WELCOME TO MY NOTEBOOK OF IDEAS

You'll find things I'm reading; thinking about; listening to; enjoying. Themes are likely to include home, homelessness, writing, art, social justice, cities and urban change.

[writingbecauseitmatters]

'It's really shocking': UK cities refusing to reveal extent of pseudo-public space

City administrations in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow and seven others decline to outline the spread of privately owned public areas, or their secret prohibitions – which may include protesting or taking photos

[writingbecauseitmatters]

I love this, from @tomgauld for @guardianreview 

[writingbecauseitmatters]

#reading | STONER by John Williams

It took me a while to get into this novel, but once I was in I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a slow, quiet read about a man’s not entirely satisfactory life. I loved the attention to detail – the rendering of an ‘ordinary’ life in all its complexity; because, of course, no life is in the least bit ordinary.

[writingbecauseitmatters]

A fabulous project from one of my favourite artists

[writingbecauseitmatters]

#reading | Girl In Snow by Danya Kukafka and Little Deaths by Emma Flint

Two great Picador novels, both with murders at their heart...

Little Deaths is a fantastic portrayal of a woman punished for stepping out of the social and sexual mores of her time, inspired by a child murder case in New York in 1965. I loved how Flint builds our sympathy for the protagonist, Ruth, whilst not flinching from showing her numerous flaws and problems. The world of working class Queens in the 60s is also brilliantly portrayed. It’s a page-turner, keeping you guessing until the end.

Girl In Snow (published in January 2018) is also set in America, which opens with the discovery of a popular high-school student’s body. The story is told through multiple perspectives, building a picture of a community and of the dead girl’s life through characters that are vibrant, engaging and troubled. The prose is sharp and pacy, presented in fragments which build throughout the novel. I particularly loved Jade and the short ‘screenplay’ sections titled: ‘What You Want To Say But Can’t Without Being A Dick’. A compelling and beautifully orchestrated novel which I raced through.

[writingbecauseitmatters]

#reading | My Name Is Leon by Kit de Waal

A great novel that really gets inside the head of its young protagonist Leon and tackles big issues - race, fostering, parenting, police brutality - in a very human way.

[writingbecauseitmatters]

Manchester Urban Institute’s Devo Manc hub commissioned me to write three short stories to mark the first 100 days of Greater Manchester’s first mayoral term. I interviewed academics, residents and campaigners in Manchester, asking each the question: If Devo Manc was an animal, what would it be? Their answers inspired the stories

[writingbecauseitmatters]

Manchester Urban Institute’s Devo Manc hub commissioned me to write three short stories to mark the first 100 days of Greater Manchester’s first mayoral term. I interviewed academics, residents and campaigners in Manchester, asking each the question: If Devo Manc was an animal, what would it be? Their answers inspired the stories

[writingbecauseitmatters]

Manchester Urban Institute’s Devo Manc hub commissioned me to write three short stories to mark the first 100 days of Greater Manchester's first mayoral term. I interviewed academics, residents and campaigners in Manchester, asking each the question: If Devo Manc was an animal, what would it be? Their answers inspired the stories

[writingbecauseitmatters]

#reading | The Power by Naomi Alderman

I’m not always a huge fan of ‘concept’ fiction, but I *loved* this novel. A bold page-turner whose narratives span the globe and whose characters feel real enough to touch. Alderman takes the novel’s central concept and sustains and develops it brilliantly throughout. Genuinely thought-provoking.

[writingbecauseitmatters]

But he could not, you cannot, read the lot of those who daily pass you by in the street. How do you know the wild romances of their lives; the trials, the temptations they are even now enduring, resisting, sinking under?

from Mary Barton, by Elizabeth Gaskell

[writingbecauseitmatters]

A community is only as strong as the stories it tells itself

Tarell Alvin McCraney (writer of film, Moonlight) - via Len Grant

[writingbecauseitmatters]

#reading | Some Definitions For Song by Kei Miller

I’ve just discovered this stunning poem by Kei Miller: http://www.poetryarchive.org/poem/some-definitions-song

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#writing | Extract from novel-in-progress

An extract from my novel-in-progress is now online in the new issue of FEAST online, which  explores the cultural contexts, architectures and performative rituals surrounding the meal: http://feastjournal.co.uk/article/meals-on-wheels/

[writingbecauseitmatters]

#reading | Sitting Ducks by Lisa Blower

I *loved* this book - a fast-paced, slightly bonkers read (I particularly enjoyed the images of flipcharts in the job centre) about a family struggling to stay in their council-owned home in Stoke on Trent. It is unabashedly political - set in 2010 as the election that resulted in the Tory/Lib Dem coalition is underway - it touches on urban regeneration, home ownership, benefits, identity, family, love and loss.

Sitting Ducks feels like an especially important, pertinent novel in the light of conversations about housing, poverty, austerity and who is heard in our society in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire. Read it. Buy it for your friends (and enemies). 

[writingbecauseitmatters]

#reading | Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I was struck by how the love story in this novel mirrored that in Kartography by Kamila Shamsie, which I read recently. Both writers seem to be using the idea of a childhood love, a love that ultimately lasts and conquers the (numerous) obstacles in its path, as a way of writing about the characters’ relationship with their city/country of origin - Karachi in the case of Kartography, Nigeria in this instance.

I found the novel a little slow at times, but enjoyed and would recommend it. Ngozi Adichie conjures such a rich and detailed world it’s hard not to get sucked in.

[writingbecauseitmatters]

#reading | Kartography by Kamila Shamsie

A gorgeous, rich book, about four friends growing up in Karachi, Pakistan. It is a love story, and a novel about what it means to belong to a city. It’s about maps, and friendship, tradition and change, it’s about violence and silence, it’s about leaving and coming home again.