‘Nearly everything that happens to you in life you forget. Should have kept a journal.’ I came across those words while reading Ian McEwan’s latest novel, ‘Lessons’, and they lifted my mid-winter spirits astronomically. Why? Because keeping a journal is at least one New Year’s Resolution I don’t have to worry about, seeing as I’ve [...]
When Father Matthew and I woke up again, at some unknown hour later in the evening, the wind had stopped. I turned my head towards the latticed window, buried deep within the thirteenth-century stone wall, and noted with an unbearable sadness that it had stopped snowing. Phantom hills were now visible, rolling and colliding into [...]
‘Wow, you all looked so glamorous back then!’ my daughter said to me the other day, with more than a touch of envy. We were browsing through a selection of old photo albums from the late 1980s and early 1990s, and happened to stop at one particularly fetching snapshot: the one I ended up selecting [...]
You can always tell an excellent book from the visceral reaction it evokes in you when you read that last page. So, as I sat up in bed this Sunday morning while finishing the final chapters of Winnie M Li’s Complicit, the proverbial lump came to my throat. Know the feeling? That deep, inner satisfaction, [...]
Here we are again. Another October, with russet-golden leaves coating pavements, parks, avenues and riverside walks in mellow autumn hues. Sunday, October 29th. That’s today. The clocks have just gone back, and the scary-creepy-scary day is almost upon us. The fancy dress party day. The horror movie-watching day. Scream day. Yup, it’s Halloween time again! [...]
Don’t you sometimes just want to grab Time by the scruff of its neck and drag it backwards? Yell at it, “Stop moving! Stop running away from me! Hey, I haven’t finished here yet, dammit, I’m only halfway through … WAIT, can’t you let me take a breath before hurtling forwards again?” And how does [...]
Have you ever tried keeping a diary? No? Or perhaps you've had a go, maybe even several, but always given up in the end? The thing is, to be a true diary keeper, as I am, you have to have be just a little bit obsessed. But that's okay, we're all a bit obsessed about [...]
Wendy Skorupski 