Nothing dates like a vision of the future. I was in Brussels recently for a family holiday. Lovely city; highly recommended. Anyway: we visited the Atomium. You might not know the name, but you know the image: "the steel balls". As a piece of architecture, from afar it looks like a toy; one of the … Continue reading Brussels Expo58
Benjamin Myers is a writer whose time has come. Recent winner of the Walter Scott Prize for his stunning The Gallows Pole, Myers has been a prolific voice of the English North for several years, and his wider renown is thoroughly deserved. It also comes at a fertile time for writing from the North of … Continue reading Lodestone – the work of Benjamin Myers
It isn't writer's block. Stephen King once wrote about a story "being dead even as the words continue to march across the page", and I hope it isn't that, either. I think all that's happened is a loss of momentum. I've stalled. The folk-horror work was going well, until I went on holiday. But the … Continue reading Where have all the words gone?
Happy 66th birthday to @RealCliveBarker My personal Top 10 of his novels at Into the Gyre
In Scotland the schools are off, and the weather has been uncharacteristically summery since late May. I'm away on holiday. Time to share with you what I've been reading in this fine weather, and what's in the suitcase for the trip to Kernow. The Devil Rides Out - Dennis Wheatley: 1930s black magic horror hokum. … Continue reading Summer Reading
Into the Gyre 