The Black Cab: Views from the back seat
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…
Tidings: A Christmas Journey by Ruth Padel
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…
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
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…
Five books that inspired me
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…
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
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…
Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle
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…
What it is by Linda Barry
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…