Copies of De tijd die we nog dachten te hebben on sale at Paagman in Scheveningen. The Dutch translation of All the Time We Thought We Had, with the title De tijd die we nog dachten te hebben (I like the fact that the Dutch don't capitalise book titles) has been out for a couple … Continue reading Now available in Dutch
Category: This writing business
Time inside
I am in a library full of writers. An exclusive audience of around 15 men, seated across from me on hard chairs, are scrutinising my memoir, All The Time We Thought We Had. There is an expectant buzz in the air but the tone on both sides is respectful throughout. They ask the kind of … Continue reading Time inside
Neologicasm, or the joy of making up words
One of my most memorable escapades in journalism was interviewing one of the quintet of Italian writers who go by the collective name of the Wu Ming Foundation for The Herald. At one point I asked, playfully, if they deliberately chose titles for their books that were untranslatable – such as Q and Manituana. I … Continue reading Neologicasm, or the joy of making up words
My first publication year
2018 is going to be publication year. I ought to be excited. I should probably be ecstatic. For around a decade 'have something published' headed my list of new year's resolutions with the grinding recurrence of a Cliff Richard Christmas single. And now it's actually happening, and my primary feeling is apprehension. At the risk … Continue reading My first publication year
Announcement
I'm delighted to announce that my memoir, All The Time We Thought We Had, will be published by Birlinn, provisionally in the spring of 2018. What's it about? In the first place it's the story of how Magteld died of breast cancer in 2014, within two years of first being diagnosed. It's about how our … Continue reading Announcement
Politics, an unavoidably twisted affair
One of Copenhagen’s most famous landmarks is the tower of the Church of Our Saviour with its external helter-skelter staircase. The church itself is a Renaissance colossus, an elegant brute in the Dutch baroque style with Greek and Italian inflections, and it boasts northern Europe’s largest carillon, but it is the tower specifically that captures … Continue reading Politics, an unavoidably twisted affair
On slow writing
My New Year's resolution to write every day is currently working out at somewhere between five and six days a week. Not an unqualified success, but a great improvement on last year, when I could go months without writing a word and didn't start a single new piece of work. The rule I created for … Continue reading On slow writing
Resolution
I'm not much of a one for New Year resolutions these days (see this post for evidence). For years I resolved faithfully each January to get a short story published. It might have helped matters if I'd actually written a few. And now I have - written a few, and had a smaller number rendered … Continue reading Resolution
Of spoilers and Star Wars
I watched Star Wars for the first time ever the other week. (I know, I don’t know what I used to do on Easter Mondays either.) Thanks to the warp speed at which cultural life now operates, in just 30 years it has attained the status of a classic. Like Shakespeare’s plays, it is simultaneously … Continue reading Of spoilers and Star Wars
Making a killing: Reflections on The View From Here
Every story’s path to publication is a story in itself. In the case of Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed, which went up on The View From Here website today, a small epic. I started writing it more than three years ago, in the early months of 2008. I had a sense when I’d finished it … Continue reading Making a killing: Reflections on The View From Here