A Clever Bird Thing

In which a clever bird does an odd thing, which leads to the author having a near-miss with a lorry and doing a bit of research.

Run, run, run, run, run, run away!

In which an annoying coincidence occurs, featuring a bad song and a good book.

Satisfying Sentence: Man of War

Some song lyrics are just irresistible, and this one always jumps out at me as being so dramatically macabre. The gloriously unexpected combination of cake and the death of enemies is strangely quirky and satisfying.

Mrs Holloway’s Annual Parade of the Brightest and Best

“The brightest and best of you,” says Mrs Holloway, clapping her hands with palms flat and fingers pointing upwards, so that each clap is a prayer of thanks. And so begins the Annual Parade…

Satisfying Sentence: This Blue World

I could pick hundreds of satisfying sentences from Elbow songs, written by Guy Garvey. As NME magazine once said “Garvey is a poet, and one of the most creative and goddamn heartbreaking wordsmiths we have in the UK.” This is my all time favourite… 💙

Not Today…

There will be no smiles on this page. Not today…

Satisfying Sentence: Never Let Me Go

‘Never Let Me Go’ takes you completely inside the head of a young woman as she navigates an unimaginable life without knowing she is living one. As a result, her thoughts are remarkably uncluttered with baggage, her sentences simple and mostly unemotional, yet the story she tells carries significant emotional undercurrents and unanswered questions, drawing the reader into her troubled existence. So cleverly done by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Satisfying Sentence: The North Water

‘The North Water’ is not a ‘nice’ book, and I can’t stress this enough. It is crammed with cruelty, violence and death. So when you come across a sentence like this one, it stands out – a beautiful sentence in the middle of all the horror.

It’s a Wrap! Merry Christmas from Bird and Me

In which Bird ‘helps’ me wrap presents for Christmas. Errm… thanks Bird

Appleheart. Day One

There would be nobody I knew. None of my friends were going. Not even an enemy. In a pocket on the side of my rucksack was a tiny amber bottle of Rescue Remedy my brother had bought for me last week. I wondered if I could get it out and take a few drops without anyone on the bus seeing me but didn’t have the nerve. It made me smile a little; I didn’t have the nerve to take the potion to reduce my nervousness. Stupid.