Fiction
-
You probably don’t want to read John William’s “Nothing but the night” if you are in any way depressed. Or feeling overwhelmed. Or existential. It won’t help lift your mood. Nor if you’re looking for a happy ending. Williams dangles one before us, tantalisingly suggesting redemption, then in the last 20 pages rips that possibility…
-
“Books talk to the inner person, the secret person; they can make direct contact with all those subterranean feelings and desires you speak of.” Vincent edits books. It is modest and quiet occupation – yet one which is about to be thrown into turmoil thanks to the arrival of woman, her gift to him, and…
-
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Richard Ford’s “Wildlife” is how little actually happens. It covers a three day period during which…. But I don’t want to give it away! The journey (shouldn’t there always be a journey?) is for the teenage boy, Joe, and we see the whole thing through his eyes. What’s also…
-
Curated from my Substack site – ‘Writing until the light goes out‘ – here are some recent pieces for you to enjoy. Just click on the image… Subscription is option – though I’d love it if you did!
-
“The Piano Tuner” is splendid – just like Daniel Mason’s “The Winter Soldier”. You might argue that it is slightly too drawn-out in the middle, but perhaps that is a textual parallel to the situation in which the central character finds himself. Overall, the writing is – of course – rather fine. The reader is…
-
This evening I am having an on-line launch of my most recent books – both of which are published tomorrow – with a short reading from each of them: – Grimsby Docks ~ A series of twenty-five poems, each written in response to photographs taken during a single morning. In the mid-19th century, Grimsby docks was perhaps…
-
On Friday 16th February I am having an on-line launch of my most recent books – both of which are published the following day – with a short reading from each of them: – Grimsby Docks ~ A series of twenty-five poems, each written in response to photographs taken during a single morning. In the mid-19th century,…
-
Sometimes, when you read other writers writing about writing, you might be forgiven for imagining that ours is a pastime undertaken in a holiday camp sitting at a desk where our notebooks are accompanied by a packet of crisps and a pint of beer. It’s all a bit ‘Hi-De-Hi’! “Let’s play this game children: it’s…
