Two Christmas poems
Patrick Kavanagh's evocation of A Christmas Childhood in early 19th century County Monaghan is a particular favourite of mine, as is Thomas Hardy's The Oxen - written in 1915.
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National Poetry Day
For National Poetry Day - the theme this year is water - a love poem by Seamus Heaney.
Read MoreSeamus Heaney
“We will always have the great poet. We have lost an exemplary man.”
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Maeve Binchy
I first met Maeve Binchy in the early 1970s, when she had begun working for the Irish Times, just before she moved from Dublin to London. I was working for the Examiner (then known as the Cork Examiner) and when I moved to London to be the paper’s London correspondent, I shared an office with her. Maeve and the London Editor, Conor O’Clery, were on one side of a partition and I was on the other.
Back to Work!
I have run out of excuses....
Read MoreSo you want to write a novel and get it published?
Some advice on getting started and keeping going........
Read MoreTales from the Clinic — 18
Mademoiselle Jolie (Tale 10) leaves the clinic one week after me. We have arranged to meet in the centre of Bordeaux to drink mojitos and say goodbye before I go back to England. Monsieur Bonhomme is coming as well. He is collecting Mademoiselle Jolie from her apartment and will bring her…
Tales from the Clinic — 17
I leave the clinic, but I go back for physiotherapy before leaving Bordeaux to return home. On my way to the Salle de Kine, I walk past the dining room. Monsieur Capable waves and smiles. I walk past the salon. Madame Suffisante, Monsieur Plaisant and two others are playing La…
Tales from the Clinic — 16
Monsieur Angoisse is a natural worrier. He worries about the French economy. There are too many unemployed, too many people working for the state, too many regulations, not to mention the penalties for asking employees to work longer than the statutory 35 hour week. “How can anyone start a business?” he…
Read MoreTales from the Clinic — 15
Monsieur Papillon like to philosophise. He talks earnestly about the connections between the mind and the body. He plays with words. Shortly after I meet him for the first time, he muses aloud about the words for a tumour in the breast – “tumeur mammaire” – how they sound the…
Read MoreTales from the Clinic — 14
I’m playing La Belote with Monsieur Legrand, Madame Suffisante and a man whose name I don’t yet know. I’ve just taken over an already dealt hand from Monsieur Charme who is here with his wife to visit her mother. He usually nips out of the room for a round or…
Read MoreTales from the Clinic — 13
Madame Gentille is going home with her new hip. She’s 84 and lives alone in the countryside, not far from the Dordogne river. She tells me she is longing to get back to her house and garden. She doesn’t mind living alone. Her daughter lives nearby and keeps an eye…
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