The Longer Write-ups (2015-16)

I don't try hard to make my write-ups entertaining, but here are some that are longer - they're almost reviews.

Books read 2015-16

• "Sunshine" by Melissa Lee-Houghton (Penned in the Margins, 2016)
• "In another country" by David Constantine (Comma, 2015)
• "Memorandum" by Vanessa Gebbie (Cultured Llama Publishing, 2016)
• "Pattern beyond Chance" by Stephen Payne (Happenstance, 2015)
• "Tears in the Fence, No 62" (Winter 2015) by David Caddy (ed)
• "Used to be" by Elizabeth Baines (Salt 2015)
• "The Illuminated World" by Jemma Borg (Eyewear, 2014)
• "The Knowledge" by Robert Peake (Nine Arches Press, 2015)

All change, all change

Autumn's often a time of change, this year even more so -

• One of my sons is now a doctor - at A&E initially. Loads of anecdotes I'd better not use in stories.
• My other son starts Univ at Birmingham. I guess we'll be exploring the Birmingham area. The literary events up there are tempting.
• My wife's 50th birthday's approaching.
• There are some big syllabus revisions in the courses I'm involved with at work (C++ to Python, etc), with knock-on consequences for years to come.

So there'll be life-style changes. The house will feel quiet (until the builders start the extension). I need a project to keep me busy. Perhaps I should work harder at sorting out my "difficult third book" syndrome.

Nine Arches Press

Three exciting announcements concerning Nine Arches Press -

• Julia Webb (whose Bird Sisters I've read) and Roy McFarlane (whose book is out soon) have poems in the Forward Book of Poetry 2017
• Nine Arches Press has a 50k grant from ACE which will "enable the press to publish 10 new poetry publications and launch a new series of creative writing handbooks called ‘Write Sparks’" along with other initiatives
• There's summer sale - 50% off lots of Nine Arches Press poetry books, plus some from just £3

Books I plan to read

I've managed to shrink my list considerably (but expanded it again in Jan 2017). Here are the prose, poetry and theory books on my current wanted list

• Ashfeldt, Lane - "Saltwater"
• DeLillo - "The Angel Esmeralda"
• Galloway - Jellyfish
• Goldschmidt - novel
• Garth Greenwell - What Belongs to You
• Gospodinov
• Hall, Tina - "The physics of imaginary objects"
• Hempel, Amy - short stories
• Logan, Kirsty - "The Rental Heart"
• Sexton, Kay - "Gatekeeper"
• Szalay, David - "All That Man", "All Other ..."
• Walsh, Joanna - "Vertigo"
• Wigfall, Clare - short stories

• Barlow, Mike - poems
• Boast, Rachel
• Capildeo, Vahni
• Foggins -"Much Possessed"
• Majmudar Amit
• Pickford - Swimming with Jellyfish
• Smith, Tracy - Life on Mars

• Kirsch, Adam - "The Modern Element"
• Paglia - "Break, Burn ..."

Next Generation UK/Eire short story writers?

Every 10 years a list of Next Generation Poets is produced. I think there's an emerging consensus about which authors from Eire and the UK would be on a similar list for story-writers. Their names appear regularly in anthologies and on the back of other people's books even if they haven't published a short story book themselves for a while. As with the poets, age is not a factor. More important is that none of these writers have produced many short story collections yet, that perhaps the best is yet to come -

• Elizabeth Baines - Used to be, Balancing on the edge of the world
• Colin Barrett - Young Skins
• Carys Bray - Sweet home
• Stuart Evers - Ten stories about smoking
• David Gaffney - The half-life of songs
• Vanessa Gebbie - Storm Warning, Words from a glass bubble
• Sarah Hall - The Beautiful Indifference
• Tania Hershman - My mother was an upright piano, The White Road
• Adam Marek - The stone thrower
• Danielle McLaughlin - Dinosaurs on other planets
• Alison Moore - The-Pre-war House
• K.J. Orr - The Light Box
• Angela Readman - Don't try this at home
• David Rose - Posthumous Stories
• Tom Vowler - The Method

My current favourites are Elizabeth Baines, Sarah Hall and Danielle McLaughlin. I've not read Janice Galloway, Kirsty Logan, or Clare Wigfall otherwise they'd probably be on the list too. Doubtless I've forgotten some of my other favourites. Apologies in advance.

I've a soft spot for Matthew Francis, Guy Ware and Chris Beckett, but they've probably not produced enough. And though I like much of Jon McGregor's work, I don't think his This Isn't The Sort Of Thing That Happens To Someone Like You suffices to include him here.

Allotment stocktaking

The allotment (about 250 sq m) is in full swing. We've picked the shallots, onion, garlic and some potatoes, and have been harvesting rhubarb for weeks. Here's the rest

• Artichoke (globe) - 2 plants
• Beans - 12m row
• Beet - 30 plants
• Beetroot - 60 plants
• Broccoli - 6 plants
• Carrots - 30 plants
• Courgette - 12 plants
• Fennel - 15 plants
• Fruit bushes - 5 sq m
• Leeks - 160 plants
• Lettuce - 30 plants
• Parsley - 4 plants
• Potatoes - 9m row
• Rhubarb - 4 sq m
• Sage - 1 bush
• Sweetcorn - 70 plants

However, the news isn't all good. Muntjac deer (or maybe badgers?) are raiding our sweetcorn.

Later: someone set a motion-activated night-vision camera up. The output's online, entitled Badger devastating sweetcorn at 0213 13 Aug 2016

A list of holiday posts

I often take books with me when I go on holiday. I do some writing as well, and go on little photography expeditions, so these posts are rather more than holiday write-ups. I don't think that I've ever had anything published that's a result of these holidays, though the odd phrase creeps in.

• Spain 2025
• Stockholm 2022
• Cornwall 2020
• Krakow 2019
• Dieppe to Paris 2019
• Bardonecchia 2019
• Gran Canaria 2018
• Holland 2018
• Morocco 2017
• Prague 2017
• Dublin 2016
• Sicily 2016
• Arundel/Brighton 2016
• Munich/Innsbruck 2016
• Edinburgh 2014
• Turkey 2014
• Newcastle 2014
• Crete 2013
• Madesimo 2013
• Rugby 2012
• Edinburgh 2012
• Torino 2011
• Edinburgh 2011
• Egypt 2011
• Bardonecchia 2009
• A week in Northern Italy 2009