Archive for February, 2009

A little distraction

Early in the week I was happy to have some non-literary distraction delivered to me by one of my authors and sometime freelance photographer and designer, who designed all but one of the books in our mouthmark series, Inua Ellams. The task was simple – to create out of the multiplicities of randomness the web [...]


A Lesson Before Living

We are not grasshoppers, with legs tied in

this race, nor are our paths pinned down by rails,

reinforced with concrete, gravity’s slaves.

No metal womb delivers us howling

to chisel hands, isotropic etchings,
gladiator cogs, sprockets made for sale.
We are not one way streets in a cheese chase,
tape measured blocks for tape measured living.
You can turn around [...]


Thanks for the reading and the music

The other day I gave a talk on my novel ‘Heritage of Secrets’ to a group of teenagers at Plumstead Manor Girls School.  One of the questions asked was what’s the best thing about having a book published?  I thought good question and then realised it’s the simple joy of bumping into people who go [...]


On Lou Dobbs, Chimps, and House Negroes

On Lou Dobbs, Chimps, and House Negroes

As black man, it is always refreshing to watch some
of my white brothers and sisters (and pseudo black
people (like Richard Thompson Ford) break racism
down for me.  It happened yesterday on an episode
of the Lou Dobbs Show when some very honorable
people explained that the cartoon in the New [...]


Social networking: you rock my socks

I’ve been busy these past few months getting back into the habit of 9 to 5ness. Once you’ve had the taste of beat-life freedom, long coffees and days with nothing to do but ponder on the suitability of getting out of bed – it is hard to go back. But in these unstable times, sacrifices must be [...]