I do not advise new writers - or any writers - to enter competitions, except for their own amusement. The idea of an unknown writer winning a major competition and being pursued by publishers with open cheque books is a seductive one. Believe me - it
It is sad when a language ceases to exist. There have been many that have vanished and the latest is Bo. This was the language of the Bo people who lived on India’s Andaman Islands. It is said that Bo had been spoken for 65,000 years, or 70.000 years
Major projects have cycles in their lives. The cycle begins with a ceremony marking handover of the completed building. Here the client, architect and builder stop arguing about time and cost over-runs and spend a couple of hours eating dodgy sandwiches
I suspect this is the first time in history in which public libraries have not been places of quiet and contemplation. Today mothers, with minimal parenting skills, are allowed to let their children run riot by right. Readers researching their
The British Library has a fine exhibition at present on the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, in the Fitzgerald version. First published in 1859 this was wildly popular in the 19C and early 20C and has never been out of print. The exhibition contains dozens
At the beginning of the first century AD the father-in-law of Julius Caesar built one of the greatest villas in the ancient world. It was massive, as big as Blenheim Palace. It must have been a good life for those who inherited it, living in a
Christmas terrestrial TV viewing was mostly the same as usual. White Christmas, Dad’s Army, Queen’s Speech. Which was better than Z List celebrities, cooking programs and house hunting shows, which tax our brains for 51 weeks a year.
However there
My Alexandria story is going slowly. It is all the fault of the links. There is no problem with the set piece events (probably) but they have to be joined together somehow, and these are the links. Of course the links have to be interesting, mildly dramatic
It is a pity Borders has gone into administration. It was a lot better than some of the other big chains. The shops are still open at present and offering a 20 percent discount on all books, This leaves them a mere 40 percent mark up on the publisher’s
We are used to public buildings being named after benefactors. We have Tate Modern, the Guggenheim Museum, the Bodleian Library and many more. It is in appreciation of the benefactor’s gift to the Nation, University, maybe the town where they were
I enjoy reading literary magazines. They inform, entertain and make the bus journey slightly less traumatic. Some help with writing and others point you towards new books and maybe help you discover old ones. I have three favourites. TLS (Times Literary
I have triumphantly reached the end of ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles‘. Tess is not high on my list of annoying women in fiction, but she is on it. Her achievement in making the wrong decision, every time she makes a decision at all, surely deserves recognition.
Rejoice, the Cambridge City Library is up and running. Which only goes to show that most buildings finish one day, even if they are 16 months late, £100,000 over budget and counting. Now libraries are about books, but it is nice if the building lifts
I was reading on the rather good Abebooks website their list of top ten depressing books.
The list is: 1. The Road, 2. The Bell Jar, 3. Jude the Obscure, 4. 1984, 5. Atlas Shrugged, 6. The Grapes of Wrath, 7. Night, 8. On the Beach, 9. The Bluest Eye,
No doubt there are many Best Bookshops in the world, but Shakespeare and Company in Paris is one of them. There have been two shops bearing the same name, but the spirit is continuous. The first was owned by Silvia Beach, founded in 1919 it was
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