Peter Kenny
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How not to annoy a poet
In the granite cliffs of the south coast of Guernsey is a particularly beautiful spot called Icârt Point. I proposed to Lorraine my wife there two years ago, and I have known and loved the place all my life. I have written poems about it, with two even having been set to music. When it comes my time to join…
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Gripped by the octopus of obsession
Sometimes I wonder if other folks obsess on particular poems quite as much as I do. Ocean de Terre (Ocean of Earth) by Guillaume Apollinaire is one of these. For the last five years I have been unable to escape its tentacles. It was Apollinaire who coined the term ‘surrealism’ and this poem has that disturbing dreamlike clarity…
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F*ck the poor? The eternal DRTV charity ad dilemma
I find myself writing DRTV (direct response TV) scripts for a charity and trying to dodge the weary ‘tried and trusted’ tropes. For we all know how these things are supposed to play out, when we are going to be asked for just £3 a month and to brace ourselves for the money shot of…
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When Love Came To The Cartoon Kid
Last night in Bath saw the official launch of When Love Came to the Cartoon Kid, the Telltale Press pamphlet from Siegfried Baber. Success has many fathers, so I’m delighted to point out that I had a small part, alongside Robin Houghton and Telltale Press, in the launch of what is a extremely assured debut by a…
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Wonderfully ingored
To be ignored by a piece of art is an amazing possibility. I came across this article in The Guardian about a book with facial recognition software built in. According to the article it is “Designed by Thijs Biersteker of digital entrepreneurs Moore has created a book jacket that will open only when a reader shows…
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Seventy years of Liberation
It’s Liberation Day in Guernsey, 70 years since those aboard HMS Bulldog accepted the surrender of the Nazi occupiers, and the island’s liberators we welcomed into St Peter Port by a crowd which included my half-starved grandfather. The legacy of bunkers and fortifications built into the island is still plain to see. When I went to school I thought…
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The Sun sinks even lower
The Rupert Murdoch-owned UK tabloid The Sun reached new depths this week. That Murdoch, an Australian-American can so blatantly intervene in British politics is of course galling enough. His discredited newspapers have been implicated in the phone hacking scandals, necessitating a personal apology from Murdoch to the family of a murdered child Milly Dowler, after his…
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Postmodern Homelistic Art? Guilty as charged
Hilarious. I’ve not enjoyed an advert as much for a long while. Love the mockery of po-faced artistic statements and its talk of ‘Postmodern Homelistic Art’. Also hats off for recognising the latent botcher in us all and how, having botched something, we attempt to justify it. Madefor Promart by the Fahrenheit DDB agency in…
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Accidentally on purpose
Many creative people learn to accommodate seemingly random events into their process. Film maker David Lynch, for example, invented a terrifying character when he glimpsed Frank Silva, a set dresser on the pilot of Twin Peaks, accidentally reflected in a mirror during the filming of a scene. Frank Silva was then cast as Bob, a demonic…
Peter Kenny: a writer's notebook 