News & Events

This is what they did.  On the day of the operation a nurse arrived wielding a big black felt-tip pen.  She daubed a large arrow directly onto the flesh at the top of my thigh.  The arrow was pointing downwards, towards the knee that required some urgent attention. A little later, a doctor came along with a Permanent Magic Marker (these have a slightly copper tinge to the black ink) and drew over the arrow, several times, reinforcing the original mark.  This meant that the emergency helicopter had not arrived during the afternoon, and the scheduled op (last of the day) could go ahead. An anaesthetist knocks me out in a prep room decorated with drawings of bunnies and puppies.  A surgeon

The best blog I follow is written by Dru Marland. She has an unbeatable formula.  She does distinctive and interesting things, then writes them up  in a distinctive and interesting  way.  I don't know many writers who spend their days swimming the River Avon or photographing storms from the Bristol rooftops.  The writers are writing,  a repetitive action with a limited core of intrigue.  Got any photos to go with that?  The desk, the wall, the page.  We're done. Dru illustrates her blog with her own photographs.  These are unique to her site, adding another good reason to go there.  Dru was the first person to point out to me,  I think correctly, that blogs are an image-led format.  Many of the more entertaining blogs are extended

Friday 30th April, 6.00pm – 7.30pm in the Wilson Studio at the Royal Court, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS The National Academy of Writing and the Garrick Trust is staging a rehearsed reading of extracts from four plays written by National Academy of Writing students.  Extracts to be performed: Sidekick by Rena Brannan Set in the Korean community of Los Angeles, Sidekick is the story of the Hwang family and the secrets that they keep.  The Men Outside by Roger Noble Frank the gangster is getting on - he knows he’ll have to hand over his petty empire to one of his deputies. When the son of one of them visits he sees a paranoid old man, unrealistic about his abilities and

I've enjoyed the continuing positive reaction to Becoming Drusilla, but we're still spreading the word.  On Monday 22nd Feb Dru and I will be in Norwich at UEA to give the LGBT History Month Lecture.  There is a full month of events in Norwich and we're providing some, though not all, of the T. It is very nice to be invited, and these opportunities to keep going with the book remind me of a misunderstanding I had with Dru on the walk. When we go walking we drink a lot of tea, which means that we're often overtaken by other walkers while brewing up in a cosy hollow or on a friendly flat rock. As the more earnest walkers struggle past I used to shout out

I had an email from Dru that wasn't from Dru.  It was her daughter, ambushing Dru's email account like a policeman at the door  - Dru had spent the night at A & E, she was being kept in hospital, she had to have an operation.  This news came across like smoke signals from the young:  the smoke was bad but the  signals were cheery.  The message ended:  P.s dru’s mobile is out of charge so don’t try to ring it L What were the Indians trying to say?  How bad is L? I wouldn't say I panicked, but I googled Bristol Hospitals and started with the Royal Infirmary, thinking I could work down from there.  Right first time.  They did indeed have a Drusilla