THE UNIFIED FIELD OF ME (BLOG)
Tae be yersel and tae mak that worth bein
Nae harder job to mortals has been gien
So wrote the Scots poet Hugh MacDiarmid. To be yourself and to make that worth being…
But just as Keith Richards has called Mick Jagger ‘a nice bunch of guys’, I’d suggest much the same could be said of most people.
Here are some pieces I have written – past and present – that give clues to my own assortment of interests and selves. More importantly, they show what a big, deep cultural pond this small Piscean finds himself swimming around in.
TLS Review of The Eleanor Crosses
I wrote on my 'Recent & Ongoing Projects' page about my partner Decca Warrington's book on The Eleanor Crosses, which has been warmly received since its publication in June. This enthusiastic review by Emma J Wells from the Times Literary Supplement of 28...
The Ballad of Syd & Morgan (Update 2)
With less than two weeks to go before the publication of my novel about Syd Barrett, E M Forster and the mysteries of creativity, Henry Layte and his Propolis team have done a wonderful job in setting up an anticipatory buzz about the book – although since they all...
The Ballad of Syd & Morgan (Update 1)
A couple of months ago, while this website was under construction, I made myself a hostage to fortune by declaring on the ‘Recent & Ongoing Projects’ page that I would write blog posts about my next novel, The Ballad of Syd & Morgan, as the time for its...
Cover Image for The Ballad of Syd & Morgan
I'll be writing more soon about what's going on during the final few weeks before the publication of my new novel for adults on 26 October 2018. In the meantime, here is a preview of the front-cover image - courtesy of Studio Medlikova - which I absolutely love. The...
Opening the Kirtlington Annual Fete, June 2018
I was honoured (and staggered) to be invited to officially open the village fete in Kirtlington, north Oxfordshire, on 23 June 2018. Here’s what I said to the collection of slightly mystified punters who happened to be around at 1.00 pm. Good afternoon to you all....
Big Fish, Littler Fish
I wrote this on spec in September 2015, the year before England’s disastrous campaign in the 2016 European Football Championship. In my mind it is distinguished mainly by the speed with which it was rejected – none too graciously either – by the prestigious monthly...
FICTION MAD – A Novelist’s Confession
I wrote this in 2010: the opening to a 50,000 word memoir which I completed but have still not tried to publish. At that point, seven novels in, I thought I had renounced fiction for good. Or fiction had renounced me. You never can tell…
How To Describe What You Really See
I wrote this blog post for Jericho Writers of Oxford in May 2018, in my role as a creative-writing tutor.
The Ballad of John and David
I wrote this at the start of 2013. Celebrity Q & A’s often carry the question ‘Which living person do you most admire?’ Back then, for me, it was probably David Bowie; before him it had been John Lennon.
