How long to solve this puzzle?
What is the number in the space that the car is obscuring? This was part of test at a Hong Kong elementary school. The children were expected to solved it in 20 seconds. It’s one of those puzzles that – apparently – children solve much quicker than adults. Loads of smart-alecks on the web are boasting that […]
Writing a comedy about comedy writing
Writing comedy is hard. I’ve tried it. So to try to squeeze comedy out of the plight of writers writing a sitcom would seem to be a case of writerly navel-gazing at its worst. Thank heavens, then, for Episodes (BBC-2) which, having reached its fourth series, seems finally to be getting the attention it […]
The Audience and its audience
My mind wanders easily in the theatre. I think it’s the fakery of the whole thing, the spare sets, the imagined actors waiting n the wings, mouthing their lines, the sound of footsteps on wood when it’s supposed to be gravel… everything, really. And then I start to drift off. Mainly I’m wondering what I’ll […]
Magical and fabulous: There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake
God, I hate so-called “magic realism”. In books, at any rate. I don’t get along with Gabriel Garcia Marques, or Isabel Allende, or any of that lot. (For some reason, I don’t mind it in films. I’m thinking of The Green Mile, which I like a lot, but there are plenty of others. I’m not sure why […]
Eurovision, Australia and Lee Lin Chin
I haven’t watched The Eurovision Song Contest in years. Not, I should add, through any especial resistance, it’s just that I haven’t been in on the night, or something else has taken precedence. And, no – it’s not “I had a library book to return” – I’m really not being snide. I just haven’t watched it, OK? […]
Lost in translation: A Man Called Ove
There’s a lot to like in Fredrik Backman’s novel about a cantankerous widower in contemporary small-town Sweden. It’s a neat story with an unusual protagonist and it will no doubt be made into a lovely film with someone like Stellan Skarsgård in the title role. But my God, the translation! Henning Koch, who did it, […]
Learning to dance from YouTube
So I figured that next time I go to Jerez I’ll have learned the Sevillanas the regional folk dance which to the untrained eye looks a bit like flamenco. It’s the same way that the rumba and the cha-cha look similar if, like me, you’ve never done either. Thing is, the bloke on the video above […]
I’ll never tire of Spain
My friend Tom Kallene is a Swede who has lived in Spain since forever. He told me once that the moment he set foot in Spain, he knew he would never live in Sweden again. Like a transexual who believes he has been “born into the wrong body,” Tom was born the wrong nationality. It’s a […]
It’s all signed!
There’s no going back now. This is me and my very smart agent Silvia Molteni of Peter Fraser Dunlop as I sign The Book Deal: two books, starting with Time Travelling With A Hamster, (Harper Collins, Spring 2016)
The Shock Of the Fall
I loved this and read it in about three sittings. Nathan Filer manages brilliantly to capture the voice of a schizophrenic teenager, Matthew. (Or at least, I imagine he does, not knowing any schizophrenic teenagers myself.) I’m still wondering, though: did Matthew kill Simon, or was it a tragic accident for which Matthew feels unnecessary […]
