I have been tagged repeatedly in this meme (and the music one, and there ought to be an art one, too). I hate lists. I hate the inherent [ahem patriarchal, capitalist, etc] need to rank and rate and declare bests, that divides us into endless competition. But as the latest tagger, Helen Grant suggested, it’s…
Category: influences
Art as Influence
You might be surprised to hear that the Chastity Flame series (recently referred to as Fifty Shades of James Bond by one reviewer :-D) derives a lot of its inspiration from art. While the immediate influences are of course Mr Fleming’s secret agent and Peter O’Donnell’s Modesty Blaise, the story begins in front of the…
Good-bye, Kevin Ayers
I was distressed to hear on Twitter yesterday that Kevin Ayers had died. Marc Riley broke the news on Radio 6. As with any ‘celebrity’ death, it was interesting (in that detached way writers have) to see how and where the news spread across social media. When news of Richard Briers‘ death came, it was…
The Maltman
Happy birthday to my big brother, Steve! Wandering the Howff again, trolling for material I suppose as always. That’s what I do all the time. You know that by now, don’t you? That’s what writers do: absorb everything and turn it sideways and fit it into stories. You have to turn it slant, as Emily…
Friday’s Forgotten Books: Complete Nonsense
Tomorrow is the 200th anniversary of Edward Lear’s birth. There’s a terrific blog that keeps track of all the events and and another that prints pages from Lear’s diary. In a wonderful piece in the Independent David Quantick wrote winningly about Lear and the appeal of nonsense. I have to say, I was convinced before…
Haunted, Spies & a little Melancholia
Angela Carter: she’s been a kind of spiritual mother to me since I first read The Bloody Chamber and knew I’d found a kindred soul. This week I finally started writing the novel that’s been brewing in my head for some time now inspired by Carter and to some extent also by Kingsley Amis. Hard…
K. A. Laity 