A Guernsey Double
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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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La Gran’mère, a Guernsey goddess
I am an idolater. This is not something many of us can say in this godless age. My Goddess is somewhere between three and five thousand years old. She was hewn from a large lump of granite until, around the time of the Romans, she was carved again, adding the garments and, possibly, the face she wears now. She…
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An exile’s lament
I am an exile, but I am not alone. Most people I know live far away from where they grew up. Though born in London, my mother moved to Guernsey to live with my grandparents when I was little. I started school on the island, and my brother was born in the old granite cottage…
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Strange Journey by Richard Fleming
Richard Fleming’s new collection Strange Journey rings true. It is the poetry of biography filtered through a charged and fiercely honest imagination. The viewpoint is often that of a person assessing their own life from a position of uneasy maturity. The skill with which this is done forces the reader into what can be an occasionally…
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Guernsey Literary Festival
Here is a link to the festival website, showing an excellent range of events. A great effort from Catriona Stares and her team, to get this up and running for the first time on the island. To see me here’s my timetable: Thursday 12 May 3:00-3:30 at the Festival Hub, reading from a Guernsey Double…
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Success
Of course the trick to having a successful year is to decide what success looks like on your terms. For me to be successful this year I have sought a happy medium between business and other creative projects. It’s simple: if I neglect one, I don’t eat, if I neglect the other my head explodes.…
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Back from the book Launch
Back from Guernsey now after a very successful book launch. Perhaps most enjoyably we managed to get on BBC Guernsey with Jenny Kendall-Tobias twice. She’s an excellent radio host and a lovely woman, and we did an entire two hour show with her. What we couldn’t have predicted was that she loved our work. The…
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Launching a Guernsey Double
Flying to Guernsey tomorrow, and while there will be launching A Guernsey Double. Really looking forward to this a great deal. Richard Fleming and I will be on BBC Radio Guernsey at 10:00am on the 1st July, interviewed I think by Jenny Kendall-Tobias. Then at 5:30pm we will do a launch reading at The Greenhouse,…
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A surfeit of locusts
The publication of A Guernsey Double is imminent. I have been experiencing a weird kind of anti-natal anxiety. I know Richard went through the same thing a few days ago. Not at all what I expected to feel. It’s a kind of vulnerability I suppose. I asked an old friend Mario Petrucci, who has had…
Peter Kenny: a writer's notebook 