Write-Place

  Autobiography -  Processing the fact and the fiction When embarking on writing your own autobiography, no doubt one of the most important questions you will ask yourself is "What shall I call it ?" There are a multitude of ways of deciding on a title, for an autobiography, from picking a catchphrase from your working life to a phrase relating to a particular talent - or lack of it - which relates to you. It was suggested to me by tutors while at University that the title should be left till last, but I have found that in practice, having something in mind keeps you focused and gives the reader an idea of whether they want to read the writing or not.  The list of 'famous' authors of biographies is endless.  A quick 'Google' gives us Prime Ministers (current and past) Ghandi, Mandela, most politicians present and past as well as writers as diverse as Agatha Christie, Anne Frank and Alan Bennett and so called 'celebrities' of the day,  some of whom I ha...

It was the last night of my four night visit to Rome. I 'd walked myself to the verge of exhaustion again and was having a final cup of tea in the bar/restaurant next to my hotel. Some new brick paving was being laid on the street and the bar was struggling to keep down the dust, even after the builders had finished for the day and the air conditioner was doing it's best to pump out some cool, moist air onto the tables and customers who were sitting outside with food and drinks. Emerging from the haze of cold air combined with concrete dust, came a woman, glasses hanging lopsidedly from their cord around her neck, speaking a  combination of English and Italian, from  which we customers surmised that she had something annoying in her eye.  She lurched across to my table and asked if she could "leave this here a moment", laying down an A4 notebook, whilst squinting and protesting about the "something" in her eye as she did so. "This stupid thing - it keep...

The other day I came across   Paragraph Planet  -  "  - a creative writing website which has been publishing one 75-word paragraph every day since November 2008. Famous authors, aspiring writers and occasional dabblers have all been involved, submitting a mixture of twist-in-the-tale flash fiction, evocative short, short fiction, openings of published novels or brief moments captured." I  particularly liked the site's creator,  Richard Hearn  ' s information on how long it would take him to read a submission - ''between 40 minutes and 6 months'' - so I found a paragraph 'what I  wrote' (to quote Ernie Wise) which is so far unpublished and posted it. I was very surprised, pleased and honoured to be told on Sunday that my paragraph was to be the one for the day, the next day.  Here it is : " The Last Time I Met My Father was on 4 th October 2002. I remember it clearly, though the date itself holds no particular significance.  He had...

At around 3 am, on Thursday 24th February 2022, Russian President Putin announced, via a pre recorded message that Russia had launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine in response, he said, to threats from the country. Explosions were heard in cities across Ukraine and initial reports of casualties by around 7am GMT  at least eight people had been killed and nine injured by the Russian shelling. I watched on TV in disbelief and horror, with millions of others around the world, as Russian tanks rolled across the border and reporters told of the escalating situation, minute by minute. Russian President  Vladimir  Putin   had  announced in a pre-recorded  broadcast that he had ordered "a special military operation" in eastern Ukraine in response, he said, to Ukraine aggression.  The Ukraine   Border Service said  that its border posts with  Belarus and Russia   were under attack and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared...

This morning on Sky News, Liz Truss the UK Foreign Secretary has said that it is “highly likely” that Russia will attack the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, as President Vladimir Putin pursues plans for a “full-scale invasion". There are now calls for Britons to leave Ukraine immediately while commercial flights are still available in the expectation of an imminent invasion  She also stated that the UK will not hesitate to impose further sanctions on Russia if there is  evidence of Moscow sending troops further into Ukraine.  I watched the Prime Minister yesterday in the House of Commons revealing sanctions on five Russian banks and three Russian individuals, which some critics say are too lenient. Though hardly a 'critic' myself I did think that I had missed some important points in this statement and that 'too lenient' is an clear under statement.  All main news outlets confirmed my incredulity, showing that not only the opposition par...

  I couldn't let today go by without mentioning the date, which I mostly am not sure of until I have checked a calendar of some description.  However today's date is significant (or can be made to seem significant) by noticing that it is a palindrome as well as an ambigram date.  Palindrome Days happen when the date can be read the same way backwards and forwards. The dates are similar to word palindromes in that they are symmetrical. As well as this, it  is a 2's (two's day) and it falls on Tuesday, the second day of the week - though this only works if you say it in an American accent and ignore that Sunday has historically been classed as the first day of the week; well at least according to the The Bible and Christian message.  I know I should have thought and written about this month's ago as social media is already awash with this information and more, but as I get older, I find that planning ahead is, generally, not for me and 'spur of the moment' is...

  Mind, Brain, Soul - Who we really are ...      Most of us prefer to think that we possess something that is greater than the sum of our neurons; something that animates us and makes us the human individual that we are. But a lot of what we perhaps used to classed as mind seems to be turning out to be brain and some part of that must surely also be the soul. So what is the difference between the Mind, Brain and Soul? If we question who we are in these terms, we will soon discover that we are not only our minds, but  something else and maybe everything else at the same time. And what about the soul? Is the soul individual or are we all separate souls?  One of my favourite topics  is memory and how we define and recall our memories. Many greater 'minds' than mine have  over centuries have  A memory, at the cellular level, is a particular pattern of cellular changes on particular spots in our heads. A mood however, is a compound of neuro tr...