The Royal Academy magazine recently commissioned me to write a short story for their summer 2019 issue. It's part of a series where they ask writers to pick any piece of art in the world, and write a short story inspired by it - previous writers have included Eimear McBride, Jonathan Lethem, Deborah Levy, Ali Smith, Tessa Hadley, Jane Rogers, … [Read more...]
Inspiration at the Wellcome Collection
There are two brilliant (and free!) exhibitions at the Wellcome Collection in London right now: Electricity: The Spark of Life and Making Nature: How We See Animals exhibition. I spent the afternoon there on Sunday, hoping for inspiration for future fiction projects, and had my Wonder-Button pressed repeatedly. Here are just three of the … [Read more...]
Tessa Farmer – In Fairy Land exhibition
Tessa Farmer's In Fairy Land exhibition at the Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities deeply satisfies the part of me that has always wanted to see a Bacchanalian fairy feast on the back of a giant spider crab. When you first walk into the exhibition, it's kind of hard to spot. It's hidden amongst the hundreds of oddities (from a stuffed mermaid to … [Read more...]
i LOVE this man…
...the amazing Maurice Sendak. That's why I was so happy yesterday to find this new TateShots episode of Sendak talking about his work. I just love his integrity. Right at the start of this clip, he talks about being asked to write a sequel to Where the wild things are. 'Go to hell,' he says, 'I'm not a whore.' Where the wild things are is … [Read more...]
Heavy metal woodlouse
I went for coffee with a friend at King's Place (round the corner from Kings Cross) this morning and discovered this beautiful sculpture of a woodlouse on its back. It's big. I kicked it to see if it would roll up into a ball, but it did not. … [Read more...]