Blogs

I put aside a few hours on Sunday to read Ootlin, Jenni Fagan’s memoir, straight through. ‘Ootlin’ in a simple sense means outsider. From the Scottish word oot. Fagin tells the reader in the prologue, there are stories about stories. The social work department in Scotland, adoption agencies, psychiatric hospitals and the police all had files on Fagin and her family. The in-spectre of mad, bad or sad stories went before her even as a baby. She...

Chapter Three – Have you ever had your heart broken? If so, how did you push through the brokenness, or are you still not in the ‘all clear’? These are the story-answers of some non-fictional respondents... Respondent 1: Donna, 44, Christian, who has 100% support from her family and has been single most of her life. Yes, I had a hysterectomy at 36, and got a bit emotional at a church camp when I saw all the kids with their families. Respondent 2...

I’ve a signed copy of Isobel Shirlaw’s, A Proper Mother , and twice heard her read the beginning of her debut novel. But as we know, hearing is not the same as listening. Meeting her on the page offers greater understanding. Story structure is current and counter-current, much like the watery desert that is the Black Sea. Is, was, and ever shall be. ‘ Before’ ‘August 1974. ’ ‘On the last day of their honeymoon they thought they’d check out Agios...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002326c/the-outfit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outfit_(2022_film) Most of the action takes place in one night inside a tailor’s shop, which doubles as a stage, or in this case, film set. Chicago, 1956. Leonard Burling (Mark Rylance) is an English cutter who runs a tailor shop in an area controlled by gangster Roy Boyle (Simon Russell Beale). Burling makes made-to-measure suits for Boyle and the well-...

Ask yourself a simple question. Would you rather be blind or deaf? We can’t really imagine it. But for most of us, the answer, I’d guess, would be easy. I’d much rather be deaf. I’ve only heard one guy say he’d rather be blind. He loved music so much the answer was obvious to him, too. Stuart Braithwaite is the lead singer of Mogwai. The band took their name from creatures in Gremlins but in China also means ‘demon’ (I think because I never...

Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s debut novel Fleishman is in Trouble was an international bestseller. Long Island Compromise is her second novel. Awards and television series inevitably to follow. Grab your reader with the first line. It’s the kind of cliché right up there with the known knowns and the unknown knowns. Akner knows her readers will want something smart, bookish and literary, perhaps left-leaning. Aware of the paradox of what you’d need to...

Chapter Two – This question was: As you have reached, and are living out, your ‘over 40’ solo status in life, how has your perspective on singleness changed from what it was 2 decades ago? These are the stories of some respondents to a questionnaire around being single over the age of 40 as a woman. Respondent 1: Donna, 44, Christian, who has 100% support from her family and has been single most of her life. While I wanted to be married and have...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0022vjc/in-my-own-words-series-1-alison-lapper Alison Lapper: ‘The whole point about art is having something to say ‘I didn’t think art was about fitting in.’ Alison Lapper – an artist, a muse, a mother – explores her life through art and archive in this visually rich and emotionally intimate documentary as she emerges from the most difficult period of her life after the loss of her son Parys My name is...