Category Archives: Friendship

The Angels’ Share

Has there ever before been a fifteen-author book signing? Unbound, publishers of the Dark Angels collective novel Keeping Mum, have just posted photographs of this unusual, probably unique event on Facebook. It preceded our 10th anniversary dinner last week at … Continue reading

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A place at table

Commensality. I first came across the word a few years ago when I wrote an appeal for a community of monks. It means the act of sitting at table together (remember that famous first declension Latin noun, mensa?). Commensality was … Continue reading

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Movies and Moghuls

There was a small tsunami of encouragement following my last week’s post about the possible film of The Witness. So much so, in fact, that I wondered whether some people might have taken it as a fait accompli – which … 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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Valentine

It was Saint Valentine’s Day yesterday. There was only one thing I could possibly write about. But first, the man. I looked him up. No one is entirely sure but the consensus seems to be that he was a Roman … Continue reading

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Midwinter blues

Sometimes you just have to put pen to paper and see where you go. As EM Forster said, ‘How do I know what I think till I see what I say?’ I had planned to start this in good time, … Continue reading

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House of stories

In March we’re taking a Dark Angels group to the Highlands to see if we can write a collective novel. It’s a slightly mad idea but we’ve reached the point now where we have a group of people who’ve been … Continue reading

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A long shot

What is one to make of these things? Two weeks ago Sarah, my wife, was travelling home from London on the train. She was restless and couldn’t find the right place to settle. One carriage was too cold. Another was too … Continue reading

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The bridge

Two weeks ago I learnt that my former next-door neighbour, Ian, had committed suicide. He was 50 and he had fought alcohol all his adult life. Yesterday I went to his funeral. During the seven years we shared a garden … Continue reading

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