Jackie Wesley

A bit off-topic, but hey, this is the coffee shop, right?

I too have a huge amount of respect for Emma Darwin. And she gave me the happiest moment of my writing career.

The only time I went to the York Festival I (naturally, considering what I’ve just said) booked a book doctor slot with her. Mine was the first slot of the day, and as we sat…[Read more]

I’m glad you copied this, Libby, because you saved me the trouble. Your comments should definitely be an integral part of this thread. And I’m glad, too, that the poem seems to have had much the same effect on you as it had on me.

There’s more, much more, than ‘yet another translation.’ There’s a page with over forty, ranging from Catullus’ Latin…[Read more]

Rather annoyingly, shortly after posting this I came upon another translation. Annoyingly, because its publication on a page headed ‘The Center for Hellenic Studies,’ its juxtaposition with the Greek, and most of all the clumsiness of its English suggest to me that it is the closest to a word-for-word rendition of Sappho’s original that I’ve yet…[Read more]

Stephen King, Ath? He’s said that he never knows what’s going to happen when he starts a novel, and he’s published nearly seventy of them.

Your method (if we can grace it with that name), Ath, sounds very much like mine: a rough idea of the story arc and the ending, and not much more. The nearest I ever got to planning was to write out the rather…[Read more]

First of all, thanks for allowing me to come back into the fold and do this. I’d forgotten how much fun these are, and I can’t believe just how much people can express in so few words. I loved all of them in different ways.

Sandra, I found your piece thoughtful and intriguing. I love the part of writing when you revisit a character to find out a…[Read more]

An Old Face

“What became of Pinkbelt?”

“Oh God, do you remember him? Lurking in the dark places projecting his murky thoughts into the world. Wasn’t he the guy who wrote grisly scenes with hudreds of f-bombs?”

“Yes, that’s the guy. I heard he got signed and the fame we to his head.”

“No, my mate said he got a few rejections and gave…[Read more]

Burkhardt’s first reaction to the disaster was to lay the blame on Harding (now there’s a surprise…). This, after Harding had expressed concerns about the locomotive, which were dismissed, and made his offer to go and check on the train, which was also dismissed. The transcript of the phone call makes his anxiety plain. After he’s told he’s not…[Read more]