Articles written by Philip Spires

What is Helium

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

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Creative Writing > Novel Excerpts Novel excerpts: Pain in life: 1 of 61
The opening of A Fool's Knot, a novel set in KenyaAugust 1976England 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 the ... More..
Travel > Asia Travel destinations in China: 1 of 10
A Silk Road Trip, or I Gobbed in the Gobi, China,1992In 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 Japanese ... More..
Creative Writing > Short Stories Short stories: Strangers: 5 of 42
StrangersWe 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 us i... More..
Travel > Spain Travel destinations: Toledo, Spain: 2 of 7
Up and Down in Toledo, the expected and the surprisingI have wanted to visit Toledo for at least forty years and for one particular reason, being the canvases of Domenicos Theotokopoulos, or El Greco as we have learned to call him. Well, now I have been and I found what I sought, plus a truly amazing and unexpected surprise.T... More..
Travel > Asia Traveling in Kyoto, Japan: 1 of 3
A memory of KyotoIt's often that chance encounters, the unplanned events, linger, long after the excursions and the sights of a particular trip have faded. It was in 1998 when my wife and I visited central Japan, basing ourselves in Kyoto, having availed ourselves of cheap flights from Bandar Seri Begawan, courtesy of Royal B... More..
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 whic... More..
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, internali... More..
Arts & Humanities > International Writers & Literature Book reviews: Disgrace, by J.M. Coetzee: 1 of 2
Disgrace is a novel of a man's, even a family's decline. David Lurie is a university teacher, the kind of teacher who was at home with academic material that current course requirements no longer demand. He is also divorced, twice, and even on his best form he has to grapple with the trials and tribulations that his frayed li... More..
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 Chestertitle: Losing NelsonAuthor: Barry UnsworthPaperback: 320 pagesPublisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New Ed edition (6 Jul 2000)Language EnglishISBN-10: 0140260919ISBN-13: 978-0140260915Title: England, EnglandAuthor: Julian BarnesPaper... More..
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 e... More..