Trees fall, life goes on

Added on 28 January 2017

A year ago, my mother died a few days before her birthday, so this has been a difficult week of memories of the saddest time of my life. I had an interview, unavoidably, on her birthday, which was difficult and, perhaps not surprisingly. unsuccessful. I wasn't at my best. Yet sometimes such diff...

Teaching at the University of the Highlands and Islands

Added on 28 January 2017

I am delighted to have been hired by the University of the Highlands and Islands to lecture the 'Exploring Creative Writing' module for their MLitt course. I'll be leading weekly video conferences for twelve weeks from February 2017 and I'm hugely looking forward to it.

Slavery

Added on 15 January 2017

When Pytheas travelled around Britain in the Iron Age, he probably hitched along on trading vessels, which would have been carrying slaves as well as metals, jewelry and other valuable commodities. No doubt his views about slavery, as a citizen of a Greek colony, would have been radically different ...