Peter Kenny
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Preparations for Chad
Planning now well advanced for the trip to Chad in two weeks. For me this has already meant several jabs, and the final one, yellow fever, will be done privately next week. I’ve also had to buy some lightweight, UV and mosquito-resistant clothes and urgently renew my passport. Africa, then. I have never been there…
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Genius Friend
Edward Chaney’s long-awaited book on G.B. Edwards, Genius Friend is being published and launched at the Guernsey Literary Festival today. And I’m very sad that I’m not there to see it. G.B. Edwards wrote The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, which is by a country mile the best book written about Guernsey. It is essentially…
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Bram Stoker and the Genius Loci of Whitby Abbey
As a teenager I went through a Clark Ashton Smith phase. Smith wrote fantasy horror stories like his friend H.P. Lovecraft and employed an ornate vocabulary. Being foxed by his vocabulary forced me to learn the meaning of words such as ‘atavistic’ and ‘gibbous’. One of his collections was called Genius Loci and other tales. I…
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The treasures of Greek poetry
Just back from a couple of weeks in Thassos, the northernmost Greek island of the Aegean, and Kavala on the mainland. While Lorraine and I did lots of site-seeing, notably at the site of Phillipi a short drive from Kavala, and also, rather bravely, going on a jeep safari to the top of Mount Ipsarion on the green…
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Struggling with John Ashbery and Jorie Graham
Robin Houghton‘s lovely blog has recently begun to document her mission to devour five poetry books a week. While I can’t match this, I think I might mention here some of the books I’ve been reading from time to time too. Especially when I’m on a learning curve. For example I’m not particularly drawn to…
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‘Defenders of Guernsey’ now on kindle
I have revised ‘Defenders of Guernsey’. This second edition, for an 8-to-adult age is now available on Kindle. As a child my grandparents lived in a road in Guernsey called La rue des Grons. When I lived there as a child, and then stayed with my grandparents on every school holiday the few streetlights went off at…
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Remembering Chris Squire
Chris Squire, the legendary bass player with Yes had died. I have few heroes, but during the gawky isolation of mid-teens when I listened to Yes obsessively, Chris Squire was my absolute hero. He was born in Kingsbury, north west London where I happened to live as a teenager. He sang in the church choir of…
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On floweriness
My wife pointed me to a piece in The Guardian about the UK’s National Curriculum and the tendency for primary school teachers to steer children’s creative writing towards “too elaborate, flowery and over-complex” language to meet assessment criteria. An issue raised by a large group of children’s book writers including at least two Carnegie Medal winners. I…
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Just because you hate an advert doesn’t mean it doesn’t work
I really, really despise the campaign for Haribo sweets, currently making a return to UK screens as welcome as a bout of acid reflux. What’s weird is that I don’t understand my own irrational, visceral loathing. After all, it is patently intended to be a funny and cute little advert about how Haribo sweets bring out the child in…
Peter Kenny: a writer's notebook 