Pubic tonsure. Some people are born to talk about it, some people come to accept that it will be talked about while others have the conversation thrust upon them. My friend Cluny and I were discussing the whole … area,…

Know something about something. Don’t just present your wonderful self to the world. Constantly amass knowledge and offer it around. This remark, by the late Richard Holbrooke, eminent diplomat for the US government until his death last year, resonates with…

It’s official. I have made it through the first year of the diploma course. I passed the exam and all the assignments and enjoyed it, mostly. I feel I have learnt a huge amount which at the same time amounts…

Here’s a poem I really love. The Way We Go the way we go about our lives trying out each empty room like houses we might own eavesdropping for clues in corridors until standing at a gate or attic window…

Anyone else find metaphors hard? So much of literariness seems to live in these kinds of patterns and devices. I think metaphors are great for alerting readers to subtext. It seems like one of the more democratic devices. Although I…

Love the BBC’s sweary classics gimmick. Can’t wait until Sunday night on Radio 3 at 8pm. Wuthering Heights with –  shhhh –  ‘foul language’ as the Daily Mail clucks. Of course, it’s nothing new. Here’s one they made earlier: Blue…

Or should that be The Second-Rate Gatsby? We’ve been reading and discussing Fitzgerald’s classic novella in class and now my work is all Gatsby. Does this  happen to anyone else? This would be fine if I were as great a…