Matt’s Bird of the Week – The Robin
23 December 2009 // Matt's Bird of the Week
The quintessential winter bird. Who is actually with us all year round, as most gardeners will know, diving in around your wellys for grubs and worms even before spade has left earth. The Grandmother’s favourite but really everybody loves him. Charming and cocky, with his shocking red vest and a song like Sinatra. Merry Christmas [...]
Shadows & Reflections – Charles Rangeley
22 December 2009 // Shadows & Reflections
In which, as the year comes to its end, our friends and collaborators look back and share their moments; I’ve spent much of the year thinking about rivers that flow on the edge of existence, that sometimes don’t flow at all. And now I’m standing at a point where one river ceases to be, where [...]
A Poem for the Fourth Week of Advent
22 December 2009 // Miscellany
Seven Advent Antiphons by Katherine Venn Orange-rinded, hard and heavy in its pith the pomegranate gives up its jewelled seeds to be winkled out, like hard-won wisdom. My father stands at the head of the table bread-keeper, loaf-ward, conducting tea-time operations with toasters, kettles, clementines. Last year’s ugly doorknob of an amaryllis bulb once more [...]
Shadows & Reflections – Katherine Venn
22 December 2009 // Shadows & Reflections
In which, as the year comes to its end, our friends and collaborators look back and share their moments; In 2009 I was lucky enough to wangle a week’s holiday visiting a much-missed friend who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I was there for a week at the end of March, when the sky [...]
21 December 2009 // Miscellany
Cam Ceiliog
21 December 2009 // Miscellany
by Richard King. Today is December 21st Midwinter’s Day, The Winter Solstice. In Wales, in my family and I’m sure many others, this, the shortest day is known as Cam Ceiliog. Like much of the language, and the nation as a whole, especially our fly-halves, it makes sense when considered poetically. Roughly translated, Cam Ceiliog [...]
Shadows & Reflections – Nick Franglen
20 December 2009 // Shadows & Reflections
In which, as the year comes to its end, our friends and collaborators look back and share their moments; I look back on 2009 with joy. I couldn’t say that for recent years, so it’s a pleasure to reflect on things that caught me in 2009. …. an increasing obsession with the weather. Englishness swells [...]
Under the Mud.
by Roy Boulter Following ‘Of Time And The City’ we have just released a quite different film – ‘Under The Mud’ a drama-comedy about a day in the life of a dysfunctional family, was written in collaboration with 15 teenagers. The film has had an incredible seven year journey from the first writing session to [...]
Shadows & Reflections – Richard King
18 December 2009 // Shadows & Reflections
In which, as the year comes to its end, our friends and collaborators look back and share their moments; I’m lucky enough, if you like this sort of thing, to live in the countryside. In 2009, however, I was immersed in the spectral, semi-functioning, half lit infrastructure of this country. Iain Sinclair calls it edgeland; [...]
Records of the Year cont’d
Andrew & Jeff choose ‘Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle’ by Bill Callahan as their favourite record of 2009. Our pal Simon Aldred feels the same way and took time out from making a new Cherry Ghost record to ask Bill some questions; SA. Raymond Carver once said that he couldn’t bear writers ‘turning [...]
