don't confuse the narrator

what do you think of it so far?

I’ve just got back from a short trip to the UK. Each visit makes me feel more like a foreigner in my own country as I realise I no longer know how things work or what etiquette demands in certain situations.

Of course I still speak as if I was a ‘local’, so it must be odd for shop assistants to see me struggle to find the right change or ask for instructions when I pay by credit card with a UK ‘chip and pin’ card. (Spain doesn’t use the system and I tend to get in a complete knot.)

This trip, one thing that caught my attention was the rubbish system. Continue reading “what do you think of it so far?”

books and their covers & a glimpse of fame

I was down in Seville at the weekend, at the Feria del Libro, for a cuentacuentos session and book signing.

Opposite Casa Pilatos, Seville — Seville: cool and green in the morning

The story-telling was on the Saturday morning and the guys from the bookshop who had invited me warned me not to expect a big audience; apparently 11:30 is considered early in Seville.

Of course, people go to bed very late – the women in the next room to me in the hotel clearly didn’t go out till after 11:00 on the Friday night and came back at about 4:30am. It seems odd, though, that the best part of the day – first thing after the sun gets up and while it’s all still fresh and cool – should be wasted. Particularly as, by lunch time, Seville heat can be suffocating.
Continue reading “books and their covers & a glimpse of fame”

what life isn’t:

With three mature cerezos in full fruit, we really do need to get a full-sized deep freezer for this time of year.

narrators and writers

Re-reading Dorothy L. Sayers’ The Nine Tailors, I was taken by the comments about objectivity in writing in this conversation between Lord Peter Wimsey and 15-year-old Miss Hilary Thorpe.

It’s just after Easter. Hilary’s mother died at New Year and now an unidentified corpse has been found in the grave which was being prepared for her father who has just died.

“[…] You and Dad would have got on splendidly. Oh, by the way – you know where Dad and Mother are buried, don’t you? I expect that was the first place you looked at.”
“Well, It was; but I’d rather like to look at it again. You see, I’m wondering just exactly how the- the–”
“How they got the body there? Yes, I thought you’d be wondering that. I’ve been wondering, too. Uncle doesn’t think it’s nice of me to wonder anything of the sort. But it really makes things easier to do a little wondering, I mean, if you’re once interested in a thing it makes it seem less real. That’s not the right word, though.”
“Less personal?” Continue reading “narrators and writers”