Thursday 05 May, evening. Visit from a traveller

A travelling craftsman is staying in my house while they work at a fair nearby. We share stories in the evenings over food and wine, and discuss the state of the world over tea and chocolate. The traveller is from an Eastern European country which gets headlines in the west for its far-right, pro-Putin ideology,...

Sivota Bay, Monday morning

The swallows, the flowers, the morning light. Cigarette smoke, petrol fumes, coffee vapour and spray-on sun lotion. Dutch, Italian, French, Serbian, English, German, Swedish and of course Greek. Here as in every village, the widows still wear their habits of mourning, despite some of them not being much older than my suntan-wearing parents. Cat on...

Tranquil Bay, Nidri, Lefkas

Sunday 22 August 2021, morning The sun is still hidden behind the mountains in this lake-like bay. Slowly it makes its way higher, colouring the Mediterranean pines peach. A rooster heralds its approach, confirming to last night’s party-goers and today’s day-afterers which time of day it is. The distant church bells confirms which day of...

England’s loss

Like the person at the heart of a sad montage. The one who’s awake when everyone else is passed out around them, with bottles and cigarettes and torn one dollar bills strewn across the room. The one that lights a cigarette from the embers of last night’s fire, feeds vodka to the house plants before...

Blå

Thursday 23 May 2019. Evening

What will proportionate representation bring? For me and for you, for mine and for yours. I've hopes and I've fears and I've only one vote, cast like the Ring into Mount Doom to melt into others and become something else to dissolve and lose shape and its power. For only in hand does it mean...

Friday 29 March 2019. Evening

Too early I wake up from a dream about the end of the world. In the kitchen I open my laptop to research new places to live. £600 for a room in shared house, all bills excluded. From home I cycle to work, one of the most prestigious and richest institutions in the world, where...

Saturday 23 March 2019. Morning

An Uncle and Auntie are visiting from Sweden. We stayed with them in January before the funeral, now they've come for a Cambridge weekend. We will go punting and visit Kettle's Yard and the colleges. We will not go to London. Family time is important this weekend. Last week, while I was on holiday in...

Genovese gems