On looking, again

On looking, again

So I got COVID, finally. Or COVID got me. It fairly knocked me out, so last week I had a few days of not being able to do as much as usual, and my brain was fogged and sluggish. I found myself gazing out of the window a lot. So I’m returning to a pet subject of mine...
Writing a memoir? I could tell you stories…

Writing a memoir? I could tell you stories…

Several of my creative coaching clients are working on a writing project that’s drawn from their own life experiences. And, as I was when I was writing my book The Clearing, at a certain point they are somewhat taken aback to realise that they are writing….a memoir....
Laura Drever: On Orkney light, time and walking the land

Laura Drever: On Orkney light, time and walking the land

Laura Drever is an Orcadian painter whose work grows out of her deep love of Orkney’s undulating landscapes and shifting light. Her paintings are steeped in engagement with this place and the experience of walking these particular landscapes. “Teebro” is the title of...
Living in the World as if it were Home

Living in the World as if it were Home

I have just treated myself to a new copy of a book that has done more, perhaps, to shape my thinking than any other. Recommended to me many years ago by the poet Em Strang, I already have a bashed-up ex-library copy of Canadian poet Tim Lilburn’s slender essay...
One bruised apple: how art stops time

One bruised apple: how art stops time

One of the rich pleasures of working with my coaching clients is the conversations that develop, unhurriedly, in our written correspondence. These remind me how creative work is essentially collaborative, even if it might not seem so on the surface. Connecting with...
Things and Gatherings: part two

Things and Gatherings: part two

This is the second half of the keynote presentation I gave to the DeathWrites RSE network at Glasgow University. Click here to read Part One. We left off thinking about how the objects we use and live with are actually nodes in a vast web of connections, ideas,...