My thoughts about books, writing, life and so many other things….Judy Leigh/ Elena Collins.
January isn't most people's favourite month. I've heard a lot of people complaining about it. It's cold. Christmas has gone and won't be back for a long time so it seems like there's nothing to celebrate. It hasn't snowed. It probably won't. A holiday to somewhere warm would be nice but.... So, with a brief …
Continue reading My top ten to bring us in from the January cold
Christmas is over and we have finished celebrating the arrival of a new year. It’s now a time when we can look forward to the wonderful gifts 2018 can bring. We all hope for health and happiness for ourselves and for those we love and we wish for world- wide peace and an end to …
I took time out last weekend to see Josie Lawerence in Mother Courage. It was in a lovely little theatre in Southwark. I had front row seats, which is ideal for a Brecht play, to be able to take in every facial expression. I couldn't understand why the theatre was three quarters full: tickets were …
Continue reading Amazing production of ‘Mother Courage’. It should be on national TV.
There are lots of things we disagree on. Some things are inconsequential – a matter of taste – tea or coffee, cats or dogs. Some things are cultural, embedded in our way of life, important to us morally, such as choices about religion, matters of lifestyle. We all know that we have the freedom to …
A friend of mine sent me a lovely piece of writing this week and asked my opinion on its worth. By coincidence, I'd just read a bestselling novel by someone I worked with a few years ago. I was pulled in by the intrigue and the characters of both stories straight away. Although the styles and …
In 1878, in the area where I now live, a house was being demolished and a secret room was found. Inside, a witch's ladder was discovered, an armchair and six broomsticks. The ladder was made of knotted cord, with feathers woven in to it. It was used to cast a death spell. The local area is …
There's something heart-rendingly sad about my statement, that novels are like good friends. It begs the question: but what about real friends, real people, not ones who are imagined and made up? The life of a writer is essentially solitary, so the idea has developed that we are a lonely bunch of individuals who have …
I love theatre. I love all different types and styles of theatre: Shakespeare, Brecht, Stanislavsky, Artaud, Grotowsky, Meyerhold, Lecoq, agitprop, avant garde, physical theatre, mime, puppetry, theatre of the absurd, naturalism, modernism, post-modernism. I can go on. I love the moment when the lights dim and then it's often a journey of the mind and …
Continue reading How theatre tells us to fear the inadequate life
I recently read an interchange on social media, a discussion by writers about who they believe they write their novels for. A gifted writer who I've met, for whom I have much respect, said he always wrote for the reader. That's another reason why I respect him. Someone else disagreed strongly. This person wrote for …
People who love the taste of meat and then become vegetarians or vegans are admirable. The idea that you give up something you find delicious because of ethical beliefs or the idea that it is beneficial to your health is commendable. It's much easier for me. I've never liked eating meat. Some of my earliest …
