memories

Mystery in everyday objects

27 January 2024 9:00 am

Household gadgets take on a sense of wonder or menace for Lara Pawson, who sees a porpoise’s dorsal fin in the dial of a toaster and a hand grenade in a pepper mill

Musings in lockdown: The Vulnerables, by Sigrid Nunez, reviewed

20 January 2024 9:00 am

Marooned in Manhattan with a stoned student and precocious parrot for company, our elderly narrator despairs of the novel’s future when life is so much stranger than fiction

The simplicity and joy of recorded conversations

23 September 2023 9:00 am

The simplicity and joy of audio recordings

What should we put in our time capsule of the plague year?

8 May 2021 9:00 am

What to include in a memory box of the plague year?

The wonderful ghosts of Christmas past

19 December 2020 9:00 am

Seances, trikes and the miracle of tinfoil

For a creative writing exercise in lockdown, revisit George Perec

6 June 2020 9:00 am

Those who have been on creative writing courses may be familiar with the ‘I remember’ exercise. The two words become…

A book about sleep that will keep you up all night

4 November 2017 9:00 am

I’ve read several books​ ​about​ ​sleep recently,​ ​and​ ​their​ ​authors​ ​all​ ​tell​ ​me​ ​the same​ ​three​ ​things.​ ​The​ ​first​ ​is​…

Return to the lost city

26 August 2017 9:00 am

During a press interview in Bombay about his latest book, the author-narrator of Friend of My Youth feels ‘a surge…