No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. (Samuel Beckett)
As Peter Jackson’s new documentary series, The Beatles: Get Back is released, my own two cents’ worth on the loveable mop-tops.I remember the first time I heard their second single, Please Please Me, in January 1963. I was fourteen, in the dining room, listening to Pick of the Pops on what was then the BBC … Continue reading Beatle Bones
Halloween is a thoroughly effective and at times exhilaratingly brilliant. But it is also a repellent film that perpetuates obsolete moral values and genre conventions.
Fun with apostrophes and super-villains
Ever since I was a child, I have been haunted by M.R.James’s tale, Lost Hearts, in which two murdered children return to exact a bloody revenge...
My idea of being an author has always been to write a book, rewrite it over and over until it’s perfect… then stick it in a drawer, take it out a couple of years later, rewrite it… and stick it back in the drawer.
The end of the first draft is just an excuse to make yourself a cup of tea and treat yourself to a biscuit
I went swimming the other weekend. The first time I’ve been immersed in anything deeper than bathwater since… well, I think since about 1993.
Any sorcerer will tell you: once there’s a demon in the room, all bets are off
I’ve been up all night while the cat’s still fresh...
It’s the read-through where you realise that this book is a complete and utter disaster and nobody in their right mind could possibly get even to the bottom of the first page…
Donald Hounam 