First of all apologies to regular readers for the late posting, I have been overwhelmed with rewrites (which are now finished) and was uncharacteristically existentially exhausted afterwards. Could be a sign of the times with the strange sense of finiteness  (is there such a word?  – There is now) with the absolutely tragic (and totally […]

Interesting times and not the best of them – I’ve had a couple of profound shocks to the kind of template to my rather eclectic belief system. The first was the discovery (thanks to my better half who is a big A.A Milne fan) that Winnie the Pooh and his fellow forest dwellers were all […]

There was a couple of things this week that caught my imagination – one was the wonderful confirmation that the minute primitive skeleton found in Flores, Indonesia known as Homo Florensienses is an entirely separate species of an man-like creature. Giving raise to the idea that many of the mythological creatures that exist in folklore […]

What a week! It feels as if we started with the first glimmers of possible economic recovery to finish with plague looming. Today I coughed in a bookshop (I have hay fever) and watched the shop assistant jump four feet back. Having researched the plague for my novel and attended a lecture at the London […]

This week I’m in pre-publicity for the Australian launch of the new novel Sphinx and back in London. I’ve seen three theatrical productions in seven days – the first ‘Death and the King’s Horseman’ was written by Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka in the 1950’s.Set in 1943 it is a statement about the impact of British […]

A number of weeks ago there was a great article in New Scientist (28/3/09 – Helen Phillips) which was basically an analysis of déjà vu from a neurological perspective – the anatomical basis for such phenomenon and how the emotions attached shapes our perception of déjà vu.  It talked about how epileptics often experience déjà […]

I’ve spent this last week in Sydney; for those who don’t know the city, it is one of the most beautiful contemporary cities in the world, blessed with an extraordinary naturally stunning location – the harbour. Dipping in and out of a culture regularly really gives you an objective perspective. Here, it remains, despite the […]

This week I still in Australia drumming up publicity for the up-coming release of my new novel Sphinx. There’s a curious gap between the projected image of oneself in the media and oneself – that can only become more surreal as one’s public profile grows  – particularly if your prose is as eclectic in range […]

I’m now back in Australia for a large birthday party (my own.) Mid-life, I guess, and I’m confronted with the odyssey of many incarnations that have brought me to this point in my life. Naturally a fairly frenetic person with a frenetic lifestyle I don’t often have the luxury of introspection  – in fact I […]

This week I have been back in Sydney working on a new play called Infidelity – basically a dark comedy of manners around the theme of what the French politely describe as the clap of lighting – the plot involves two married couples – four characters – a American/Australian painter Marta (49), female late forties […]