misc.
Patternicity
I ran into a woman I know at Waitrose yesterday. ’What are you doing here?’ I asked. ‘I’ve never seen you here before.’ ‘But I’m always here on a Monday afternoon,’ she said. I just stared at her. ’What, you always do your shopping on the same day? How is that possible? What if you [...]
Dreams
It’s been ages since I’ve had one of these dreams. It’s the one where you have to get somewhere and you miss first one train, then another, then when you finally manage to get on the next train, you only travel for half an hour before it catches fire and everyone has to get off, [...]
What’d you do today?
Ever notice how, if you’re a writer, everyone thinks you don’t actually have a job? ‘So, what’d you do today?’ they ask, like your average day consists of a bit of shoe shopping followed by lunch at the Wolseley, an hour or two at the nail bar, Countdown, and a nap. Or, ‘wanna meet for [...]
Cairo (bet you thought I was going to say China)
Given the state of the news, I can’t help thinking of the visit I made to Cairo courtesy of the British Council about two years ago. I was there for the Cairo book festival with fellow authors Anthony Horowitz, Margaret Drabble and David Almond. After a meeting with Mrs Mubarak, who talked about the importance [...]
Multiculturalism. The next generation.
1. At the Bookworm bookshop in Sanlitun district, Americans and Brits worked side by side with local Beijingers and I played ‘do you know’ with a transplanted East Londoner while my German translator discussed foreign rights with an expat from Berlin. Somewhat confusingly, the Italian member of the team, Giulia Fabris, turned out to be [...]
CASTING UPDATE FOR HOW I LIVE NOW
OK, guys. We’ve got a bit of a conundrum here. I’m getting tons of requests for casting information but I can’t (in all conscience) inundate the lovely casting agent with people she knows nothing about. She’ll hate me for confusing her systems and filling her life with chaotic imponderables. Do we want this? Probably not. [...]
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