Tag Archives: writing

Travel Poetry: The Crackling Thunder of Frozen Lake Menteith

I wrote this poem in 2011 during a particularly bewitching snow-storm on Lake Menteith in Stirlingshire, Scotland. I had borrowed a pair of old, worn out and blunt ice-skates that were a size too small. And together with my friend, we set out to skate on the lake and also record the audio of theContinue reading “Travel Poetry: The Crackling Thunder of Frozen Lake Menteith”

Travel:The Berlin Wall Redux: A punk lady of leisure 

In 2008 I lived in Berlin. It’s a vast adult playground of earthly delights, diversions and shiny, distracting baubles. Its maddeningly vibrant during the summer. It’s as though life is amplified to full volume and there is no dimmer switch. The sky sits very high up and the sun is beaming down with a warm,Continue reading “Travel:The Berlin Wall Redux: A punk lady of leisure “

Travel: A scooter swarm and the dance of life and death in Taiwan

Among the chaos and the streaming lights there are tiny rockets moving between buildings and jostling people out of the way as they walk into the street. In South Korea, Japan, Thailand and China these pocket rockets roam through the night, comandeered by a mixture of salarymen, young punks and mums with kids strapped toContinue reading “Travel: A scooter swarm and the dance of life and death in Taiwan”

Travel: The lost and hungry felines of Chefchaouen, Morocco

Seeing you sprawled on the ground in a doorway in Chefchaoen, Morocco, something broke inside of my heart. I found myself so immensely concerned for your safety. From your gaunt and shabby physique and milky, clouded eyes I worked out that you were severely malnourished. I attempted to pick you up gently but my MorocccanContinue reading “Travel: The lost and hungry felines of Chefchaouen, Morocco”

Book Review: A Death in the Family by Karl Ove Knausgaard

* No plot spoilers in this review  A Death in the Family is Book 1 of the My Struggle six part autobiography of Karl Ove Knausgaard. This mammoth six part memoir really grabs a hold to the marrow of his family, friends and sexual relationships – the blood and bone. A Death in the FamilyContinue reading “Book Review: A Death in the Family by Karl Ove Knausgaard”

Travel: Luminous Edinburgh during Christmas time lights the way through winter 

Edinburgh is bewitching at all times of year but arguably the most captivating time is before and during Christmas. From early December the area in Princes Gardens is turned into an enchanted frozen amphitheatre. The faerie wonderland buzzing with a German Christmas market and overflowing with handmade, wooden and delicate trinkets, along with carnival ridesContinue reading “Travel: Luminous Edinburgh during Christmas time lights the way through winter “

Book Review: A Man in Love by Karl Ove Knausgaard

Book Two of the Min Kemp (My Struggle) in the series of six autobiographical volumes is possibly the least adventurous of his stories although still no less compelling and compulsively readable as the other ones. If you are unfamiliar with Karl Ove Knausgaard then you must have been living under a rock. He has beenContinue reading “Book Review: A Man in Love by Karl Ove Knausgaard”

Book Review: Boyhood Island by Karl Ove Knausgaard

Boyhood Island is a no nonsense autobiographical tale of a boy called Karl Ove Knausgaard, aged 6-13 years old and his everyday adventures living and growing on the island of Tromøya, Norway in the late 70’s. This is a strange and unusual novel in that it doesn’t follow traditional novelistic or storytelling conventions. It’s a meanderingContinue reading “Book Review: Boyhood Island by Karl Ove Knausgaard”

<3 The Internet: Recommend me a book

Stuck on what to read next? Hate judging books by their covers? Then the Recommend me a book app will delight you. The app takes you headlong into reading the first few pages of a book without knowing anything about the author, title or context of the book itself. This allows you to gain some traction andContinue reading “<3 The Internet: Recommend me a book”