Inlay

Ubik by Philip K. Dick (1969) Why do we read science fiction? Why do we read anything? It’s hard to know at times. When you pick up a book such as this – which is so overwhelmingly silly,. Surely, it can only have a charm for those of us who read it in our distant childhoods. Is science fiction…

Across Sicily With Garibaldi’s Thousand by Tim Parks (2026) Some writer’s are just such pleasant company. So erudite and what once was called wise – but might better be called subtle. Or sensitive. Or aware. Such as the incomparable W G Sebald. Who, it turns out, bears comparison to Parks, when he…

V13 by Emmanuel Carrère (2022) Ever since he wrote ‘The Moustache’ (1988), a profoundly good and original work of fiction, he’s been banging out non-fiction titles: ‘I Am Alive and You Are Dead: A Journey into the Mind of Philip K. Dick’ (2005), ‘The Adversary: A True Story of Monstrous Deception’…

‘A Love Story’ by Émile Zola (1878) The eighth novel in the 'Rougon-Macquart' series, deals with widowed protagonist Hélène Grandjean who ekes out a sheltered existence with her sickly daughter in bourgeois area of Paris, and then falls in love. It’s an odd novel, but not odd enough to save it.…

🚶‍♂️✍️ How do master storytellers use walking in their writing? Join us for The Writer’s Path with walker and author Tim Parks, (Mr. Geography and The Hero’s Way). 📷 wlc.zone/6tu 📅 Feb 25 Pic: Gabriel Tovar #WalkingWriters #TimParks #Storytelling #WalkingAsInspiration

#IsmuasMonthOfMusic #MusicChallenge Day 9- A song that sounds like a painting coming to life… Joe Jackson - ‘Steppin’ Out’ (1982) From ‘Night and Day’. This song always felt like NYC cool; that painting of a pianist playing in a smokey lounge in the West Village. m.youtube.com/watch?v=PJwt...

Some 2,000 years ago, a Roman fresco painter transformed a room into an enchanting garden filled with lush plants, trees, and birds, all under a clear blue sky! 🌿🌳🐦‍⬛ 😍 House of the Golden Bracelet, Pompeii 📷 by me #FrescoFriday #Archaeology

You know what we don't talk enough about? Queen & Annie Lennox/David Bowie rehearsing 'Under Pressure' in 1992. So much going on! Everyone's clothes, Bowie with a lit cig throughout, where Annie PROPER GOES FOR IT, George Michael singing along in the background. The amazing vocals. Yes, please!

Some writer’s are just such pleasant company. So erudite and what once was called wise – but might better be called subtle. Or sensitive. Or aware. Such as the incomparable W G Sebald. Who, it turns out, bears comparison to Parks, when he sets off on a trek, and bringing you, the reader, with him, regales you with such a riveting account of anything at all – but with Parks it’s one pretty intense, pretty odd, pretty fascinating story – just how did Garibaldi do it – what we know he did – but that was, beforehand, and whilst he was attempting it, a seemingly impossible feat – the improbable defeat the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, with his rag tag army of men committed to the cause.

Why do we read science fiction? Why do we read anything? It’s hard to know at times. When you pick up a book such as this – which is so overwhelmingly silly,. Surely, it can only have a charm for those of us who read it in our distant childhoods. Is science fiction just for kids? There is the notion that Sci-Fi is the great "literature of ideas” of the 20th century – Big Brother, the feelies< Handmaids and all that – where big ideas are explored in all their complex human, technological, and social ramifications.

How do master storytellers approach the act of walking in their writing? What are the subtle yet important differences between crafting a non-fiction travelogue and weaving walking into a fictional na...

The eighth novel in the 'Rougon-Macquart' series, deals with widowed protagonist Hélène Grandjean who ekes out a sheltered existence with her sickly daughter in bourgeois area of Paris, and then falls in love. It’s an odd novel, but not odd enough to save it. It’s as though Zola is trying to do something that he doesn’t quite pull off, making Paris itself a main character in the novel, though a Paris that the protagonist doesn’t know.

Ever since he wrote ‘The Moustache’ (1988), a profoundly good and original work of fiction, he’s been banging out non-fiction titles: ‘I Am Alive and You Are Dead: A Journey into the Mind of Philip K. Dick’ (2005), ‘The Adversary: A True Story of Monstrous Deception’ (2002), ‘My Life as a Russian Novel (2010), which I’ve yet to read, ‘Other Lives But Mine’ (2012), ‘Limonov’ (2015), ‘The Kingdom: A Novel’(2017) – though not a novel – and now this – an account of the November 2015 Paris attacks, known as V13 in France because they took place on Friday (vendredi) the 13th.