The art of story-telling
Henry Miller is himself a wonderful writer, and this comment about a critical element of successful story-telling took me by...
Writers and the spirit of the age
This touches on the big question of how one retains one's independence while being a product of, or at least...
Key Performance Indicators … with a twist
'Here and there in the leafy glade of her letters a ripe berry of information gleams.'
When was the last...
Diving in head first
Keats was a bold player, keeping his eye determinedly focussed on achieving enduring greatness, not on the fads and fashions...
Keats’ correspondence
Here are Keats' own aspirations for his letter-writing. Whether he found interesting matter or just made matter interesting, his letters...
Nonsense daubers
Folly, speaking from her light-hearted pulpit, lays into another bunch of self-serious fools, those who write books, or as she...
Art to amplify experience
Always interested in how people view the point or at least the benefit of literature and other arts. Here is...
The magic of great stories
Coming from a superb storyteller, this comment on the secret of the Great Stories is refreshing and insightful. It has long...
The secret of surprise
A pithy tip from one of the masters, succinctly conveyed in Clive James' translation. It's certainly given me food for...
A voice answering a voice?
More than just the writing of poetry, isn't writing in general often 'a voice answering a voice'?
This touching quotation...
A writer’s retreat
We first noticed it when it was still a construction site, but even on a grimly dank and overcast day,...
Writing to kick up your heels
Having just re-read Virginia Woolf's Orlando after a third-of-a-century hiatus, I revelled in the liveliness and playfulness of both the...
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