From issue 59 of Focus the fourth of my pieces of flash fiction “inspired” by the common writing errors and bad habits catalogued in The Turkey City Lexicon. This time, it’s all about pressing buttons with clichés. Words used to evoke a cheap emotional response without engaging the intellect or the critical faculties. Commonly found […]
Another publication announcement – let’s us hope this doesn’t start happening too often, I’m sure we’d all get terribly bored. This time it’s for a piece of non-fiction, my review/rant on Stina Leicht’s first two Fey and the Fallen books has been selected for Speculative Fiction 2012: The Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary. As is […]
So I was waiting for a work call and I picked up RH Tawney’s The Acquisitive Society off the top of a pile of books. Published in 1920, the introduction contained some good advice which, I fear – as I am now listening to George Osborne beat the UK’s head against a brick wall for […]
So busy with stuff I hadn’t noticed that the table of contents for Solaris Rising 2 had been announced. I’m chuffed to be in this book alongside a list of very fine writers. I’m only slightly worried that I’m the one whose been stuck in to make everyone else look good. Still, it’s a very […]
So I was putting together my nominations for the BSFA Awards and it kind of morphed into a wider longer look back at the things I read and enjoyed in 2012. Of course everyone else has already done this and no one really cares, but here’s my list. Nominations in bold are for stuff I […]
Dan Hartland has posted a review of Rocket Science, the anthology edited by Ian Sales, and he has commented on my story “Pathfinders”. [I’ve always loved Elvis Costello’s version of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” – please hum along as you read this post.] For instance, Martin McGrath’s “Pathfinders” returns us again to Mars, and […]
Things have been quiet here for a few weeks and are likely to remain so for a while longer – apologies. However, I’d just like to draw your attention to the appearance of my story “Eskragh” in issue 12 (titled Night Legends) of Dark Fiction Magazine.Thanks to the editors for selecting it and transforming it […]
The blurb in the back of The New Few (or a Very British Oligarchy) by Ferdinand Mount (Simon & Schuster, 2012) rather modestly describes the author as a former columnist for The Spectator, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times, editor of the TLS and former head of the Downing Street Policy Unit. What it omits is […]
So last night I finally got around to watching Richard II, the first play in the Hollow Crown season currently running on BBC One. It was, I thought, a very strong production of what is quite a difficult play – lacking as it does an easily sympathetic protagonist and realistically portraying politics as a complex, […]
Dan Ariely is probably the best known voice in the popularization of behavioural economics. Behavioural economics represents the most significant challenge to the ideas of classical economic theorists built around notions of more-or-less perfectly rational individuals who calculate and diligently pursue narrow profit maximisation. Building on the insights of behavioural psychology – especially in its […]