Monthly Archives: November 2010

Why blog?

Posted on November 30, 2010 by

What has blogging ever done for me?  Over at her Confident Writing site, Joanna Paterson has encouraged readers to consider What has blogging given you the confidence to write or create and then *share*… that you wouldn’t otherwise have done? … Continue reading →

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Is it raining with you?

Posted on November 28, 2010 by

Weather is a fruitful topic for writers.  That’s not just because I’m English and we’re taught to talk about the weather practically before we can lisp our own names. Today, it didn’t snow here,, but it did yesterday and even … Continue reading →

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Which books are crucial crew?

Posted on November 22, 2010 by

When we moved from a house to a boat, I had a library of over 3000 books.  Rather too many to put on to one 12m yacht, so some had to go.  Most of them had to go.  Very nearly … Continue reading →

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Tolstoy’s century

Posted on November 20, 2010 by

Today is the centenary of Tolstoy’s death.  There has been a lot of recognition of the great man’s anniversary in the west.  A chunk of the commentary has highlighted how little attention has been paid to the event in Russia, … Continue reading →

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Writing on the water

Posted on November 16, 2010 by

Back ashore for a while, I’m missing our Roaring Girl. She’s currently ashore in Malta, after a great summer cruising around the edges of the Tyrennhian and Aegean seas. Strange though it may seem, though,  it’s often easier to write … Continue reading →

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Good stories please

Posted on November 14, 2010 by

Jimmy Cornell is one of the great figures of long distance cruising.  He first sailed away with wife and two small children in the mid-’70′s and has done three and half circumnavigations since, plus some stunning high-latitude voyages.  His books, … Continue reading →

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Spec, fic, state

Posted on November 12, 2010 by

In Transition, in passing, Iain Banks self-reflexively talks of the spec fic context.  Let us expand this thought from the ubercoolmeister. I have written elsewhere about the definitions and opportunities of the genre, on the lovely hagsharlotsheroines.com website.   The lazy … Continue reading →

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Public services and public leadership

Posted on November 10, 2010 by

It was a long day yesterday to go to the Public Services Trust 2020 conference held at the RSA.  (Hence no blog.)  It was an interesting day, with lots of discussion about the future of service delivery and its relationship … Continue reading →

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The CSR? In your dreams!

Posted on November 8, 2010 by

An ex-colonel in the British army is a member of the senior team in one of my leading public sector clients.  Last night I dreamt about them.  They were fighting a war with a neighbouring authority and I had to … Continue reading →

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Who judges?

Posted on November 5, 2010 by

What is a novel, and who are the arbiters of quality?  These questions were raised on Bubblecow and got me thinking, but much of the discussion focussed more on the issues of production and distribution than the implicit judgement as to how … Continue reading →

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