January notebook

Two successes I can claim as a parent: they both love music and football (even if one of them supports … More

A new nativity monologue -An Angel

An Angel His people spoke to our people, contracts were exchanged, and the gig was on. Hush hush, … More

Dear Friends Here are the blog posts which you read most often in 2017, according to my WordPress stats: … More

There’s a problem with that title, isn’t there? While I have not been completely silent (fifteen blog posts at most? … More

Every September is the same. I pack a bag for work, set off into the still warm sunshine, and wonder … More

I was on the phone to a writer friend the other week. In itself this is a rare occurrence: normally … More

His real name was Crispin. Bespectacled, quiffed, bandy legged, Ken wore the aloof expression of the terminally lonely, a tilt of … More

I found myself in the position of giving feedback to some writers recently. The writers were teachers who had signed … More

A Tuesday, appropriately. (Tuesday being the day I was formally diagnosed.) Poetic, it strikes me now. But at the time, … More

On Not Being Anthony Wilson I haven’t always been Anthony Wilson. For a long time I wasn’t even Anthony. … More

I was having a coffee with a new writer friend the other day. Not having known each other for very … More

Smith Objectionable, mercurial, fierce, wise, bandaged, solitary and irresistible, Phil Smith and I were not close. Only in our … More

One of the more interesting paradoxes of analysing the interviews of professional writers during the Teachers as Writers (TaW) … More

For a number of reasons –too much grief in my life, too sedentary, too much television, too out … More

Rupert Loydell is shouting at the countryside. I have got up at sparrow-fart to drive him to the Blandford … More

In the dry months after my cancer treatment, when the visitors stopped visiting and I put all the cards … More

Today is the last day of NaBloPoMo, that month in the year when someone decides it is a nice idea … More

Dear God Do you think you could fix it so that I might have some of Martin’s playfulness, his … More