INTERVIEW FEATURE: Poet John Challis talks to me about his pamphlet The Black Cab — plus work, fatherhood and the flickering shadows of film noir… You’ll find John Challis — the poet, not the character actor — busy behind the scenes…
Do you love a well-told Yuletide tale? I must admit I do. One of my favourite festive books last year was Tidings: A Christmas Journey by Ruth Padel (Chatto and Windus, 2016). This moving narrative poem has all the hallmarks…
To celebrate the recent BBC adaptation of this wonderful book, I'm republishing a review I wrote some years ago. If you didn't see the series — or even if you did — read the book! A sumptuous tale of magic…
Thanks to The Journal's Culture magazine for inviting me to write an article for their June Readers' Lives feature. Writing about books that inspired me was a real pleasure - the challenge was limiting myself to just five books! Read…
What if you could taste the emotions of the person who made your food? A few days before her ninth birthday, Rose Edelstein bites into a piece of chocolate lemon cake and tastes her cheery mother’s despair. It is a…
I overdid it this winter. Hunkered down. Feasted. Forgot to move. A whiff of spring and I’m waking up. My body craves soup, my heart, simple nourishment. No doorstep sandwiches or difficult novels for me. I’m writing haiku and reading…
I received a gift. A mysterious parcel in the post. I knew it was coming, but not what it was, nor when it would arrive. I waited by the letterbox like an eager terrier. I wanted to know what this…