The tough life
I have just returned from a week in the jasmine-scented surroundings of Fornells Bay, Minorca, with most activity revolving around the sea. I spent my days wobbling and scudding across…
Tit for tat
Christian, my brother, is currently working as an artist-in-residence at a small boarding school in Essex. He lives an implausible existence in a flat above the boys’ boarding house, sparingly…
The King of the High Chaparral
Shuffling brushes like a clenched mikado, mixing the ingredients for paint; earth and iris, and horse-piss, spring water, whiskey, potash and salt, pestled stamens like virgin’s sleep, and arsenic for…
Before they end up on a piece of string
Has anyone else been enjoying the sight of horse chestnut trees in full flower lately? A few years ago, during a period of unemployment, I volunteered for about five months…
No sleeves and a cuckoo clock
One of my favourite items of clothing in this soggy but not particularly cold weather is a leather jerkin of the sort that British soldiers used to favour during the…
The Road (Kenfig Pools)
We shall tramp about, with our eyes on small traps of water in the track. His eyes will be mine, even the styes that crowd the lid, and the black…
Grand designs
An architect and his wife are currently building a very small house next door to my flat. It will be over two floors, but sunk into the ground so the…
You Don’t Love Ducklings Like I Do
Winter’s dry, and Summer’s wet, and they laughed at you and I, in a pop-up tent in Somerset, but they didn’t sit on a pink mat, drinking pink wine, wearing…
Front of house
Across the road from the converted Victorian house in which I live is a tremendously ugly estate. No doubt it was some bright young architect’s utopian dream, and perhaps it’s…
The Boss
My housemate F is a scriptwriter. Not only is he a more talented writer than me, he is also far more dedicated, and on evenings when I can be found…
