Does Bob Dylan have duende? Do you have duende? What is duende? Duende is a Spanish word with two meanings. A duende is a goblin or a pixie that probably lives at the bottom of the garden and gives three wishes to old ladies who deserve a break. The duende was best defined by Spain’s great […]
Category Archives: Blog
5 Key Writing Tips by Ernest Hemingway
The 5 Key Writing Tips by Ernest Hemingway look straightforward enough, but then, nothing when it comes to writing is ever easy. This is Hem’s advice: Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative. Never have only 4 rules. Tip No.1: use short sentences says avoid sub-clauses bracketed in […]
An Invention Without a Future
On a cold December night three days after Christmas in 1895, guests filed into the dimly-lit basement at the Grand Café on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris. In this age of marvels and miracles, what the people had come to witness was what Louis Lumière described as ‘An invention without a future.’ Louis and […]
Never Trust a Pigeon
A pair of pigeons live in the elm tree between my house and that of the neighbour. The male pigeon has a stout body, a prominent belly and a short neck shimmering with wine red feathers. He struts around the garden with a sense of entitlement and always seems pleased with himself. Constantly nodding his head, […]
My Secret Writing Tutor
A writing tutor may be a flesh and blood man or woman who pours over your scribblings and offers shrewd advice. You may find your spark in the words of your favourite songwriter – Bob Dylan, say, or an author, William Boyd or John Grisham. If you want to learn how to write elegant sentences […]
How Dylan Turns News Into History
It was 1.30am on 9 February 1963, bitter cold outside in the streets of Baltimore, warm and lively on the dance floor in the Emerson Hotel, where William Devereux Zantzinger was attending a society gathering with Jane, his pretty young wife. Zantzinger was 24, six foot two, the owner of ‘a tobacco farm of six hundred […]
Can You Learn How To Write?
If you have a box of multi-coloured beads and thread them on a silver chain, the necklace you make will be original, an illustration of your taste and talent – or its absence. If a hundred people make a necklace from the same set of beads, they will all be different. Some a mess, others […]
Hungry People Don’t Vote
The Hartlepool byelection was a victory for hunger and poverty. It was a victory for tax cuts for the rich, insider dealing and the hidden national malaise that will deepen and worsen in the coming decade. Hartlepool’s electorate consists of a little over 70,000 people. Jill Mortimer for the Conservative Party won the byelection on […]
Brigitte Bardot and the Painting that Never Was
There must be a good reason why neither Salvador Dalí nor Picasso painted Brigitte Bardot. They both had the chance. They both liked beautiful young women – albeit for different reasons: Dalí because he was a slave to beauty, Picasso because he liked sex with young women. Yet, neither put graphite to paper, oil on […]
The First Line
‘It is the first line that gives the inspiration and then it’s like riding a bull. Either you just stick with it, or you don’t,’ Bob Dylan. The first line is the spark that ignites the forest fire. The words come out like a rocket. Or a shooting star. Or they come out like teeth […]
