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This blog takes its title from the fact that kindness originally meant being kin, or kindred, or of the same kind – a reminder that we are all humankind. I post regularly on Friday. Enter your email address below to Follow and receive each post direct to your inbox. A Few Kind Words is now also on Substack if you prefer to read it there: https://substack.com/@jamiejauncey.
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Author Archives: Jamie Jauncey
Chinook secrets
In June 1994 an RAF Chinook helicopter, travelling from Northern Ireland, flew into a hillside on the Mull of Kintyre, killing everyone on board. Alongside the four crew, the 25 passengers included almost all the UK’s most senior Northern Ireland … Continue reading
Summing up
I heard yesterday that my novel The Witness has finally earned out its advance, nearly four years after publication. Jenny Brown, my agent, tells me that a cheque for about £20 is on its way to my account. Champagne all … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, Publishing, The Reckoning, The Witness
Tagged publishing advances, young adult fiction, Young Picador
6 Comments
Oxford blue
I’m in Oxford now, at Merton College. Our Dark Angels students are working on their projects and I’m finding a brief moment of quiet in my room, remembering the first time I ever came here. I was twelve years old. My … Continue reading
More dreams and portents
Next week we go to Merton College, Oxford to run the second of our biennial Dark Angels masterclasses. It will be an exciting few days. Not only do we have BBC Radio 4’s In Business team joining us for part … Continue reading
Tycho Brahe
On Monday night I had a very strange experience. It had almost the quality of a vision. We had spent the weekend in Wales with my daughter and her family. On Monday morning we had left early to travel back … Continue reading
Tagged dreams, esoterica, In Our Time, Melvyn Bragg, The Reckoning, Tycho Brahe
6 Comments
Rhythm and blues
How we need rhythm in our lives. For the last four months, John Simmons and I have been batting back and forth chapters of Room 121 on an almost daily basis (a form of exchange, and therefore of book, it … Continue reading
Tall trees
A twenty-minute walk from my house there’s an eighteenth century pinetum, enfolded in a bend of the River Braan. The Hermitage, as it’s known, was created for the Dukes of Atholl as an extension of the gardens of their second … Continue reading
Three friends
This week I’ve been in London, putting the finishing touches to the book that John Simmons and I have been writing together. Called Room 121, it’s a conversation that takes the form of alternating blog posts, and it will be … Continue reading
Tagged BBC, friends, friendship, John Simmons, Room 121
1 Comment
Wide knowledge
I’ve been talking to my friend Wenbo Xu again, quizzing him about all things Chinese as I lie face down, bristling with acupuncture needles. I love these conversations. They’ve become a quite unexpected bonus of my regular visits to him. … Continue reading
A Few Kind Words 