In the past few weeks I’ve taken up chess again, and I’ve been playing a lot of games very badly. The last time I did…
Author: Tim Smith
I am a writer and editor of many decades standing.
Writing a novel was a dispiriting achievement but…
Writing my novel, The Water Meadow Man (free chapters here for what they’re worth), took years and turned out to be an incredibly dispiriting experience….
The modern gods of pain
Though not as packed with anxious parents and carers, medical staff and cleaners as it would be in a few hours, the hospital was still populated by that mix of worried and joyful adults that is peculiar to children’s wards and hospitals. The atmosphere was hopeful. I’ve found the same to be true on neuro wards but that’s a story for another time.
Speaking as a statue
I’ve been a statue for a hundred years or so now. Prior to that I was a loose mixture of metals, a gang if you…
Quick and Easy Kimchi
OK, so this is for Covid-times but it stands up for all times: go with what you’ve got or what you can get for flavour. I’m not giving amounts because this will depend on the amount of veg you’re using.
Mr Burchill’s Memories
A Christmas Story 2020 It was Christmas morning a few years after The Beatles ceased to be. It was early, dark and crisp. Mr James…
Fathers Day 2020 – A Sad Admission
Fathers Day in the UK is rolling around again. Every year since my daughter Zuzu died in July 2005 in her room in my flat in Sydney I contend with this day. This year it’s hit me in a different way.
On the Death of a Child & Trigger Warnings
For me, the problem with Trigger Warnings is that they often exacerbate the pain that they seek to protect us from. They also propose a world where healing from many different traumas is homogenised into a synthetic mass agreement as to what constitutes pain, damage, confrontation or peace. The synthesis is too simplistic and is in fact more demagogic than pedagogic: it speaks to a mass lie of consensus rather than enabling people to learn their way through their horrors.
On Being Questioned Over the Death of a Child
I was living in Sydney, Australia the day that my daughter died of a combination of pneumonia, a badly administered anaesthetic following dentistry work and…
How to Make a Good and Useful Stock
A good stock is a marvellous, beautiful wonderful liquid that you can use as the base for soups, stews, pie-fillings, risottos, pilaf/pilau. Here’s how I do it.