So I was walking home from the new Star Trek movie, which I have previously indicated I found to be awesome. I was pretty surprised by this, as the Star Trek TV shows had not caught my fancy, and expressed this surprise to my friend, who was a fan of the TV show ( Read more... )

So I was eating pancakes with a friend, and this conversation happened ( Read more... )

This post is brought to you by a sudden descent of indignation at midnight, so I beg everybody's pardon if it is completely crazy. (Ahem. If it is any more completely crazy than usual ( Read more... )

This is partly a list of book reviews and a request for book recommendations, and partly a Traumatic Tale from my Childhood. I am sorry you will have to suffer through Whatever Happened to Baby Sarah until you get to the good stuff ( Read more... )

In my wonderful writers' workshop last week someone said something very smart to me. He is a dark, bestubbled and sinister writer of gritty crime fiction, so of course we all call him Flower ( Read more... )

There has been a joyful reason for my silence: Visitors to Fair England! I had my friends Ashling and the Durham Lass over from Ireland, and Cassie and Josh from New York, and many adventures were had. Picture it like an Enid Blyton series. The Case of the Picnic at the Pub, The Lion King Fiasco, the Mystery of the Baffling Pyjamas, The Curse of ( Read more... )

Suppose for the moment that in literature there are three female archetypes: the Sensitive Housewife, the Wanton Woman and the Spunky Girl-Power Girl. This is clearly a generalisation of the worst kind, but it works if one is prepared to generalise: for instance, I would count Helen in Jane Eyre as a Sensitive Housewife despite the fact she died as ( Read more... )

Now, see, a lot of people guessed that Anthony Trollope was one of my top five favourite authors. And I was puzzled, for I have always thought that all besides me undervalued him, and it's not like I have talked about him on livejournal ( Read more... )