The curious scribbler meets the rug-maker
‘Would you like some tea?’ asks Najaf, the rug-maker of Mazar-e-Sharif. I accept his offer gratefully as I step into his shop – Afghan Traditional Rugs...
Category
My Reading Chair & Writing Desk
Life comes first
I was cutting the vegetables by the kitchen sink and listening to Annie Dillard’s audiobook The Writing Life. ‘Why people want to be writers I will never know,...
Vonnegut’s Letter to the Draft Board, 1967
When something rings true, time does’t diminish its timbre.
Acting on orders
I have been listening to the audiobook “Ghostwritten” by David Mitchell, read by William Rycroft. Mitchell is a storyteller par excellence; his words transport me...
Literary Resuscitation
“Words create sentences; sentences create paragraphs; sometimes paragraphs quicken and begin to breathe.” Stephen King, On Writing. Annie Dillard says that she...
The first sentence
‘Trying to write before you’re ready is like trying to squeeze toothpaste out of an empty tube,’ I wrote in exasperation after I allowed yet another day to...
Reality check
‘You no-good scribbler. Yes, I know who you are. I have seen your columns, God help us. I have read your foolish stories, may my enemies be so clever.’ And so, I...
Literary Devices Revisited
When words are all I have to take your breath away, literary devices become very important.