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“ Hello, forbearing readers! This is just a quick message to say that 'that elusive ...”

“ For the past few months, in a frankly indefensible violation of my own productivity principles ...”

“ One of the (ironically self-referential) insights that I've finally acquired is that life tends to ...”

“ About Matthew Matthew Stewart was born in Farnham, Surrey, in 1973. Following a comprehensive school education, ...”

“ One of the more perplexing quirks of human existence, especially for those of us habituated ...”

“ About WN Herbert WN Herbert was born in Dundee in 1961. He's published numerous books of ...”

“ A long time ago (ok, seven or eight years) in a galaxy far far away ...”

“ This Christmas, I spent two weeks back in Melbourne, the home-town I hadn't visited in ...”

“ I've often written, on this blog and elsewhere, about the utility of routine: the good ...”

“ About Jaclyn Jaclyn Moriarty is the prize-winning, best-selling author of novels for young adults and adults ...”

“ "Actually, I jade very quickly. Once is usually enough. Either once only, or every day. ...”

“ Been a bit quiet round here lately, hasn't it? That's pretty much how I'm ...”

“ About John John McCullough's poetry has appeared in publications including London Magazine, The Guardian, The Rialto, ...”

“ Like my compatriot Clive James, I found myself Falling Towards England in my twenties. ...”

“ One of the dubious privileges of getting older is that one's more intransigent neuroses start ...”

“ The White Hotel D.M. Thomas First published in 1981 “Loosely inspired by the case histories of some of ...”

“ About Jon Jon Stone was born in Derby and lives in Whitechapel. He is co-creator of ...”

“ My bed is quite possibly my favourite place in the world, not least because of ...”

“ In the past couple of days, I've been involved in delivering informational postcards to houses ...”

“ The Burial Jennifer Lash First published in 1961 John Wetherell says: “I can’t remember the plot at all. There ...”

“ About Pamela Pamela was born in Stockholm, Sweden and now lives in Northumberland, UK. She has a ...”

“ On Wednesday, I spent an absorbing morning at the Surgeons' Hall Museums in Edinburgh (which ...”

“ Whatever it was I was planning to write about this morning, it got wholly derailed ...”

“ Bing Bang Boing Ideal Inc. Released in 1972 Kona Macphee says: “When I was aged 3 or 4, Andrew ...”

“ About Sridala Sridala Swami trained to be a film editor, but gave that up more than ...”

“ I can't say I've quite figured out the precise recipe for "growing up" yet, but ...”

“ Any regular reader of these pages will know how inspired I am by constructive enthusiasm, ...”

“ Poems 1980-2008 Jan Owen John Leonard Press, 2008 Tony Linde says: “My recommendation is the poetry of Jan Owen. ...”

“ About Tony Tony writes: "I’m a retired IT project manager, Australian, but native of UK for ...”

“ When I'm giving a poetry surgery, there's one core goal that I try never to ...”

“ For somebody who ostensibly loves, plays and even writes music, I seem to spend remarkably ...”

“ Life After Birth Kate Figes First published in 1998 Polly Clark says: “This honest, fulsome, generous and rigorous examination ...”

“ About Polly Polly Clark is a poet. Her three collections from Bloodaxe Books are Kiss (2000, ...”

“ For the past two days, I've been absorbed in the mechanistic-but-nervewracking process of upgrading my ...”

“ Nit-picker. Bean-counter. Pencil-neck. These terms get bandied about a lot around here, ...”

“ Dogs In Space Directed by Richard Lowenstein First released in 1986 Kona Macphee says: “Probably best known for featuring ...”

“ About Darcy Director Darcy Prendergast (b. circa 1985) has always had imagination.  After starting his artistic career ...”

“ One of my favourite sources of geeky inspiration is the rich repository of presentation videos ...”

“ Twenty-four hour supermarkets. Drugs to dispense with rest. Alarm clocks. One week's ...”

“ Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman As told to Ralph Leighton First published in 1985 Patrick Andrews says: “A flatmate ...”

“ About Seán Seán McLaughlin lives in Edinburgh and co-runs a small record label called Stitch Records, ...”

“ Today is the first time in a long while that I feel I've almost caught ...”

“ Imagination is more important than knowledge. Albert Einstein, who said this, was a revolutionary physicist, but ...”

“ They Were Better Live Weddings Parties Anything Recorded live at the Central Club, 1998 Kona Macphee says: “It's been ...”

“ About Mat Mat Barnett lives in Cambridge, and is the founder of web design and development ...”

“ I often think about what it means to be a grown-up - by which I ...”

“ Something you learn very quickly when you take up distance running is that stopping mid-run ...”

“ The Wilton Diptych Unknown artist c. 1395–99 Douglas Robertson says: “As a maker, in whatever discipline you practice, one ...”

“ About Douglas Douglas Robertson is an artist, who divides his time between his home in Hampshire, ...”

“ Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow, goes the line in Cornershop's 1997 hit song ...”

“ Yesterday's book recommendation from Sophie Nicholls had me wondering again about the attraction of tiny ...”

“ The Poetics of Space Gaston Bachelard First published in 1958 Sophie Nicholls says: “In my dream, I’m climbing the ...”

“ About Richard Richard Jones is a computer programmer who is into gadgets and video games. While his ...”

“ “Many grown-ups aren't.” “Acquiring things like cars, mortgages and marriages can make you feel like a ...”

“ When I'm teaching creative writing, I often like to do an exercise involving constraints - ...”

“ It's a slightly sobering thought that last week's wonderful stay at the Lumb Bank Arvon ...”

“ The Non-Designer's Design Book Robin Williams 1994? (Second edition published in 2004 by Peachpit Press) Kona Macphee says: “This ...”

“ About Sophie Sophie Nicholls lives in York. She writes poems and runs the Word Sauce e-courses ...”

“ Kona says: "I'm away teaching a residential course this week. I'll leave you with ...”

“ Kona says: "I'm away teaching a residential course this week. I'll leave you with ...”

“ Kona says: "I'm away teaching a residential course this week. I'll leave you with ...”

“ Kona says: "I'm away teaching a residential course this week. I'll leave you with ...”

“ Kona says: "I'm away teaching a residential course this week. I'll leave you with ...”

“ The Young Visiters Daisy Ashford First published in 1919 Big Tam Connery says: “The Young Vishitersh ish a ...”

“ About Big Tam Internashional Movie Shtar, retired. I've called myshelf @BigTamConnery on Twitter to be a ...”

“ Know thyself, said the inscription at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. The passage ...”

“ This morning, as I lay in bed, rain fell in a rackety clamour on the ...”

“ Today is crunch day for the 1,333 arts organisations who applied for National Portfolio Funding ...”

“ Towards the end of my time in Cambridge, I started going to twice-weekly yoga classes. ...”

“ For today's post, a regretful, extended adieu over at my Poem Of The Week blog. Even ...”

“ Brief Encounter Directed by David Lean First released in 1945 John Anstie says: “Brief Encounter was made in 1945 ...”

“ About Andrew Andrew Stickland is a fulltime father and occasional writer who really dislikes referring to ...”

“ There's a defensive question from her students that Julia Cameron sometimes encounters in teaching: "But do ...”

“ When my inspiration engine needs a boost, I'll sometimes visit a random word or random ...”

“ My daughter and I recently went to see "Tangled", Disney's take on the Rapunzel fairytale, ...”

“ "In fact, in psychological research, extroversion and introversion are considered the most stable personality traits ...”

“ The Accidental Tourist Anne Tyler First published in 1985 by Knopf Helen Joyce says: “The Accidental Tourist, by Anne ...”

“ About Helen Helen Joyce is The Economist’s Brazil Bureau Chief, based in São Paulo. Between 2005 ...”

“ As a kid, I loved making things from paper and cardboard. I developed a ...”

“ A guest post by Patrick Andrews I don't know why I love this film so much. ...”

“ It's almost certainly churlish of me to complain about the Internet, since it provides me ...”

“ I hope you'll forgive me, dear readers, for the somewhat sexist analogy I'm about to ...”

“ Spot a new social trend emerging? Whatever it is, you can be sure that ...”

“ Picnic at Hanging Rock Directed by Peter Weir and released in Australia in 1975. The film ...”

“ About Michelle Michelle McGrane is the author of The Suitable Girl (published by Pindrop Press in ...”

“ What was the biggest lesson I learned at school? On a good day, I ...”

“ The day is striped: thin fronts of battering rain and sleet intersperse with bands ...”

“ When it comes to natural bedfellows, the epithets "team player" and "creative artist" aren't perhaps ...”

“ As an eternal chastisement for the crime of a single online birthday-present order, we're regularly ...”

“ This morning, I took my favourite Monday morning running route: a steady climb out ...”

“ The Sea-Thing Child Russell Hoban, illustrated by Patrick Benson 1999, re-published in 2000 by Walker Kona Macphee says: “This ...”

“ About Katy Katy Evans-Bush is the author of Me and the Dead (Salt) and Oscar & ...”

“ 21 At 21, you don't need success, because you have potential - which, at the time, ...”

“ If you've ever had any dealings with computer security, you rapidly become aware that the ...”

“ “The ability to write isn't just the ability to string articulate sentences together; nor is ...”

“ I was never a sporty child. I say this with a certain rueful regret, ...”

“ Drivenness draws its energy from the past. It deludes with a sense of striving ...”

“ Thumbprint Joe Hill First published 2007 in Postscripts 10 Mark Harding says: “The opening sentences give a taster of ...”

“ About Mark Mark Harding is the editor of Music For Another World, a collection of fantasy ...”

“ The first impression, in the dark entrance hall, is a pervasive smell of rottenness; ...”

