My new short-story & poetry collection

I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce my new short-story and poetry collection, Burn The Word.

On strike action: Convenience & Inconvenience

‘I took the tube today just to see what all the fuss was about.’

Deus ex machina: god from the machine

‘In this context, the term deus ex machina was chosen too for the possible connotations of the translated words, which lead to questions seeking to determine what could be the ‘machine’, and the ‘god’?’

So Retro… or, Why I am protesting on 20th June

‘When did this become a country that took pride in putting ‘poor’ people on TV to be gawped at and labelled as ‘the problem’, and when did we become a viewing public that revels in arguing over who was the most awful scrounging scumbag of the lot of them?’

Review: Hitch-22, by Christopher Hitchens

‘The beginning (unless you’re Kurt Vonnegut or perhaps Martin Amis) is invariably a strong position from which to start.’

Review: Bring up the bodies, by Hilary Mantel

‘Hilary Mantel’s successes lay as much in the depth of character she presents in her main protagonist, as in her unique handling of such famous narrative.’

Review: Stoner, by John Williams

‘I didn’t like him at first. John Williams that is, not William Stoner.’

Review: In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote

‘Tragic, sympathetic, human and terrifying in equal measures. Frankly, I’ve never read a book quite like it.’

Recent reading, ratings & reviews

Reviews in brief of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, and others’

Review: ‘NW’, by Zadie Smith

An unconventional, stylish stroll through north-west London with three wonderfully constructed, yet fundamentally flawed native thirty-somethings as our guide.