Blog Archives

From Anna Jauncey …

Posted on September 6, 2017 by Jamie Jauncey
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Close encounters

Posted on August 25, 2017 by Jamie Jauncey

I spent last night with a friend in Edinburgh. This morning, boarding a bus into the west end, I spotted a vacant seat next to an attractive young black woman with a cloud of hair. As I sat down I … Continue reading →

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A hard rain

Posted on August 11, 2017 by Jamie Jauncey

Although he was a prominent part of the soundtrack to my student days, I was never a huge Bob Dylan fan. I found the nasal voice, the rudimentary guitar-strumming and harmonica-playing, grating; and the apparent stream-of-consciousness of the lyrics confusing. … Continue reading →

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On purpose

Posted on July 28, 2017 by Jamie Jauncey

Extraordinary as it seems today, my first job was as an articled clerk with a firm of London chartered accountants. I can distinctly hear my lawyer father and banker stepfather saying, almost as one, ‘My boy, with a law degree … Continue reading →

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Spanish Crossings

Posted on July 17, 2017 by Jamie Jauncey

A couple of years ago, on our advanced course in Spain, my Dark Angels partner John Simmons woke up one morning with a line in his head. It stayed with him and today, in summer 2017, it’s the opening sentence … Continue reading →

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The stories we tell

Posted on July 14, 2017 by Jamie Jauncey

In the past month I’ve spent a week in Spain with a group of eight people on a The Stories We Tell course, and a week in the Northwest Highlands with a friend I’ve known for 45 years. At the … Continue reading →

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A trip to Serendip

Posted on June 8, 2017 by Jamie Jauncey

Serendipity, once voted the nation’s favourite word, is an increasingly frequent visitor in my life. It means a happy accident, or a pleasantly unexpected turn of events. The word was coined by Horace Walpole in the mid-18th century, after reading … Continue reading →

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Long division

Posted on May 18, 2017 by Jamie Jauncey

A woman got onto the train the other day and sat down opposite me. She was fifty-ish, tanned and smartly dressed. She had come from the airport and was breathless. We chatted and I learned that she had been to … Continue reading →

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Out of body

Posted on May 5, 2017 by Jamie Jauncey

I have always thought that the last word in disembodiment was Tenniel’s illustration of the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. ‘I have often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin without a cat,’ says Alice, watching … Continue reading →

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Born storytellers

Posted on April 21, 2017 by Jamie Jauncey

“We’re a narrative species,” said the scientist on Radio 4 the other day. “We understand the world in terms of stories.” He was talking about the MMR vaccine and how the stories of danger that have grown up around it … Continue reading →

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