Category: Musings

Comments Off on The promise of return

The promise of return

I am standing at the front door, clapping the NHS workers. Last September, before such things became impossible, we took a journey, my dad and I. Up West. That directional point back to childhood. A boy with a purple body warmer and an obsession with football. A friend whose dad was a forester. Who came […] Read More →
Comments Off on Little Pork Pie Man

Little Pork Pie Man

I see him again. In the supermarket. Little pork pie man. Always that two-tone hat. But it’s not The Selecter or The Specials leaching out the phones. I hear rawwwk. Whitesnake, I’m sure. First time I saw him was outside a pub at 2 in the afternoon. Part of a drunken circle that’s holding back […] Read More →
Comments Off on Sweet Fruit, Sour Land – Not the Booker congrats to Rebecca Ley

Sweet Fruit, Sour Land – Not the Booker congrats to Rebecca Ley

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of chairing the Oxford launch of Rebecca Ley’s debut novel, Sweet Fruit, Sour Land at Blackwell’s Westgate store. A fellow writer at the wonderful Sandstone Press, Rebecca had just been shortlisted for the Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize. That’s quite an achievement considering 140 books were on […] Read More →
Comments Off on When I won the World Cup

When I won the World Cup

1986. Ahm Maradona. King of the two-a-side village derbies. Ah hear the crowd in my head. You should see the way ah dance through the defence, past daft Gassy, so wiry you could tie a string from his lugs to his toes and fire arrows at the seagulls (hair trigger mental too – hit his […] Read More →
Comments Off on On Mount Verzignis, Italy

On Mount Verzignis, Italy

I forget for a while and then remember. There is bear here. I remember yet still I walk. The chances of meeting a bear are remote. The raise of a paw and a smoker’s ciao. Long as it doesn’t chow down on me I’m happy. I’m too slick with sweat in any case, I’d slip […] Read More →
Comments Off on The Fairy Thieves of Schiehallion

The Fairy Thieves of Schiehallion

We hadn’t been hiking for a while. We chose Schiehallion, the ‘fairy hill’. It had been a while since I’d seen them. My first time here the fairies stole our water bottles. We found out half-way up, the hottest day of the year and the swines had hidden them in the boot of the car. Their laughter […] Read More →
Comments Off on Can’t Trump Paw Patrol

Can’t Trump Paw Patrol

I’d rather watch Paw Patrol than the news. This pleases my daughter. I know that some parents choose to talk about world affairs with young children. But I’ll let her watch the cute pups for now, she’ll see the rabid dogs soon enough. And I get to sing along with the theme tune as I […] Read More →
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Slip Road

In the car. Trying to get off the slip road. The drivers see me, don’t let me out. They’re drinking from portable mugs, home-barista coffee. I raise my toddler’s pink sippy cup, mouth asshole as they pass. Someone will be on the phone to the cops, on their way to remove the deviant with the […] Read More →
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Kindness among the Misericordia

Some start to a holiday… Blue light of the Italian emergency hospital. Misericordia. Is that the name of the place or a description? Misery record. On-call paramedics in the midnight dark. Flare of a lighter and the orange tip of a cigarette. They consider me carefully as I pull up my trouser leg to reveal […] Read More →