November 2006 - Posts
The British Library is a miracle. Not least a miracle is how the project staggered through two decades of political posturing and actually got built. The country was told on completion that what we saw was phase one and that future phases would follow. Nobody with any knowledge of how politics and sensitive building projects work believed this and nothing further happened, or is likely to happen. Still, we should rejoice at what we have, specially as it is a lot better than the Bibliotech National in Paris. The British Library was the last major hand crafted Scandinavian inspired building to be constructed. The craftsmanship is exemplary and shows what the British construction industry can achieve, if it really tries. It will last for two hundred years so long as a National Library is not considered elitist and to be turned into a City Academy or maybe a Tesco.
Although to carry out research you will need a reader's ticket access is free and there is a lot to see. You can visit one of the regular exhibitions or browse in the bookshop. You can admire the Lindisfarne Gospel, see manuscripts by famous writers and even listen to the voice of Virginia Woolf. Having spent an hour or so looking round you can then visit the cafe' and enjoy some of the best coffee and cakes in London. Do go, it is a two minute walk from Kings Cross Railway Station.
What goes around comes around and we now have the chairman appointed for next year's Man Booker Prize. He is Sir Howard Davies, Director of the London School of Economics, one time chairman of the Financial Services Authority and previously Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. He is also an avid reader and reviewer, which is rather a good thing given his otherwise totally financial background.
The remaining four members of the judging panel will be announced in the new year. Should Sir Howard need to give a potential winner his casting vote we trust that his decision will not be based on the recommended retail price of the hardback edition.
Taking part in literary competitions can be fun for those with masochistic tendencies. To think positivly, success is good for the CV and there is nothing like a deadline to speed up the writing process. Even if your work bounces you still have something to fire off to magazines. Maybe one more story for your long projected anthology. But it's not quite so much fun finding you are not even on the short list.
Competitions come in all shapes and sizes, many with a nominal entrance fee. They can be found in literary magazines and on the web. To begin with it is best to start with small competitions often run by small magazines or literary societies. These will have about 200 entries. Even this may seem a lot of opposition, but take heart. You can reckon that 80% of those entering can't write and that 10% will have forgotten the entry fee or exceeded the maximum word count. So if you are a half decent writer yourself you may well be only competing against two dozen people. With a ten entry short list things get better all the time. Even then failure is more likely than success and should be expected.
The big international competitions are a different matter altogether. With 3000 entries and even with a long list of 125 you need to be very, very, good and amazingly lucky to get anywhere. Win one and your career will fly, but enter too many and it is easy to convince yourself that your writing is completely useless, which it probably isn't.
I have been at a full stop this week due to a computer virus. As viruses go it was a minor head cold, but enough to bring everything to a halt and send my stress levels into orbit. My computer guru cured it in three hours of impressive high speed clicking. Where it came from I will never know, but my anti virus software is about to get reinforcements and a good ticking off.
I have stopped getting emails from Nigerians who have a million dollers they want me to launder in exchange for a fifty fifty split. Just give them my bank details they say and I will be a heartbeat away from Monte Carlo and a Yacht. Had I the skills I would have given them my virus as a going away present.