Date for your diaries
15/03/09 12:10
I’m honoured to have been invited to chair a
session at this year’s Oxford Literary Festival
on the work and life of Bruce Chatwin. Please join us
for what promises to be a splendid hour of
conversation with critics, friends and family of the
writer. The event takes place at 2pm on the 30th
March at Convocation House in the Bodleian. See below
for more details, or follow the link:
“2009 marks the twentieth anniversary of Bruce Chatwin’s death. In this session, a panel of the author’s friends, family and critics will examine Chatwin’s work and legacy, discussing the significant contribution of the author to post-war British fiction and travel writing. The panel will include Hugh Chatwin, Bruce’s brother, his friend Katherine McLean and the Chatwin scholars Nicholas Murray and Jonathan Chatwin and will take audience questions at the end of the session.”
“2009 marks the twentieth anniversary of Bruce Chatwin’s death. In this session, a panel of the author’s friends, family and critics will examine Chatwin’s work and legacy, discussing the significant contribution of the author to post-war British fiction and travel writing. The panel will include Hugh Chatwin, Bruce’s brother, his friend Katherine McLean and the Chatwin scholars Nicholas Murray and Jonathan Chatwin and will take audience questions at the end of the session.”
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Alive and Kicking
11/03/09 13:45
Well, it had to happen sooner or later. The lure of
live performance has once again called me back into
its warm embrace, both in my capacity as songwriter
(the forthcoming EP must not just be left to
flounder) and guitarist (for the lovely and very
talented Miss Ellie Williams). Shows
confirmed so far as follows:
Analogue to Digital - 21st March, Exeter Phoenix
Nashville Rash - 19th March, Bicton Inn
The Transatlantic Sessions, Exmouth Festival - 26th May, The Manor Hotel
Analogue to Digital - 21st March, Exeter Phoenix
Nashville Rash - 19th March, Bicton Inn
The Transatlantic Sessions, Exmouth Festival - 26th May, The Manor Hotel
The Briefcase
11/03/09 13:42
For those of you who simply can’t get enough of
my subtle wit, I’ll now be periodically
contributing to the blog of friend and fellow
traveller, Struan McRae Spencer. You can find him,
and me, at vitaminbriefcase.com.
Don’t think, however, that I’ll be
neglecting the loyal followers of this here
website; updates will continue as sporadically
as always.
Grayling
03/03/09 13:59
A.C. Grayling on the current national obsession with
Jade Goody’s death:
“There is a very good reason why the lives, loves and tragedies of “celebrities” and public figures are so interesting to so many people. It is the same reason why people watch television soap operas, go to the cinema, read novels and gossip. It is that we need to peer into other lives in order to understand and manage our own.
Are we normal? How do others cope with anxiety, grief, failure, love, problems and needs similar to those we feel?”
Read more here.
“There is a very good reason why the lives, loves and tragedies of “celebrities” and public figures are so interesting to so many people. It is the same reason why people watch television soap operas, go to the cinema, read novels and gossip. It is that we need to peer into other lives in order to understand and manage our own.
Are we normal? How do others cope with anxiety, grief, failure, love, problems and needs similar to those we feel?”
Read more here.
Fred the Shred
03/03/09 08:14
I’d like to say a few brief words in defence of
bankers. Not a popular pursuit at present, I
understand, but it strikes me that the British media
and public are currently embarked upon a witch hunt
intended to obscure the real truth of the current
economic crisis - namely that we all, individually,
have been too greedy, and too willing to borrow other
people’s money. We can’t separate our
economic institutions from the rest of our lives in
the way one can an enemy in war time. Yet it seems
apparent that, at the present moment, we are turning
the banking system and those who work in it into the
modern equivalent of Social Democracy in 1930s and
40s Germany. The bankers aren’t, however, an
enemy to be vanquished. We can only get through this
crisis if we begin to look inward, and stop laying
the blame at the most convenient door.