My thoughts about books, writing, life and so many other things….Judy Leigh/ Elena Collins.
Today, I was discussing the new film 'Loving Vincent' with an Art student. Apparently, it is a really exciting and ambitious film, to be released this year, in which Van Gogh's troubled and brilliant life is told through animation; there will be 56,800 hand-painted frames in the entire film in the style of the artist. I watched the trailer …
Continue reading Cumberbatch and Van Gogh in the same frame. Fascinating.
I am trying a few ideas out. Basically, I need to find a new protagonist to write, one who will fascinate and absorb me for 100,000 words. He or she then stands a reasonable chance of absorbing the reader. My first novel's protagonist, Evelyn, and her son Brendan were protagonists for whom I felt empathy: I …
Today marks the first day of Spring and it’s also World Poetry Day. It is a time for rebirthing and creativity. All around the country, countless kids will be going to school and reading a poem, maybe some Edward Lear or Ogden Nash or a wonderful bit of Benjamin Zephaniah? Maybe the old favourite, Blake’s Tyger, …
Like so many other people, I had always disliked James Bond films. I suppose the 007 movies have become a cultural reference point for British people: we know a bit about the actors, the villains, the traditional genre and the theme tunes. I didn't like the Connery Bond; even if we allow that it is of …
You know how sometimes you start thinking about words and where they come from? It occurred to me yesterday for the first time that I knew the difference between a pantry and a larder. I'm sure everybody else knows it and I've just being a bit mentally sluggish - it has taken me a lifetime …
Love is a strange thing. We love things which lift our spirits. Spring time makes everything feel better. Or a glass of wine on a Friday night, an unexpected gift or a compliment, a work of art we can see at close range in a gallery, Beckett performed live, a quiet beach at sunset. How …
Continue reading The Tiger Lillies: so beautiful, Brechtian and bad to the bone
U Roy is playing dates in London and Falmouth this year and I have tickets. Live gigs are a thing of beauty: I love mosh pits and dancing until dawn, but a reggae gig is a thing apart. I have been to so many, so often: Misty in Roots, Steel Pulse, John Brown's Body, UB40, Easy …
On Mother's Day, we remember our Mums with love and we give thanks for all they have done for us. Many of us don't have our Mums any more and feel quite sad that maybe we did not say thank you enough at the time and it's a bit late now. I often think about how great …
When Franca Rame died in 2013, aged 84, the Italians at her funeral remembered her by wearing red clothes with red roses,as she had requested. She was a superstar, grieved in much the same way as recently departed cultural icons have been remembered after their deaths, surrounded by tributes and superlatives. In this country, Rame's husband and professional …
Continue reading Franca Rame: behind the great man there was a superstar
'The Dressmaker,' a novel by Rosalie Ham, was recommended to me by a writer who knows what she's about. It is out on film at the moment starring Kate Winslet and it really doesn't look like my thing. Set in Australia, the novel's strapline reads 'an unforgettable tale of love and hate and haute couture.' …
Continue reading Review: The Dressmaker – mischief and mayhem
That quintessence of dust 