“ In yesterday's post, I talked about the inexorable processes by which I'd fallen out of ...”

“ I haven't seen the inside of my parents' house in fifteen years, but extrapolating from ...”

“ I have a confession to make. I can't read more than a handful of ...”

“ Fie to you, February! As a seasoned combatant with the Winter Blues (a.k.a. ...”

“ Greenvoe George Mackay Brown First published in 1972 Alastair Cook says: “My sunday best is "Greenvoe" by George Mackay ...”

“ About Alastair Alastair Cook is a fine art photographer, filmmaker and RIBA Conservation Accredited architect. ...”

“ Long, long ago and far, far away, and possibly not even on the Internet, I ...”

“ This morning, walking the dog, I used a succession of narrow laneways, back alleys and ...”

“ In the darkest moments of his 1985 depression, William Styron wrapped his personal notebook in ...”

“ School holidays have descended upon my household again, like a fleet of detritus-strewing battle-cruisers with ...”

“ Cold-hearted cynic that I am, I've never been enthused by the whole giant marketing opportunity ...”

“ The Snow Leopard Peter Matthiessen First published in 1978 by Viking Press Michael Bedward says: “This is Peter Matthiessen's ...”

“ About John My first attempts at creative writing, of poetry and songs, were in my mid-teens. ...”

“ One of my favourite moments in the movie "The Social Network" is when Eduardo Saverin's ...”

“ A few years ago, I decided to see if I could learn to draw. ...”

“ In secondary school, I was always being told by my teachers and my parents to ...”

“ Why are writers such suckers when it comes to writing tips? What is it ...”

“ This morning, like every other Monday morning, a certain proportion of working people woke up ...”

“ The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke Richard Dadd Oil on canvas (1855-64) Andrew Stickland says: “On my first trip to the ...”

“ About Kimberly Kimberly Ennico Smith is a scientist ever in awe of being married to a ...”

“ As I write, a fine rain is falling with military regularity from a bland grey ...”

“ To the credit of my youthful self, I realised quite early on that the delirious ...”

“ Yesterday's riddling post was inadvertently self-referential; the impulse for such a short entry came ...”

“ My parts are broken, yet my whole is sound. My hemline vacillates, elusive to imperative. I paraphrase ...”

“ I had a very enjoyable evening last night at the monthly Shore Poets event in ...”

“ Running for the Hills Horatio Clare Published in 2006 by John Murray John Wetherell says: “When I see the ...”

“ About John The salient themes might run as follows: born into musical family, got into occultism, ...”

“ For many years, living in the urban flatlands of Cambridge, I harboured a vague dream ...”

“ Although my daughter is years away from being a teenager, we already seem to be ...”

“ Since I seem to have a minor, documented fascination with diseases both physiological and psychological, ...”

“ I went to a large Melbourne girls' school which, from year 7 to year 10, ...”

“ "Hell is other people" wrote Jean-Paul Sartre in 1944, thereby assuring his place among the ...”

“ (view on Amazon) Solitude Anthony Storr First published in 1988 Kona Macphee says: “The book "Solitude", by the late Anthony ...”

“ About Patrick Patrick is a compulsive inventor, science fiction writer, garage entrepreneur and parent. With a ...”

“ Being a bit of a non-shopper these days, I rarely go into a big bookshop ...”

“ Today, I'm feeling somewhat abashed for having used the word "Zen", albeit slightly whimsically, in ...”

“ One of the downsides of perfectionism is the tendency to underplay successes. If you ...”

“This wasn't the post I had planned for this morning, but sometimes nature just can't ...”

“ Have you ever sat through a sad movie for the second time, or re-read a ...”

“ About Kathryn Kathryn Gray’s The Never-Never (Seren) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First ...”

“ Well, friends, we're two whole weeks in, and inexplicably I still haven't attained enlightenment - ...”

“ The hot summer day was subsiding into a warm, early-evening dusk. A slight breeze ...”

“ I've never been a massively acquisitive person. I've certainly had "adrift" times in my ...”

“ On Friday night I attended the launch of the first Dualism exhibition in Forfar. ...”

“ I can tell you precisely when I first began outsourcing my memory. It was ...”

“ Readers of my Poem Of The Week blog will be aware that I recently read ...”

“ It snowed in the night, and the hills to the north and west of here ...”

“ Accounts of dreams are a bit like accounts of childbirth: quite likely to be ...”

“ Last summer, in a bout of inadvertent foresightedness, we had a lot of extra insulation ...”

“ In my previous post, I mentioned the perils of perfectionism and the utility of allowing ...”

“ I love helping other people to untrammel their creativity, and the part I most enjoy ...”

“ I've just finished reading Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air", a compelling personal account of the ...”

“ Speaking with the considerable authority of somebody who once read "The Tao of Poo", today ...”

“ I'm sitting and looking at the bookshelf - or, more precisely, the particular section ...”