open...: 2021

Back in November, during the UK's second lockdown, I put online my novel about travel and tourism – "Egyptian Romance" – since it was the closest I or most people would get to visiting these or any other places. As we enter the third UK lockdown, I thought I'd post the novel I wrote afterwards, about another activity that is now similarly rare and exotic: working in an office.

"Doing the Business" is about the particular social dynamics of the office, specifically within a magazine publishing company. It is even more archaeological, because it describes how magazines were produced before computers. But its main themes are gloire and amour, which I hope will provide a little distraction, just as they have down the centuries...

01 January 2021

Glanglish, and other Weekly Essays

In 1990, before I had a go at writing a couple of novels, I put together Glanglish, a collection of short essays. They are about nothing in particular, and were more in the nature of five-finger exercises for my writing (and thinking). I aim to post one a week, which I'll add to the list below.

Glanglish

Contents

The weekly essay - with audio

Chiral asymmetries - with audio

Wallpaper - with audio

The knife's deity - with audio

Ludwig van who? - with audio

Rubbish - with audio

The new Jesuits - with audio

Systemic dis-ease - with audio

Weird messages - with audio

Looking at glass - with audio