Your results may vary — Working within certain limits — whether self-imposed or not — can often be liberating. This is especially true when it comes to creativity. A specific material, a defined word count, a time limit. The most famous among modern writers who embrace limits are the members of Oulipo. And possibly the…

Verlyn Klinkenborg’s secret to successful writing — To write a book about sentences may sound like overkill. Or a symptom of some strange obsession. Anyone reading a book ostensibly about sentences may be forgiven for thinking that the author’s intention was to lure them in with an intriguing idea and then soon enough, disclose his real purpose. …

Three quotations to stir your thinking — Here are three quotations I copied into my notes today, each pertinent to this moment. Something to ponder over the weekend. The first is from an article by Paul Street on Counterpunch. The subject of the article is the false assumption that the US is, in any way, a democracy…

… too much guilt and not enough space — Two weeks ago to the day I posted about my resolution to cut back on my book buying. No, I haven’t relapsed and ordered a bucket load of new reads. I have, however, been adding books to my basket in Amazon and Verso. That’s a bit like an alcoholic in…

A bad pun for the end of the world — There is relief, of course, that Trump has gone. After Trump, it’s hard to conceive of any president that would actually be worse in all ways presidential — outwardly at least. …

Millions to their friends, cuts for the needy: it’s a catchy slogan — That the Tories are even considering reducing Universal Credit at this time is, perhaps, not shocking. They are Tories, after all. That they are not pushing through pay rises for nurses at a time when not only are health worker hours and commitment stretched beyond imagining is probably par for…

…. you don’t have a political party; you have a company department — I may have left the Labour Party but it continues to fascinate — a bit like watching a driverless train heading quickly towards the buffers at a deserted station. What has become clear over the last few days is that the party’s funds seem to be in parlous shape. This…

Greenwald and Poitras both gone…. Not a good look — What it does it say when the co-founders of an organisation both leave within months of each other and both write damning accounts of why they are no longer at the organisation? I first came across the names of Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras because of their part in the…

Time does the rest, if you let it — I’ve carried the thought that I would like to try yoga for at least twenty years. And, like many of the things I know that I think would be good for me, I have never carried the thought forward into action. I’m not really one for resolutions — experience has…