Tag archives for Life writing
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Lost Luggage
The Merstham Writers group challenged people to write about a place where they lost something. All the names have been changed, but this is a real story that actually happened. Lost Luggage I spent the summer of 2012 in the arrivals hall in Gatwick airport's South Terminal. I watched the flow and ebb of humanity. So many people, back from their holidays still in shorts and t-shirts into the dreary English rain. Others returning home from seeing loved ones, or coming in their own holidays, or for the Olympics. I met many of the Jamaican athletes when the Kingston flight came in, and the Georgians too when they connected from Berlin. Afternoons were quiet. There was an empty hour in the terminal just after lunch. I often sat on my high chair looking out at rows of tensa barriers. Their…
Themself – now available on kindle
Today is publication day for my latest book Themself - Confessions of an open university creative writing student. As the sub-title suggests it is about my experience of studying creative writing with the OU. Although Themself goes further than that and includes the things I've learnt from my experience of writing, studying and self publishing. Themself - Confessions of an open university creative writing student You'll find some of the content in Themself here on the blog, but only about half of it. You'll also find that I've edited it since I first published it on the blog. Although I've tried hard to keep to the original character of the contemporary blog posts about how I was feeling. The bits I've updated are where I'm summarising what I've learnt. There is also a lot of new material. All of the stories and poems…
A Splash of Kindness by John Starley Allen [Book Review]
A Splash of Kindness by John Starley Allen My rating: 4 of 5 stars A Splash of Kindness by Allen is a feel good book. Full of anecdotes about how little kindnesses have had a much larger impact on how other people see the world. You cannot help but be uplifted when you read A Splash of Kindness. Most of the anecdotes come from the lives of the author’s immediate family or friends, although some have come from other sources. Each chapter features a single story about how one kind intervention has helped someone draw themselves out of a dark place and feel good about contributing to the rest of the world. Where possible at the end of the chapter there are some sources attributed, so you can check out the stories for yourself if you are so minded. There’s…
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Book Review – Scotland’s Stories of Home by Alan Warner
Scotland's Stories of Home by Alan Warner My rating: 4 of 5 stars A good collection of wee stories and poems from the Scottish Book Trust. Most of the content only uses a couple of pages in print, so there is a lot of content crammed in from a variety of sources. Some of it is from established writers but most seems to be from ordinary people sharing their memories of what home means to them, whether now or when they were growing up in Scotland. There's a high level of social history from the mid to late 20th century baked in here. Primary sources rather than analysis bit worth reading nevertheless. It's well put together and an easy read, although there are a few thought provoking bits. For example, how many people really died during the Clydebank Blitz? It's…
A215 – Life Writing – Working in the Dark
From the two pieces I've already posted, Early Memories & Initiative at Night and another I drafted this piece as part of the life writing tutorial for A215 Creative Writing. It has summarised the original freewrites and linked them with a through-line. Working in the Dark “How many civil servants does it take to change a lightbulb?”“None, they prefer to work in the dark!”As a small child I play with lego by candlelight, a power cut. I sit beside the glass door to the balcony, the rest of the room is dark and impenetrable. The multicolour swirl pattern on the carpet is vivid. The thick green base tile and the red and white lego bricks forming into a house. In the dim Scottish winter night I can’t play for long before it is too dark. Almost twenty I spend a…