On rethinking literary success and going indie For most of my literary career—I use the term ironically—I’ve been out of print. My first book, a Young Adult novel, was accepted for publication when I was in my final year of high school; my second in my third year of university….
Time travel
I’m just back from my first trip to Australia since COVID. Airlines are still not operating the kangaroo route at full capacity and tickets are eye-wateringly expensive. I booked with Lufthansa, one of the few airlines that had continued to fly to and from Australia the whole way through. The…
Escape from late capitalism / a mall moment
I had a moment in the Enoch Centre: I couldn’t get out. I’d gone in to buy a diffuser from The Body Shop, to mask the smell of cooking wafting up from below. My downstairs neighbour’s tiny yapper has meat cooked for him, and the smell rising through the floorboards…
Random piano guy
Returning through Central Station on Saturday afternoon, heading home after an 11-mile walk with a group of women I’d met through Facebook, I was stopped short by the sound of a piano. Public pianos have become a feature of stations and shopping malls, an invitation to contribute to street life…