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- XX or XY? Do readers care about gender of author? June 17, 2013
- Guest Author – Susan Elliot Wright on Writing a Dual Narrative June 10, 2013
- Let’s all talk about GONE GIRL June 4, 2013
- This Itch of Writing
- Guardian Book Blog
- The best books on Egypt: start your reading here | Pushpinder Khaneka June 19, 2013 Pushpinder Khaneka
- A note on Neil Gaiman's politics June 18, 2013 Paul Owen
- Neil Gaiman in conversation June 17, 2013 Paul Owen
- The Forest for the Trees — Betsy Lerner
- I Love You Just the Way You Are June 16, 2013
- I’m Trying To Beat Life Cause I Can’t Cheat Death June 3, 2013
- Could It Be That It Was All So Simple Then May 30, 2013
- Kathy Greethurst’s Blog
- Untitled January 10, 2013 Kathy Greethurst
- Bloody Flies by Andrew J Keir - Review by Helena Frith Powell June 7, 2012 Kathy Greethurst
- A wonderful afternoon in Avebury February 22, 2012 Kathy Greethurst
- How Publishing Really Works
- Does The Self-Publishing Review Fall For Robert Duperre? March 29, 2012
- The Self-Publishing Review Goes In Search Of The Menopause Ranch March 22, 2012
- Travelling To The Self-Published Review March 15, 2012
- Female PTSD — A Blog By A Brave Female Victim of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Help I Need A Publisher
- I'm still here... December 31, 2012
- All my advice about publishing and writing September 4, 2012
- Two last questions for DEAR CRABBIT September 3, 2012
- The Elephant in the Writing Room
- Sunshine and Showers June 15, 2013
- Not a lot of writing but a whole load of reading... June 5, 2013
- Jon and the Pacemakers May 31, 2013
- Bren Gosling’s Blog (ex-City Novel coursemate)
- Short listed for the Harry Bowling Prize ! January 30, 2012 Bren Gosling
- About - Sweeping up the Village- by Bren Gosling January 16, 2012 Bren Gosling
- A taster... December 22, 2011 Bren Gosling
- Charlotte Haigh MacNeil’s Blog (ex-City Novel Coursemate and Journalist)
- The real reason insomniacs can’t sleep June 7, 2013
- The myth of delayed motherhood May 18, 2013
- The extreme female brain February 21, 2013
- Michael Braga Writes (ex-City Novel coursemate)
- THE SIGNS -A short story by Michael Braga Oct 2010 October 10, 2010
- Friday thoughts on a Monday afternoon September 6, 2010
- The pursuit of sadness August 25, 2010
- Sometimes I Lie A Little
- Some Things That
- Moira Garland’s Blog
- Partisan writing April 11, 2013
- Brain error? April 7, 2013
- Longing April 4, 2013
- Talli Roland
- Pavilion in the Park June 17, 2013
- Sex. On Tuesdays. Or Not. June 10, 2013
- Notting Hill Press Launches! June 3, 2013
- Charlie Mackle
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Tag Archives: theme
Alexis Cole — Transcendence
One of the questions that recurs in my novel is the importance of location — especially for artists.In my novel Kim is a German artist who has arrived to London from Berlin in the expectation that it’s the place to … Continue reading
Posted in Research
Tagged agents, Alexis Cole, art, art galleries, artists, bookshops, Brick Lane, Damien Hirst, Kim, London, Mat Collishaw, Publishing, Research, setting, Shoreditch, theme, Transcendence
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In-Out, In-Out, Shake It All About?
The Hokey Cokey seems to possess the same level of serious reasoning as did last week’s unconvincing and desperately tactical David Cameron speech on an ‘in-out’ referendum on British membership of the EU. His gambling with the country’s political relationship with … Continue reading
Posted in Frustrations
Tagged artists, Conservative Party, David Cameron, David Lidington, Degenerate Art, entartete Künst, EU, Europe, European culture, Eurosceptics, Germany, Hackney, James, Kim, London, Research, setting, Shoreditch, theme, UKIP, Winston Churchill, Working in Europe, World War I, World War II
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There’s Nothing Quite Like A Flaming Pudding
My novel has a lot of food in it — and probably one of the most consistent pieces of feedback that I’ve received from the many and varied people who’ve been kind enough to read parts of the manuscript (or … Continue reading
Posted in Influences, Research
Tagged Christmas, Christmas dinner, cookbooks, cooking, Delia Smith, Denis Healey, feedback, food, Nothing But Onions, port jelly, Research, restaurants, theme, turkey, UFOs, Waitrose
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‘The Geiger Counter of Olympomania is Going to Go Zoink Off the Scale’
…as Boris Johnson inimitably said last night in Hyde Park — before his brilliant put-down of Mitt Romney. Well, my Olympomania Geiger counter has been building up to Zoink steadily over the last few weeks but Boris’s ‘Are we ready?’ speech seems … Continue reading
Posted in Influences
Tagged beach volleyball, Big Ben, Boris Johnson, Chilterns, day job, geosemiotics, London, Olympic Torch, Olympics, pink signs, pride, River of Fire, setting, The City, theme, Time Out, Todmorden, Twenty Twelve, Westminster
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Time Out With London’s Lucky Kunsts
When I started writing the novel there were certain themes that I thought IÂ was fairly knowledgeable about: pubs, for example — I knew a lot about those. And food. And London geography and the pleasures of the Chilterns. And Germany … Continue reading
Posted in Influences, Research
Tagged acid house, Art Fund Pass, artists, Brain Activity, Damien Hirst, David Shrigley, Germany, global capital, Jeremy Dellar, Joy in People, Kim, KLF, london art fair, Manchester, miners' strike, Picasso and Modern British Art, Shoreditch, Tate Gallery, The Battle of Orgreave, theme
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Gesamtkunstwerk
The title of this post is a German word that’s been adopted into English usage in the art world and translates roughly as total artwork — which I suppose is similar to the concept of total football as played by … Continue reading
Posted in Research
