celticman's blog

James Wood (2015) The Nearest Thing to Life. The Nearest Thing to Life begins with a death—that of a friend’s younger brother—and the question, “WHY?’. There’s no real answer, how could there be? But in death Wood’s looks at the obverse, and how Woods, a bibliophile, has charted the great waters of life by clinging to books and the knowledge of humanity that they provide. ‘The Why question is a refusal to accept death.’ Heaven provides an answer...

"From the Collection of the Artist." Kurt Vonnegut turns up in the most unlikely of places. I’m not familiar with his writing, but I’m reading a book by Michael Lewis Liar’s Poker in which the author quotes Vonnegut below to describe how the bond market works to distort reality, and to make it seem normal, a theme the everyman Billy Pilgrim’s character stumbles into in his Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5 . There is a magic moment, during which a man...

I’m not sure why Self-Publishing should have an exclamation mark! But I’m not going to argue with an exclamation mark. This book cost less than a pint of beer and more importantly I spent about five hours reading it. I dutifully followed all the links to some impressive Amazon sites that featured self-published authors have set up to sell their novels. I was familiar with some of the names featured. Joe Lawrence and East End Butcher Boy is...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05qkzt2/louis-theroux-transgender-kids Louis Theroux used to write books. He’s moved into the far more lucrative market of documenting those in our society that don’t quite fit in. He writes the scripts for these programmes. Has his own crew. Puts it together like a jigsaw. A novel approach. I get the feeling Louis doesn’t quite fit in either. An alien presence among those we hold at arm’s length and treat...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05px4sk/strangeways-britains-toughest-prison-riot Rex Bloomstein visits HMP Wharton in Nottinghamshire, the largest sex offender prison in Europe. 841 men range in age from 21 to 91 (93 was the oldest inmate). They have committed a variety of offences from rape to downloading child porn. The average cost for each prisoner is £27 000 per annum. What is unusual about HMP Wharton is the mix of social classes...

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/coalition/on-demand/57947-001 Timing is everything in politics. Growth in the economy. A few weeks from another Tory triumph, or another patchy coalition? Scriptwriter James Graham looks backwards to what happened five-years ago, when the Conservatives formed a coalition government with the Liberals. For me it’s a case of who do I hate the most. In Ten Days that Shook the World , American socialist and...

This is not a modern collection of thirteen and a bit Kurt Vonnegut short stories as the publication date suggests. In a letter to a Mr Miller dated 1951 Kurt Vonnegut addresses, anthropology, the Indian Ghost Dance of 1894 (which interested me) and among other things, whether writing can be learned at a school of writing. He concludes: ‘This letter is sententious crap, shot full of self pity…I quit GE, if I’m not a writer then I’m nothing. This...

I must admit it was a disappointing day for school kids. They were getting so excited about the thought of going blind, looking at something they shouldn’t have been looking at. When it all kicked off they were lined up with heads tilted like spanners tightening wee specs on expectant pudgy faces. What the fuck’s that? was the collective sigh. All I can see is fucking clouds. Where’s the best place to see the eclipse Sir? Someone said the Faroe...

In response to The Daily Post's writing prompt: "A House Divided." http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05n2922/life-after-suicide Angela Samarta’s husband Mark committed suicide. Childhood sweethearts, fifth and sixth formers at the same school, she had a child at eighteen and another boy ten years later at twenty-eight. They had a temporary separation which became permanent. She wonders if she ever knew Mark. Here she comes to terms with it...

In response to The Daily Post's writing prompt: "Roaring Laughter." Patrick and Henry Cockburn (2011 ) Henry’s Demons. Living with Schizophrenia. A Father and Son’s Story. David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas , cousin to Patrick and uncle to Henry writes a blur on the cover: ‘A truly remarkable book, and a brave one’. That’s clichéd. Clichés are quite common in mental illness. If you shot everyone that mouthed a cliché you’d have quite a few...