Novels
The Man In The Mango Tree
A short book for children, set in Africa
"There once lived in Africa a man in a mango tree. Quite how he came to be in that tree nobody knows. Perhaps he was dropped there by mistake by the stork carrying him as a baby, if you believe in such things. Perhaps as a very young man he grew unhappy with the world and ran away up into the tree to hide and live in peace. All anybody can say for sure is that the man in the mango tree was happy."
Short Stories
The Granter of Subtle Wishes
February, 2012
"It was late in the evening when Joachim Vogel's stage-coach finally drew up outside the 'Seven Coats' tavern in the mountain village of P. The shock of the cold air hitting him as he climbed down caused him to pull his overcoat more closely around him, and he stamped his feet to warm them as he waited for the porter to retrieve his baggage. He paid the driver and added a reasonable tip - nothing too extravagant, but enough that the driver felt well done by - and with careful steps on the icy path he made his way into the warmth of the tavern."
Essays
Three Tips For Aspiring Writers
January, 2012
"On its surface it seems a simple task, but buying the right stationery for writing is a surprisingly involved and complicated process. I recently visited my local stationer's in search of a notebook suitable for recording my literary ideas. I wanted something that Hemingway might have been seen using in a Parisian cafe, or that Paul Auster would have meaningfully given to a character in one of his stories. The search lasted for hours."
Book Reviews - Fiction
'Free Fall' by William Golding
March, 2012
"Mention the name William Golding, and chances are you will be met with a blank stare. Mention 'The Lord of the Flies', however, and the reaction will be the polar opposite. William Golding is one of those writers, and there are a fair few, whose other books have been entirely eclipsed by a single title."
'Martian Time-Slip' by Philip K. Dick
February, 2012
"The two great obsessions for those interested in extra-terrestrial human settlement have always been the Moon and Mars, though neither will prove to be easy homes. Moon dust is pervasive and destructive, each grain coated with a layer of a glass a few hundred nanometres thick and the powder extremely difficult to clean from clothes and equipment. And if it gets into the lungs it can cause severe respiratory problems. The dream of a human colony on the Moon is still little more than a romantic one."
Book Reviews - Non-Fiction
'The Magic of Reality' by Richard Dawkins
February, 2012
"How do we know what is real? A Christian, a Muslim, and a Buddhist climb to the top of a tall tower, each carrying identical cannon balls. They count down from three and release their cannon balls at the same instant. Now, it doesn't matter that the Christian believes that Christ died for his sins. It doesn't matter that the Muslim believes that Muhammad flew on a horse to Jerusalem. It doesn't matter that the Buddhist believes that he will be reincarnated when he dies. Each of the three cannon balls will drop through the air at the same rate and come crashing down to Earth at the same moment."
'Nurture Shock' by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
February, 2012
"It seems cliche to introduce the review of a book about child development with a verse from Philip Larkin, but it does indeed seem as if 'They f*** you up, your Mum and Dad. / They may not mean to, but they do.' Now we have the neuroscience to prove it."
'The Etymologicon' by Mark Forsyth
February, 2012
"At the risk of testing the patience of my friends, I once conducted a survey to see how the expression 'The exception that proves the rule' was understood. The answers I received fell into two categories. The first was nonsensical but I have heard many people say that the exception is something that doesn't follow the rule but yet makes it stronger, thus proving it. You'd be surprised how many people think this is the correct interpretation. However, some of my friends were aware that 'prove' also means 'test', and so the exception tests the rule, and if the rule still applies then it must be a good one."
'As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela' by Mark Thomas
February, 2012
"Language is a malleable thing. Take euphemism as an example. Where one might have said 'bombing' we now say 'surgical strike'. The latter suggests an exactness, a cleanness that the former entirely lacks. Where once it would have sufficed to say 'kidnapping', we now have 'special' or 'extraordinary rendition.' The former can be perpetrated by anybody; it takes a government to commit the latter. In place of the commonplace 'torture', we now hear of the application of 'special methods of questioning.'"
About
I am an English teacher and proofreader, currently living and working in Bielsko-Biala, Poland. In my free time I also take photos. My best shots are at Flickr, so if you need a photo and have a non-commercial use in mind, take a look.
The work on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Finally, thanks must go to Chris Creed for the site template, and to Big Wet Fish for the hosting.