The Creative Identity

Intermission

Aptly, for my series on intermissions, I give you the one from the Cavalleria Rusticana. I think this is a piece of music for which the idiom 'pulling at the strings of my heart' was invented. Read more →

Being A Writer

Amongst a plethora of new books at Christmas, I received a particularly beautiful one, Being A Writer. When I returned to work after the break, I chose it as my reading choice for the tube and I veritably flew through its pages. Its contents are arranged into five sections: Becoming A Writer Methods and Means Failing The Art of Writing A Sense of An Ending and include pages and pages of opinions and advice from a hugely disparate number of writers: fiction writers, non-fiction writers, contemporary writers, defunct writers, popular writers, literary writers, screenwriters, short story writers, black writers, Caucasian writers, Asian writers, male and female, young and old. The result is a volume that I did find compelling although, in places, it is also contradictory. There are authors who are quite prescriptive in their love for writing in the silence of the night, while others are quite dismissive of those who do so and make a strong argument for writing almost as a '9-to-5' office-like activity. Just about all though have a non-negotiable message: inspiration is for amateurs. A pro writer sits down at the screen [paper/typewriter] no matter what, and especially in the face of 'lack of inspiration'. Here is a selection for your perusal, after which I would say you really must go out and buy the book. Read over your composition and, when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out. Samuel Johnson People say, 'What do you have for people... Read more →

2016 Highlights

It's been a stinker of a year, there are no two ways about it, but I'm sure you figured that one out for yourself, when you noticed that I fell silent. I lost my darling dog, I fractured my foot, and work was abysmal, and that's putting it mildly. While calm, the word I bestowed upon 2016 in the dying throes of the previous year, served me very well indeed, it is joy that I am craving next. I can only hope that 2017 will deliver. ____________________ Movies watched at the cinema: 42 [last year's 78 seems like a very distant best...] Some of the best: Spotlight, The Danish Girl, Bridget Jones's Baby, Florence Foster Jenkins, A Bigger Splash, Nocturnal Animals, The Big Short, The Girl on The Train, Finding Dory The worst: High-Rise The most over-rated: The Revenant Books I bought: 95 Best home video addiction : Smallville Best fiction : The Henry Experiment, The Santa Klaus Murder Best non-fiction : Georgia O'Keeffe, Art as Therapy Best exhibition : Sunken Cities at The British Museum Favourite bookshop : Foyles Best art bookshop : Royal Academy of Arts Best charity bookshop : very slim pickings this year, nobody wins Best online bookshop : The Book People, same as last year and the one before and the one before then Best art event : Lorenzo Quinn at The Halcyon Gallery Number of significant writing endeavours started : 2 Holidays taken : 0 Most unexpected encounter : Mark Ruffalo at Claridge's Most... Read more →

On The Merits of ROCKY

When I first came across the trailer of Creed, in the very late summer, it was evident that I could not have maintained my Rocky virginity for much longer. Creed qualifies as the seventh Rocky movie, why getting to it cold? Unlike the North American territory, in which this movie was released in November, it was only going to hit the UK in mid-January... I figured I'd have plenty of time to catch up on Rocky. Imagine my delight when I came across a pristine box-set of all six movies in a charity shop just before Christmas. What are the odds of finding a movie you want in a charity shop, let alone an entire series of six, precisely when you need it as well? This was serendipity at its best dear reader. And so it goes that I will forever associate Rocky with Christmas 2015, for I started on the first one a few days before Christmas itself and... I haven't stopped playing these movies. Yes, you've heard, even now, a good five weeks later, I've got Rocky on a loop. I saw a preview of Creed last week and that itself continued to stoke my fire of fondness for these characters in ways I never thought possible. This year marks the fortieth anniversary of Rocky, which was released in time for Thanksgiving in 1976 and goes on to follow the lives of our characters from mid-November to 1st January. The first time I watched the seminal movie, I... Read more →

Intermission

Perhaps you went to see Legend because you were seduced by the wonderful trailer in which an exceptional tune plays half-way through... but... you've been wondering what on earth that is? Well yes, sometimes I feel like the so-called generational gap isn't so much a gap but the Mariana Trench. You can thank me later. Read more →