Just finished Binyavanga Wainaina’s memoir, and it was like a draught of fresh water for the mind, so clever and thoughtful and funny. A particular relief after the last great Kenyan novel I read. I had worried rather than I was losing the ability to concentrate and enjoy anything other than the most straightforward prose, […]
Spotlight in the sky
It was the full moon last night and I worked till fairly late and then the GF had a late meeting. After I finished work I finished the book I’d been reading, Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor. It’s very well regarded, but I didn’t like it particularly. I thought it far, far too long and […]
Evening stroll
The highlights of the day were: tamarind juice in the afternoon an evening stroll on the beach a tiramisu brought home to have with an episode of Succession The not-highlights were: a working day which caused some annoyance as senior management destroyed much of what I had worked on on the very day of the […]
Great works
I finished a book I was reading and it was spectacular. It’s part of my East African season and I couldn’t remember as I was reading it which of the two Kenyan female authors it was by – the older one who wrote shortly after independence, or the recent one, a young hope. It was […]
Stand on Zanzibar
Which is where I am, and it’s been a very long time indeed since I posted anything other than a frontpagefury and even those, I must admit, were stored up and posted in a couple of highly delayed batches. So here we are on the island of Zanzibar, with its dhows and fierce white light […]
Adult eyes
The GF is reading Middlemarch and I started reading it too. I last read it when I was quite young, I think around 12 or 13, and I remember really not enjoying it. Of course I was too young, but I remember being irritated by Dorothea’s foolishness early in the book and the horror and […]
Paths through the back to the other side
Today’s stroll was also through the back, though it was a much more epic one. Instead of turning right towards the sea, we turned left and really just followed the paths that seemed most promising. This direction is not yet in the eyes of developers, so it was all farms and marshland, with some heathy […]
Soothing to the eyes
This morning the GF and I went to Agva for a delayed Easter break. This seemed one of the few plausible places to visit during a pandemic: in Istanbul though outside the city proper, no need to take public transport, with small bed and breakfasts instead of the gigantic hotels in many of the areas […]
Suspicious happenings in the English countryside
An elderly millionaire baronet has been found stabbed to death in his country house in Dorset. A suspect has been taken into custody driving furiously through Hammersmith. A four foot long rabbit – which is also suspiciously long-lived – has been stolen from its Worcestershire kennel, but a pet detective is hot on its trail. […]
Focus, focus
Work is growing critical and today, finally, I managed to spend a good bit of time and write several chapters. Still less than halfway, but I think I might be able to finish the first draft by the end of tomorrow. Aside from work, today the GF and I took a short break for coffee […]