Tagged 'China Gold', Art Projects, artists, Beryl Cook, Georg Herold, Gerhard Richter, Gesamtkunstwerk, Hayward Gallery, Jenny Keanee, Kim, Kirstine Roepstorff, london art fair, pipilotti rist, Pryle Behrman, Research, Richard Wilson, Saatchi Gallery, Susan Stockwell, Tate Modern, theme
3 Comments
Voice
There’s a lot of discussion in creative writing courses about how authors can find their voice. It’s quite a difficult concept to articulate — most simplistically it’s what defines the distinctiveness of an author’s style. This may, depending on the … Continue reading
What Happens in Vegas…
…ends up in my novel. This may be something of a surprise seeing as most of it is set in an English country pub which, apart from the copious amounts of booze drunk, is probably one of the places least … Continue reading
Posted in Influences
Tagged backstory, Beatles, contrasts, Emma, James, Kim, las vegas, psychology, Research, sex, theme
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SFMoMA
It’s not some sort of weird business school acronym but the local shorthand for one of the best art galleries in the US — the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It’s a little confusing as, according to the guidebooks, … Continue reading
Posted in Research
Tagged artists, Duchampf, Kim, Mark Rothko, modern art, Research, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, SFMoMA, subconscious, theme
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Fields Inspired by Eric Ravilious
One of my favourite paintings — and one that is very germane to The Angel’s setting is John Nash’s The Cornfield, which I’ve blogged about previously. It’s relatively well-known, providing a motif for David Dimbleby’s BBC series on landscape painting a … Continue reading
Posted in Influences
Tagged artists, Eric Ravilious, Hay baling, John Nash, Kim, landscapes, London, Paul Nash, setting, Tate Britain, Tate Gallery, The Ridgeway, theme, White Horse Brewery
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Art for Art’s Sake?
I’m not sure about Kim’s personal taste in modern art but with her training she’d be sure to be able to hold forth about Cy Twombly, the American painter who died last week, and was the subject of some posts on … Continue reading
Posted in Research
Tagged art, collectors, criticism, Cy Twombly, finance, James, Kim, modern art, Picasso, Research, Shoreditch, Tate Gallery, The City, theme, wealth, World's Most Expensive Paintings
1 Comment
My Other Magnum Opus
Apart from the two novels in progress I’ve also authored a more prosaic volume over the past fifteen months or so. And — spit on me now — I’ve decided to self-publish it. I don’t have much capital so it’s … Continue reading
One Day I Went to Listen To David Nicholls
I’m rather late in posting about this but last week I went along to the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival at Christ Church College, Oxford. I was hoping to spend the best part of a day there but one session … Continue reading
Posted in Influences
Tagged David Nicholls, fictional technique, internal dialogue, One Day, Oxford Literary Festival, Plot, Structure, theme
3 Comments
The Zeitgeist of the Segnits
I wandered into Waterstone’s in Staines (of past Ali G fame) a couple of weeks ago and was magnetically drawn to a book called Pub Walks in Underhill Country by Nat Segnit, which had the good fortune for a debut novel, … Continue reading
Posted in Influences, Uncategorized
Tagged cookbooks, cooking, Nat Segnit, Niki Segnit, Pub Walks in Underhill Country, pubs, rambling, setting, the Chilterns, The Flavour Thesaurus, theme, walking
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Schumpeter on the Art of Management
My ex-City coursemate Michael Braga shares with me a love of The Economist newspaper that must be very unusual among writers — many of whom probably consider its readers as the evil spawn of the global capital machine. I must … Continue reading
Posted in Influences
Tagged artists, backstory, business, Creative Writing Classes, MA Creative Writing, management, Schumpeter, The Economist, theme
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Good Night on BBC2
A couple of novel-related programmes on BBC2 tonight. The Great Outdoors is a short series that was on BBC4 last year. It’s about a group of ramblers enjoying the countryside and features Ruth Jones of Gavin and Stacey fame and … Continue reading
Posted in Influences
Tagged BBC, Chiltern Hills, Le Manoir Aux Quatre Saisons, Michel Roux, restaurants, setting, The Great Outdoors, The Ridgeway, theme
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John Nash in Meadle
An update to the post on ‘Totes Meer’ below. I was in Tesco’s and they’ve started to do a small selection of ‘local’ books. One was a walks in Buckinghamshire guide. I like to flick through these as they usually … Continue reading
Posted in Influences
Tagged artists, Germany, John Nash, psychology, Research, setting, subconscious, Tate Gallery, The Cornfield, The Moat Grange Farm Kimble, theme, walking, War
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‘A Beginning, A Muddle and An End’?
Interesting blog on the Guardian Books website today by Robert McCrum. He talks about Ford Madox Ford’s advice that the literary quality or narrative power of a novel should never be judged by the opening alone but by reading a … Continue reading
Posted in Publishing
Tagged agents, book promotion, consistency, e-books, Ford Madox Ford, marketing, motivation, opening chapters, Page 99 test, Philip Larkin, Publishing, readings, Robert McCrum, Structure, theme
2 Comments
Time on Franzen
Jonathan Franzen’s new novel ‘Freedom’ has been causing a stir among reviewers — one Guardian Books blogger is already calling it the novel of the century. Time magazine a couple of weeks ago gave Franzen the honour of being on … Continue reading
Posted in Publishing
Tagged accessibility, character, Great American Novelists, Jonathan Franzen, literary fiction, Plot, theme, Time magazine
2 Comments
