The Great JFB Book Bonanza: The Silver Bough
Congratulations to Leo Elijah Cristea, winner of last week’s book prize, The Snowmelt River by Frank P. Ryan, a work of classic fantasy steeped in Irish mythology. I enjoyed all the entries, which presented four eclectic portals into the realms of otherworldliness – Leo’s metamorphosing pathway, Romeo Kennedy’s secret tree trunk, Tina Lawton’s cheerful toilet, and Chris’s whalebone arch at…
The Great JFB Bookgiveaway: The Snowmelt River
Congratulations to Glen Mehn, winner of last week’s prize The Ravenglass Eye, and many thanks to my Aunt for offering to act as a random number generator (while ironing, yet – the Aunt is nothing but game), saving me from having to run around in a frozen Norfolk field whilst suffering from laryngitis. This week’s offering from Jo Fletcher Books is The Snowmelt River by Frank P.…
Seoul Survivors: The Fab Feb Countdown Competition Begins!
February gets short shrift in most people’s books – and in everyone’s calendars, even in Leap Years. But it’s always been one of my favourite months – okay, possibly because it contains my birthday, but also because of snowdrops, the subtle phonics of an ‘f’ and semi-silent ‘r’, and the way the lengthening grey days begrudgingly promise spring but still…
Joan Mitchell: Painter of Light
In an age when a football commentator can – quite rightly – be fired for making racist remarks, I wonder why Brian Sewell is still allowed to publish art criticism. Sewell believes that ‘only men are capable of aesthetic greatness’, and argues that women can’t paint because they can’t drive . .…
Announcing Seoul Survivors – Plus Playlist!
Novelist Bridget Whelan and poet Sarah Hymas have both invited me to join ‘The Next Big Thing’, a game of blog-tag in which I interview myself about my next book, and introduce my readers to five more writer friends. Well, the next big thing for me (after my Christmas card list) is the Feb 2013 publication of my first novel,…
Or Daughter comes out to play
For a poet, used to fretting over lines and images for months, writing a novel in a year is a fascinating, not to say teeny-tiny bit terrifying challenge. I am enjoying it, though, and starting to really trust the process – there’s something immensely reassuring about the way the words flow onto the page, and one chapter springboards into another. …
A Small State in Hot Water
To conclude my travel research for my second novel, Astra, I visited Iceland for a week. Astra is set in Mesopotamia in a new nation called Is-Land, a small state formed in the aftermath of a global environmental and economic collapse (we all know it’s coming, don’t we?). In Icelandic, Iceland is called Ísland, but…
The Freedom Theatre Under Attack
As reported by Mondoweiss, last night at 3am, Israeli troops entered the home of my host in Jenin, Nabil Al Raee, Artistic Director of the Freedom Theatre, and arrested him at gunpoint. The soliders gave Nabil and his wife Micaela no explanation for their actions, and their intrusion terrified his three-year old daughter. …
Seven Wonders of the West Bank
Note: for the benefit of readers hazy in the geopolitical department, a short history of the West Bank is included at the end of this post. I don’t think you have to visit a country in order to have a valid opinion about it, but as a writer-activist, and a vocal advocate of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement since…
Jerusalem: What Apartheid Looks Like
Jerusalem. The Holy City. Centre of three major world religions, and surely a place that should transcend political differences, remind us of our shared humanity, and humble all who enter its ancient walls? For while I am not a member of any of the patriarchal Abrahamic faiths, it seems to me that Christianity, Judaism and Islam share a reverence for…