Into the wild

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

Under crisp blue skies, this autumn is turning into a vintage one. The equinoctial gales came early and the leaves still had a firm enough grip not to be wrested from their branches by the wind. Now the hillsides of … Continue reading →

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Speaking as an expert

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

I went to a dinner on Tuesday night. The host was Vistage, an international chief executives’ organisation with 60-odd groups in the UK. Each group meets monthly under the guidance of a trained chairperson. Members discuss challenges and seek advice … Continue reading →

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Love-hate (part 2)

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

What I love about Scotland is its solemn hills     What I hate about Scotland is the mist that shrouds them What I love about Scotland its empty moors     What I hate about Scotland is the rain that scours them What … Continue reading →

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Love-hate (part 1)

Posted on October 20, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

There has been much talk of independence on the Dark Angels course this week. Location has a lot to do with it. Our venue, Moniack Mhor, the Arvon Foundation writers’ centre, is perched on a hilltop just above Loch Ness with … Continue reading →

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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 →

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Spell-binding

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

Extraordinary things happen on Dark Angels courses. That is because the people who come on them are extraordinary. In truth, everyone is extraordinary if only given the chance to be him or herself. And that is perhaps the most unfathomable … Continue reading →

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The heart of things

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

Last month I was lucky enough to appear at two book festivals. One of them, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, is indisputably the world’s largest and this year was its best year ever, with a record 225,000 visits to Charlotte … Continue reading →

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Treetops

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

I was three years old in 1952 when young Princess Elizabeth learnt of the death of her father, George VI. She was staying at Treetops Hotel in Kenya’s Aberdare National Park. Jim Corbett, the famous white hunter, later charmingly wrote: … Continue reading →

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Waking up

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

Last year at the Edinburgh International Book Festival I chaired Michael Ondaatje as he talked about his latest novel, The Cat’s Table, a fictionalised account of the journey he had made as an 11-year-old in a passenger liner, from Ceylon … Continue reading →

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Falling in love

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

‘Grecia no!’ A border policemen lifts his chin in that peculiarly dismissive way the Greeks have of signifying a negative – in this case that there is something wrong with the bewildered Italian backpacker’s passport and he’s not going to be … Continue reading →

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