December 19, 2007

From and English mummers’ play of the 1930s: Scots & Scars, The Doctor, Saint George, Bold Slasher, Grandfather Christmas, Johnny Jack and The Turkish Knight respectively… Catch the tour of Hugh Lupton and Chris Wood’s Christmas Champions while you can and celebrate the season… or listen again on the BBC if you can’t. It’s well worth it.

December 13, 2007

Away for a while. Life lived back and forth across an ocean, one shore or some other. Here’s a fragment of Frances Leviston, you can buy her book Public Dream. This is from “Unthinkable”:

but when I woke in the master bedroom I could still hear
the cry from the sixth-floor harpy at dusk, which is the
same long cry
that sails from the pigeon coops across the valley
where tenderness is not unthinkable, and I understood the
terrible coughing
in the shut room was laughter, and that love — love! –
answered, came
in from the cold each night, hands shoved in pockets,
unspeakable, so much the fiercer for that

October 28, 2007

October 19, 2007

Up in the country reading Maurice Sendak, and so craving chicken soup with rice. Followed Elaine’s recipe, which I couldn’t possibly divulge except to say you use spring water to get a sweet, clear broth. Two nights’ work, but worth it, and so I can dance around like Really Rosie…

October 10, 2007

My son, who is seven, has long been a fan of Shel Silverstein – as am I. We were reading Where The Sidewalk Ends the other night, and came across this, which I remembered loving, and loved all over again…

Listen to the MUSTN’TS child,
Listen to the DON’TS
Listen to the SHOULDN’TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON’TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me -
Anything can happen, child
ANYTHING can be.

September 27, 2007

You pays your money, you takes your choice. Brick Lane.

September 26, 2007

The occasional whims of a literary editor, nearly always resisted. The latest, to commission a review linked by title. In a single piece, a thematic discussion of Ian Rankin’s Exit Music; Philip Roth’s Exit Ghost; and Robert Harris’s The Ghost. Spooky, eh?
Come to think of it — I thought that was a joke, but you know, it might actually work…

September 21, 2007

My dad was a pilot in the Second World War; I’ve always wanted to fly. So I loved Nick Barnard’s book, How to Fly a Plane… and here’s a picture of me and Nick (he’s in the back. Yes, he’s flying the plane). The photograph is by Tom Miller (it was taken while hanging out of a Yakolev 52) – and you can see more of them in The Times Magazine on Saturday, September 29…

August 30, 2007

Howick, Northumberland, England. Where the stone shelves down towards the sea. Fish/rock? Rock/fish?

August 10, 2007

An Old English riddle from the Exeter Book, ca 1000 AD. From a new edition of Michael Alexander’s translation, first published in 1980.

My home is not silent: I myself am not loud.
The Lord has provided for the pair of us
A joint expedition. I am speedier than he
And sometimes stronger; he stays the course better.
Sometimes I rest, but he runs on.
For as long as I live I live in him;
If we leave one another it is I who must die.

Answers on a postcard — oh, okay, an e-mail — please. Buy the book.