Category Archives: Creativity

Great tapestry

Serendipity (the nation’s favourite word), has featured more than once in this blog. In the last year I’ve had two notable experiences that could be described as serendipitous: the meeting on a train between my wife and a priest who … Continue reading →

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August elixir

I’m writing this at a table outside the author’s yurt in Charlotte Square Gardens. The sun is trying to break through and at the same time it’s spitting with rain. This is Edinburgh in August and the Book Festival is … Continue reading →

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Childish thinking

A writer branded ‘unteachable’ as a child, and diagnosed as severely dyslexic aged 12, wins children’s literature’s most prestigious prize, the Carnegie medal. An Indian professor and TED prize-winner proposes an educational system that produces people who can ’think like … Continue reading →

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Tales of kindness

A couple of months ago, Sarah, my wife, and I ran a workshop together. It was the first time we’d done this, though we’d talked about it for years. We called it The Stories We Tell. It was a coming … Continue reading →

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Mating call

Do these serendipitous moments happen more frequently as one gets older? Or is it simply that one becomes more alert to the possibility of connections as intimations of mortality start to bear in and one seeks a more secure anchorage … Continue reading →

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Finding one’s voice

What does it mean to ‘find your voice’? It’s one of the reasons you’re here, we often say to our students on Dark Angels courses – to find your voices as writers. We said it last night, in fact. John … Continue reading →

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As I Died Lying

Last autumn, John, Stuart and I, the three Dark Angels (d’archangels as we’ve now been christened by the endlessly inventive Faye Sharpe – see link to the Secret Archaeologist in the blogroll below), had a mad idea. It was a … Continue reading →

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Time out

When I started writing this blog, in August 2009, I might have been quite surprised to learn that I would still be at it nearly four years later. I was certainly surprised to discover how quickly it had become part … Continue reading →

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The fire in the cave

Earlier this week I spent two days helping run storytelling workshops for the senior leaders of a well-known high street retailer. They’re about to launch a new business plan and they have a lot of information to get across to … Continue reading →

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The stories we tell

It shouldn’t have worked but it did – 14 writers spending a weekend together with the goal of planning a collective novel. There may not even be any precedent for it. Common sense says that, if not actual fisticuffs, there … Continue reading →

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