The Creative Identity

Write Around Town

I've been very slack this month. But I have two stellar reasons for it. First of all, two weeks ago approximately two square meters of plasterwork collapsed from my ceiling onto my table, obliterating everything on it, and the table itself, which got smashed in two, with one leg snapped clear off. It was a Monday evening and I was skipping home on the wings of a triumphant day at the office, in my fantastic new job. And you know the sort of evening: you put the key in the door and smirk to yourself... what should I do tonight? Read a book in a bath filled with 300 liters of foam? Dial for a pizza and indulge myself with Legally Blonde? A leafing through Vogue with a side of cumberbatching? The possibilities were endless, until the lounge rose before my very eyes at the top of the stairs. Why was the Dyson over and backwards and what the buggery bloody hell was that stuff on it? Suffice to say my gentle reader, it was a War Zone and this is indeed one of those occurrences in which one picture is worth a thousand words. Six sacks of rubble and four hours later, I dragged myself to the local Pizza Express to regroup. I left the room (and the kitchen, and the stairs, and the hall), covered by three inches of dust. Lots of people have come and gone since then, lots of pics have been taken, and lots of... Read more →

Thank You January

Today I ran some errands late in the afternoon and, frankly, I did not know what to think. Is this more like November? April? What exactly? The news tell me that this is the wettest January since the beginning of all Januarys and I can well believe it, for I don't remember one coming even close to this constant drudgery of spitting/bucketing/lashing down that afflicted London almost every day of this month. And to the uninitiated perhaps London always looks rainy but, believe me, it is not. It surely experiences nothing compared to Manchester. So, there I was, walking down the street struggling to keep the brollie within the proximity of the head and then realising that I was wearing a hooded coat and I am sure this will help. Yeah, right. Then I was fighting the wind, the rain, the brollie and the hood puffing up like the cheeks of the big bad wolf. Eventually, eventually, I made it to my destination and eventually, eventually, I was able to stop for a hot choco on Kensington High Street. If you haven't tried London in inclement weather, you're probably no closer even to imagine what running a marathon every day of your life entails. It was well past 6 pm and the place was dead, which isn't the usual Kensington scene. But the upshot was a wonderfully private gander at the local Waterstone's in which I picked up the Listography 2014 diary. Who cares that we are a month in,... Read more →

Keel's Simple Diary

Well, I did tell you that Wednesday was going to be a trauma and a shock and indeed it did not disappoint. However, I also successfully managed to drag myself to Friday and I suddenly feel marginally better. I have a raft of things to tell you but it so just happens that my internet connection is up down up down up down up down down down up down down (digression : Virgin Media you are shite with a capital SHIT) and so I just lost everything I had written over the past hour. Does everything happen for a reason? Is this a cosmic message that suggests I really should not be telling what I started at 8:30 pm? I doubt it, for here I am re-typing about the brainwave I had earlier when I realised that I had never told you about Keel's Simple Diary. How is this oversight even possible? Horror and shock dear reader. I picked up my first (sadly, there are only two volumes) over a year ago at the Taschen store in Chelsea and I think it's complete genius. I know that a diary that gives you prompts and asks you to describe your day by ticking boxes is counter-intuitive at best, but you only need to try it to realise how fun and truly brilliant it is. And if you don't wanna try it, at least have a snoop right here, then come back... Did you see that? Genius, I told you. You could... Read more →

Wistful

Invariably, when the Epiphany rolls around, I always end up feeling wistful. It doesn't really matter whether I've spent the Christmas holidays somewhere I need to reach with a plane or not. It doesn't even matter if I've been ill, which almost invariably always happens. What matters is that the new calendar year doesn't really begin on 1st January but on whichever day after the Epiphany I return to work. This year, it so just happens that this magical day is Wednesday, 8 January. So, what am I complaining about, right? I still have a day before the alarm will go off inexorably at 6.30 am and I will throw my legs down the bed, my head spinning, my mouth dry and my first reflection in the mirror looking like the ghost from Christmas 2075. I am feeling sick at the thought of Wednesday morning. Anyway, tomorrow is the day before Wednesday and one which, instead of having its own identity, sits sandwiched between what has been a great Epiphany (I went to the Isabella Blow exhibition, then to afternoon tea, then to Prada) and The First Day Back at the Office. Decorations duly put away, house clean-ish and tidy-ish, I know that tomorrow I will spend the vast majority of the day feeling extra-sorry for myself, and will then top it all off with a real feel-good movie, 12 Years A Slave. I'm thinking of cancelling in favour of a Red Dwarf-a-thon, a veritable need that January always instils... Read more →

Daunt Books Spring Festival

I know I am always straight off the blocks complaining that we never live in the present and what's wrong with Christmas pudding at Christmas? By the way, on New Year's Day I eyed Easter eggs in Marks people. Easter eggs on New Year's Day and Easter is at the end of April this year. What's wrong with you Marks and Spencer? Right, I was saying that I love to live in the present but when in London one must think far ahead. It's precisely because I did not that I ended up queuing in the freezing wind for 3+ hours last week for Coriolanus. Today I therefore wish to put something on your radar: the first Daunt Spring Festival. Hard to believe that it's the first time the legendary Daunt Books is running a book fest but there's always a first time for everything. The line-up is still not complete at the time of my writing, but from Michael Morpugo to Deborah Levy to Adam Phillips I am certain that you and I will find someone stellar to listen to at the main Daunt in Marylebone. The fest runs at the end of March and don't forget to sign up for updates and for all final details, including when to buy your ticket, right here. And something else I am looking forward to is the anthology featuring the best stories sent in to Daunt Books by children. Last year I picked it up at my local, thinking the stories... Read more →