Category Archives: Stories

In praise of Randy Newman

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Jamie Jauncey

On Wednesday evening, on Radio 4’s Front Row, Mark Lawson introduced a short reading with these words: “This passage from the book contains offensive sectarian terms, although clearly they’re reported rather than endorsed by the author.” The offending words were … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Arctic fox

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Jamie Jauncey

Yesterday I travelled through a monochrome landscape. It reminded me of those 17th century Dutch winter scenes with skaters and dogs, pedlars and musicians, taking their pleasure or plying their trade under leaden skies, all watched over by crows in … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Good tidings

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

‘I guess I’m a “bad news” guy and you’re my “good news” twin…’ So said my old friend Paul Phillips recently. Paul writes a well-informed and trenchant blog on those big topical issues – Savile, Leveson, Starbucks and so on … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

House of stories

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

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 →

More Galleries | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tales of passion

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

On the second night of our recent Dark Angels advanced course in Spain, once they had all settled in, we decided to ask the eight students to take just a couple of minutes after dinner to say why they had … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged | Leave a comment

Swedish angels

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

Something extraordinary happens on Dark Angels courses. People who don’t even think of themselves as writers discover that the simplest of words have a power to connect beyond their wildest imaginings. And the connections they make are not only with … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Olympic virtues

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

On Radio 4 recently, Clifford Longley, the BBC’s religious affairs correspondent, quoted Bob Diamond’s notorious comment that business culture was ‘how people behave when no one’s watching’. Longley went on to draw the distinction between the self-interest that governs so … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Reading matters

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

A circular from the Society of Authors dropped into my inbox yesterday morning. Although the theme was not a new one, I stopped and read it carefully. The Society of Authors is the unaffiliated trade union that represents around 9,000 … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Other Worlds

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

This coming Monday evening the whole of Rochester House, the old Oxford central telephone exchange and mail sorting office, will come alive after many years of disuse. Its three rambling, empty buildings, linked around a courtyard, will fill with people … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Tongue-tied

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

It’s unpleasant to feel a language slipping from one’s grasp. There was a time when I was a confident French speaker. I was taught it very well at an early age by an inspired teacher who showed us large pictures of … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments