We’re deep into winter. In Brittany it’s been an incredibly wet autumn into winter after an unseasonal burst of heat in the first part of October. Like many areas we’ve had a succession of storms, with Storm Ciaran doing massive damage across the region. The wreck of woodland just as the trees hunker into winter, […]
Jan on writing life
Writing into hope in an overwhelming world
We are living in an extraordinary times. Even those who have decided not to listen to or watch news cannot be unaware of the current situation in Israel and Gaza or that elsewhere other conflicts continue to rage. Most people are still reeling from the global pandemic that has set of a global wave of […]
Writing the cycles of life and death
In my last blog I wrote about transcendence, about how all humans reach beyond ourselves and have a sense of spirituality, irrespective of particular faith traditions. Part of writing about transcendence and acknowledging it in our art comes from our awareness of mortality. Our atoms will be returned to the universe. Living in cycles We’re […]
Writing into transcendence
As writers we take many diverse paths through areas of faith and ethics, but whatever the individual routes, writers are always concerned wth making meaning and with the ‘spiritual’ whether this is conceived within our without a particular religion or belief system. The sources of spirituality Recently, working with a group of prose writers, one […]
Resting into writing
We are rarely, if ever, a society at rest. During the Covid lockdowns, some of us were able to slow down, reappraise what mattered, bake bread and enjoy a beautiful garden. But for many, from health workers to delivery drivers, those trying to keep businesses afloat without ‘real life’ customers to parents trapped in tower […]
Writing that questions
Sitting with Attila József by the Danube, he looks impoverished and melancholy, thin and fatigued—but so still—profound. Across the river, the fabulous architecture of Buda—onion domes topped with lances bearing smaller spheres—spires pushing their way to heaven—so much ascendency. And juxtaposed with a line of cranes—red markers crossing the hot blue-white of a summer sky. […]