Good Morning

And thus another busy day begins ...

In Dartford

Just four visits done today - one in Chatham, one in Gravesend and two in Dartford,where i am at the moment composing this blog entry. I have found another Spoons pub called The Flying Boat where beers are just £2.15 a pint!

Time to do these reports now.

Done At Last

Reports done, and a chicken tikka masala jacket potato with salad washed down with ale was the perfect chill pill.and now i am done- ready for home after this pleasant visit to the lock Spoons pub in Dartford.

Speak later.

I Feel I Have Been Upioaded

Do you believe that the art of conversation is no more?

And in relation to that -

Do you feel that we are too addicted to our phones and other mobile techy stuff?

Do you fear AI (artificial intelligence) or embrace it?

If it was possible, would you want your brain and thoughts uploaded to an android once your physical body is no more?

Book 87 - Max Porter "Grief Is The Thing With Feathers"

Max Porter "Grief Is The Thing With Feathers" (Faber & Faber)





“I lay back, resigned, and wished my wife wasn't dead. I wished I wasn't lying terrified in a giant bird embrace in my hallway.”

“I missed her so much that I wanted to build a hundred-foot memorial to her with my bare hands. I wanted to see her sitting in a vast stone chair in Hyde Park, enjoying her view. Everybody passing could comprehend how much I miss her. How physical my missing is...”

After his wife dies suddenly, a man and his two young sons are plunged into a spiral of pain and despair.
The man is working on a biography of the poet, Ted Hughes and at the family's nadir, the father is visited by
Crow, the infamous trickster, that is featured in Hughes work. The bird is here to heal and comfort the grief-stricken.

A moving and tragicomic prose poem which centres on a grieving father and his two young sons as they cope with the sudden death of a wife and mother with the "help" of Ted Hughes's Crow. A deeply original work which deserves the hype - I am no expert on Ted Hughes, and I felt that greater familiarity would have made it even more resonant. I am still reading his Birthday Letters - a collection of verse or an homage to his deceased wife Sylvia Plath - and hence the poignancy of this very short bovella.

This is an amazing debut. It is a potent novella, packed with dazzling verse. Despite it's dark themes, it also contains humour and glimmers of hope. One more quote, (I bookmarked a multitude):

“Moving on, as a concept, is for stupid people, because any sensible person knows grief is a long-term project. I refuse to rush. The pain that is thrust upon us let no man slow or speed or fix.”