Articles written by Philip Spires

How To Guides |
Community

About me - Philip Spires

I was born in 1952 in Wakefield, UK and spent my first ten years in Sharlston, then a mining village, followed by eight in Crofton, a mile nearer Wakefield. I went to London University, obtaining a BSc from Imperial College and a PGCE from King's. After two

+ more bio information

RSS Feed

Creative Writing > Short Stories Short stories: Strangers: 1 of 41

Strangers We arrived more than two hours later than planned, but the west of England summer light had not yet faded even to dusk. A soft golden glow was just growing across the sunset, which had just tinged a flat-calm sea beyond this tumbling village. We were tourists here, strangers in this small, tightly-knit place. For u...
Creative Writing > Novel Excerpts Novel excerpts: Life reexamined: 1 of 37

Mission, a novel set in Kenya The title of Mission's first chapter is Michael. Here is how it starts ... Enter Michael, dishevelled and panting. His movements are hurried, agitated and anxious. The kitchen door creaks on its hinges after his disinterested push. It does not close and it swings ajar behind him. In an instant, ...
Creative Writing > Novel Excerpts Novel excerpts: Pain in life: 2 of 57

The opening of A Fool's Knot, a novel set in Kenya August 1976 England is smaller now. The sky is smaller. Daylight is softer, paler than memories of the harsh brilliance of tropical sun. There are people everywhere: there is no space here. There are no mountains, no heavy clouds, flat bottomed in the sky and stretching to t...
Arts & Humanities > William Shakespeare Book reviews: Shakespeare, by Bill Bryson: 2 of 6

At the start of Shakespeare Bill Bryson apologises for the fact that there is not much to tell. Every aspect of the bard's physical presence on the planet seems to be shrouded in doubt and mystery. We don't even know what he looked like. We don't know much about where he lived, or what he did with his time, apart from write ...
Travel > Asia Destinations Travel destinations in China: 3 of 7

A Silk Road Trip, or I Gobbed in the Gobi, China,1992 In August 1992, myself and my wife, Caroline, arranged a trip to post-Tiananmen China. It was in the days when the London China Travel office was on Cambridge Circus, opposite the Palace Theatre on Charing Cross Road. It took me at least twenty books, a late-night Japanes...
Arts & Humanities > Horror, Mystery & Suspense Book reviews: A Million Would be Nice, by Ken Scott: 1 of 2

I don't read many books that claim membership of a genre. In my humble opinion, a work of fiction should aspire to create its own world, describe it, communicate it and then live in it. I want a book's characters to inhabit the events that are portrayed, events that are clearly influenced by the character's presence, but whi...
Arts & Humanities > International Writers & Literature Book reviews: Unless, by Carol Shields: 1 of 2

Unless by Carol Shields has been my third novel in a row written from the perspective of a self-analytical, self-critical and perhaps self-obsessed female narrator, the other being by Margaret Drabble and Anne Enright. Maybe Carol Shields drew the short straw, because I felt that Reta, the writer-narrator of Unless, internal...
Arts & Humanities > British Literature Book reviews: Losing Nelson, by Barry Unsworth, and England, England, by Julian Barnes: 1 of 1

Reflections on a pair of novels, england, england and Losing Nelson, and a couple of trips to Chester title: Losing Nelson Author: Barry Unsworth Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New Ed edition (6 Jul 2000) Language English ISBN-10: 0140260919 ISBN-13: 978-0140260915 Title: England, England Author: Julian B...
Entertainment > Music Reviews (Other) The Leningrad Symphony: Interpretation of Symphony No.7 Op.60, by Dmitri Shostakovich: 1 of 1

Like much music of quality, the Seventh Symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich, the Leningrad, is either loved or hated, rather than tolerated. It is famous, or infamous, depending on your point of view, for its first movement, a unique statement in the history of music, a movement lasting just under half of the symphony's massive ...
Entertainment > Concert Reviews Festival: Nits de la Mediterrania, La Nucia, July 2007: 1 of 1

The final concert of the inaugural La Nucia arts festival took place last night. Starting at 10:30pm, it was staged in the town's recently completed open air auditorium and featured the World Youth Orchestra directed, again masterfully, by Josep Vincent. Given the setting, it would have been so easy to present a procession o...