Wednesday, December 04, 2019

Blogging Off

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I've been blogging for a long time, but what was once called "push button publishing" has found itself left behind in an era o...
Monday, October 28, 2019

Albums of the Decade

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With 2019 - and the decade - coming to a rapid close, the first lists of "best albums of the 20-teens" have started to come out. W...
Monday, September 30, 2019

Never Mind / Bad News / Some Hope - Edward St. Aubyn

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The three novels Edward St. Aubyn wrote about "Patrick Melrose" between 1992-94, though they've since been expanded to a quint...
Thursday, August 29, 2019

Short Stories

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I had a bit of a flurry of getting short stories published a few years ago, but nothing in the last year or so. Strangely the last story I h...
Sunday, August 18, 2019

Art Thoughts

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I've been thinking of doing more visual art for a while, and finally having a space of my own where I can set up a "studio" ha...
Friday, July 05, 2019

Bells for Peace

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When John Lennon first met Yoko Ono she was already an established artist. In fact, he was at her show. not her at his, and he asked to pa...
Saturday, June 22, 2019

...but I've written it.

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How much is there left in the tank? I wonder about this. Writing is so much more than just putting words on the page, but about the harnessi...
Thursday, June 06, 2019

Fancy a literary swim?

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This weekend, if you fancy a literary swim the place to be is Victoria Baths , the restored community venue just behind the universities a...
Wednesday, April 17, 2019

The Forensic Records Society by Magnus Mills

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The banal doesn't sit well with fiction. The novel insists, too often, on action of one kind or another. It is left to theatre - "W...
Tuesday, April 02, 2019

Art Currents

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At the start of March I was in Oxford for the first time, ostensibly to see the Jeff Koons show at the Ashmolean, though that was really jus...
Sunday, March 17, 2019

This week

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Its a busy week coming up with some excellent events on in Manchester. On Thursday its the new Castlefield Gallery exhibition launch, Eve...
Tuesday, March 05, 2019

All Our Pasts and Futures

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When David Bowie came back with his "The Next Day" album it was knowingly an album that mined the various stages of his career. No...
Sunday, February 03, 2019

Resisting Conservative Narratives in Culture

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The 1930s have long been on my mind. Weimar art and culture is a vibrant pot that continues to be worth stirring, and its ending as the N...
Friday, December 21, 2018

More Than Words: Book Design in Contemporary Poetry

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Sometimes you only notice things when seeing from a different angle. Having recently moved house, I began unpacking my books, putting all th...