TOUCHLINE PHILOSOPHY The touchline, or its prehistoric equivalent, is what makes us human. I have thought about this a great deal, but am still worried that it’s the kind of anthropological speculation that has no force. Anyway, here it comes. There have been many suggestions as to what, if anything, makes humans different to animals. […]
Last year, I gave a lecture on ‘Success!!!’ and how to cope with it. I quoted Junot Díaz extensively, and approvingly. (I also used some words from him as the epigraph of my non-fiction book, Wrestliana: ‘You wrestle with your family your entire life.’) In the midst of the dismaying, appalling accusations against him, I […]
‘Where does the journey look…?’ – W.H.Auden, ‘The Voyage’ ‘It’s been such a journey.’ We hear a nauseating amount about journeys – almost as much as we hear about stories. ‘My journey’ – every television documentary must, of necessity, be ‘a personal journey in search of…’ Because if it isn’t, it will just be […]
It’s Too Original Your novel is ahead of its time. This means that no-one is equipped to understand it, because in order to understand it’d they’d have to have read it, and no-one has yet read it because – when they try – they find they’re not equipped. A very vicious circle, this. However, your […]
WILLIAM’S LAKE WALK In 1824, William Litt wrote an account of his attendance at the Windermere Regatta. It was published in the local paper, the Cumberland Pacquet. I think it’s probably his best piece of writing, outside his book Wrestliana. Although I tried, I couldn’t find anywhere to include it – or even mention it […]
This was the original opening chapter to Wrestliana. I think it was the hardest bit to leave out. If the family portrait is to be trusted, I and my two younger sisters – one fair and one dark – are the human offspring of a Giant and a Witch. I mean, don’t we […]
In this kill you darling (or DVD extra), I am visiting my great-great-great grandfather’s William Litt’s birthplace, Bowthorn Cottage. Above the door were carved the date ‘1685’ and the initials ‘E.M.S.’ I suddenly felt as if I were standing outside Wuthering Heights – over the principal door of which is carved the date ‘1500’ and the […]
In this cut section from Wrestliana, I imagine giving my ancestor William Litt a creative writing tutorial, to help him improve his novel Henry & Mary. Scene: My office. Ah, William – hello. Come in. Yes, that chair. I always sit in this one, don’t know why. Fine – okay? How are you? How have […]
A kill your darling from Wrestliana. Written a while ago. I miss Ali Smith. We edited an anthology together. We used to have the same publisher. Yesterday, searching for something else, I saw she was up for another prize. There was a photo of her, from The Independent. She stands, arms spread, as if caught […]
Today is the launch day of New Poetries 7, the occasional Carcanet anthology of new and not-established poets. I am very happy to be one of them. Most of the poems by me included in the anthology are lyrical. But the opening few are from a sequence I wrote the day Donald Trump won the […]
