I went to see The Illusionist the other night (the recently released French animation, not the Ed Norton/Paul Giamatti film of a few years back - although that too is good). I’d strongly recommend a trip to the cinema for this one as the animation is beautiful and deserves to be marvelled at on the [...]
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Top 10 Transformations
I’ve written a piece for the Guardian about ten of my favourite transformation stories. You can read it on their website here. Do go along and take a look, then add any others you might think of to the comments section.
The Dylan Thomas Prize Longlist
A good day for The Girl with Glass Feet, which has made it onto the longlist for the Dylan Thomas Prize 2010. I’m staggered that the book is being recognised in this way. Here’s the link.
Most of my internet time over the last month or so has been spent updating my website. It takes me [...]
Happy Birthday Ray Harryhausen
Many happy returns to Ray Harryhausen, who turns 90 today.
I’m a massive fan of his. I remember that as a child I used to sit with my dad on the floor and watch Sinbad movies in which all manner of monsters came to life. CGI was already establishing itself at the time, with Jurassic Park [...]
The Girl with Glass Feet wins The Desmond Elliott Prize 2010
I’m still a bit overwhelmed this morning after the announcement last night that The Girl with Glass Feet won The Desmond Elliott Prize for 2010. It’s a massive honour and I’m really grateful to the judges, everyone involved with the Prize, and of course Desmond Elliott himself.
This is what the judges said: “After some soul [...]
Desmond Elliott Prize shortlist
Immense excitement for me today - just heard that The Girl with Glass Feet has been shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. It’s in good company, alongside Maria Allen’s Before the Earthquake and Talk of the Town by the fabulous Jacob Polley.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8695293.stm
Desmond Elliott Longlist, Audiobooks
I’ve been keeping my head down for a while, trying to get some writing done. I’m beginning to realise that in order to write it’s necessary to unplug all appliances, soundproof the walls, board up the windows, that kind of thing. I’ve been reading scraps of Walden and becoming increasingly envious of Thoreau’s little hideout [...]
Events
I’m doing a couple of events next week that it would be great to see folks at.
The first is on Wednesday 28th at Reigate Library at 7:30, where I’ll be talking about The Girl with Glass Feet. It should be a fun chance to chat about the book and enjoy a glass of wine. All [...]
The Feathered Ogre
So, as promised and in celebration of La Ragazza dai Piedi di Vetro being available in Italy, here are some pictures for a great folk story collected by the legendary Italo Calvino in his book Italian Folktales. This one is from the same family as The Griffin and The Devil With The Three Golden Hairs (the latter [...]
Goodbye Sparklehorse
I’ve been travelling for a few days, so it wasn’t until just now that I came across the miserable news that Mark Linkous (aka Sparklehorse) died on Saturday.
A good friend introduced me to Good Morning Spider in an art class when I was seventeen, and since then Sparklehorse songs have soundtracked many moments of my [...]
