Strange Encounters #1 – The Man on the Balcony

Just a brief preface to this post: I lived abroad, in Italy, for the best part of 5 years, and during my time there as a solo traveller and foreigner I had many wild and wonderful encounters that I've always wanted to write down. This, the first of a new 'Strange Encounters' series, is without …

A Delightful Kind of Tinnitus – Why I’m giving writing another go

It was January 2008. Chelsea College of Art, London. One semester into my Foundation Diploma in Art & Design, and I had hit one of my creative blocks. Except this one was different. At this time I was in the middle of what I still consider to be the most eye-opening, enlightening and enjoyable year …

An English Girl in New York: Part Two – Across The Pond

There is nothing more magical than watching the world below from the window of a plane. When I set off for New York from Heathrow back in late October 2016, it was a grey miserable day. But fly high enough, and you feel like you're above it all, and all thats there is endless billowing …

Never Judge a Book…

"Never judge a book by it's cover." Never has this phrase been more relevant. I am a relatively new Fannibal. I came to the show through the discovery that an actor I greatly admire, Richard Armitage, had been cast as the iconic character of Francis Dolarhyde/Red Dragon. I knew nothing of this character, and so …

On Love & Nature as perfect matching metaphors…

Nature and Love are perfect matching metaphors. Nature is life, and Love brings life. Both are about a greater kind of life force... Nature is the ebb and flow of forces; of life & death, all as part of one. Love is the complex binding of two spirits, into a greater whole. And Love is …

The Becoming – Internal Conflict & the work of William Blake

I recently had reason to re-familiarise myself with the work of Artist and Writer William Blake. This happened through a pretty unexpected medium; that of the Thomas Harris novel Red Dragon. The character of Francis Dolarhyde, the antagonist of the Harris novel, is obsessed with one of Blake's most iconic paintings; "The Great Red Dragon and …