TWO THINGS OF BEAUTY
I've spent the past few days nursing a good old fashioned cold. Suffering the common cold has always made me nostalgic as well as miserable, I'm jettisoned backwards into childhood again, languishing in bed reading through bleary eyes or watching the television until sore eyelids close of their own accord.I read Patrick Gale's short but affectingly poignant novel The Whole Day Through, which tells the story of Ben, a doctor treating sexually transmitted diseases, and Laura, an accountant looking after her aging professor mother. Ben and Lau

A BIG SPLASH!
For the last couple of weeks I've undertaken a re-design of my website. I wanted to present the two sides of my creativity as well as linking them through the overall style and hierarchy of the website and via the Haiga project (and others that link the visual and literary sides of my brain and output). I also wanted it to be possible to enter the website either via the 'artist' or the 'author' side.

The Houdini Exposure
The Arena Theatre in Wolverhampton is a small venue close to Wolverhampton University with a relaxed and arty atmosphere. Last night G and myself went there for the first time ever to see Little Earthquake’s production of The Houdini Exposure.We had a drink at the bar before the show (where you can pre-order your intermission drinks if you like) then enjoyed a thought provoking and entertaining time watching this brand new production, which has received well deserved Lottery funding from the

Troublesome Waters
Last night, I went to sleep with my ears still ringing from the crescendo of sound produced by keyboard, drums, guitar and musical saw. Richard Hawley’s concert at Birmingham Town Hall lasted a full 2 hours (the support, an electric folk quartet called The Smoke Fairies performed for half an hour, beautifully rendered modern folk that complemented the main show nicely). I hadn’t really heard much Richard Hawley before, G’s a fan and has all his albums, so the show was a su

POETRY SLAM FINAL
I've just got back from a really enjoyable evening at a recording of BBC Radio 4's Poetry Slam final, part of this year’s Birmingham Book Festival. The event was held at the Birmingham Conservatoire in Paradise Place (near the central library), there was a really festive, buzzing atmosphere, and the Slam presenter, ex Birmingham Poet Laureate Dreadlockalien (an extremely entertaining and personable guy), shared the 'warm up spot' with Spoz. Between them these two extremely entertaining performers set the mood for