How to Surrender to Triumph and Failure

How to Surrender to Triumph and Failure

I am about to spend another weekend in the recording studio. A few months ago we began working on a new album. At that first recording session, I was forced to question whether what I was doing was a triumph or a failure. The owner of the studio is a guy called Milan....
A Tale of Two Plates

A Tale of Two Plates

Precisely four hundred years ago one of two plates began a startling journey around the planet. This morning I find myself in a stairwell at the Rijksmuseum. I intended to write in the library but it’s closed as it is a public holiday. It kind of sucks but at...
Patti Smith Does The Paradiso

Patti Smith Does The Paradiso

First off, it’s not called the Paradisio. It’s the Paradiso. Ok, it’s only one extra syllable, but if you know it, it’s irritating. I’m sure she knew it, or maybe it was just another one of those times when a tourist misinterprets something. She was in a foreign...
Great Uncle Josiah Goes To War

Great Uncle Josiah Goes To War

My great-uncle Josiah was in his sixties when he enlisted. Like many men during the Great War he faked his age in order to be accepted. What made his story different from most was that he lowered it. Most men put their ages up. He said he was forty-four. I don’t know...
The Not So Great War

The Not So Great War

Over a hundred years ago, my grandfather went off to war. He was young, and possibly, panting at the bit to go. He may have gone earlier if it hadn’t been for age restrictions. It was to be a great adventure. Every able-bodied man wanted to be part of...
What Is Synchronised Drowning?

What Is Synchronised Drowning?

It’s the weekly swimming lesson and I am sitting on a balcony above the pool. I have a birds-eye view of everything. I am watching my daughter flailing through the water and trying to remember what that was like. She looks so uncoordinated. It looks like synchronised...

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