy stories that have happened across this globe of ours: the massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the death of Osama bin Laden, and the WikiLeaks saga. But really one of the biggest stories of 2011 will be the Middle East revolutions. (more…)
A Tale of Cupcakes, Books and Rain
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011A sweet beginning: (more…)
Courageous, Intriguing: The Women Who Inspire Me
Saturday, July 9th, 2011Something Contemporary
Sunday, July 3rd, 2011I am lucky enough to receive an email now and again from Willie Smith. If you have ever received an email from Willie Smith you will know what I am writing about. Willie Smith’s emails are pure art. (more…)
The Sickness
Monday, June 27th, 2011Bestsellers make money. They do. And they get written about. Take John Locke. And money is great because you can get stuff and live. But to me, bestselling books are a sick marketing exercise, nothing less than playing on the fantasies of the masses. (more…)
Glastonbury is Dead
Sunday, June 26th, 2011“I think it could well become more political. We’ve always been a sounding board for lots of unrest. If people are really faced with dire circumstances, that will get them angry and motivated, and that’s the way we’re heading at the moment.”
So said Glastonbury creator Michael Eavis last week of his world-famous music festival. I have never been less convinced. (more…)
Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’: From Scroll to iPhone App
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011What a transition Jack Kerouac‘s On The Road has made. It started off as a 120-foot scroll of taped together tracing paper, with no margins or paragraphs. It might as well have been written on the back of a cigarette packet. For me, it was the perfect treatment of Kerouac’s dazed-and-confused prose that left readers reaching for a bottle of whiskey, and an atlas. (more…)
