On Sunday, Luis Suarez bit his opponent, Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic. Today, Suarez was given a 10 match ban. Obviously, this is generating a lot of debate, particularly amongst us keyboard warriors. As you might expect, Liverpool supporters are generally filling the Suarez apologist role, while supporters of other teams are rather pleased at the verdict. Read the rest of this entry »
There was an interesting article on the Guardian website the other day from one of the judges of the Granta list of best British novelists under 40. Now, as this list is collated every ten years and I’m now in my thirties, unfortunately I will never be a Great Young Novelist as decreed by Granta. We shall overlook the fact that I haven’t written a novel, or anything approaching one, and probably never will, and perhaps focus for a moment on yet another sign of me slowly getting old. I was just about willing to accept that I was never going to be a professional footballer, but I figured being an acclaimed novelist was less time-dependant. Little did I know. I guess I better aim for a Nobel now. Anyway, back to that article… Read the rest of this entry »
As one of those (annoying) people who seems to prefer reading about writing to actual writing (1) I found myself reading this rather exhaustive essay about the writer and editor Gordon Lish. The author collates examples of Lish’s recommendations, thoughts and teachings on how to write, organising them into a coherent methodology for writing Lish-style.
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Last night there were certain parts of the UK out in force celebrating the death of Margaret Thatcher. In some ways I don’t blame them. Her policies destroyed whole communities, destroyed lives. But ultimately celebrating her death feels pointless. I get queasy at the thought of celebrating anyone’s death, anyway. But celebrating her death when her legacy lives on across the UK feels like a pretty futile and unproductive exercise. Read the rest of this entry »
Wait until next year 