travel

The Burial Tide: Cut Material

We’re a mere two days out from the launch of my next novel, The Burial Tide. This is a story I loved working on, partially because it allowed me to indulge my love of world-building. And early draft of the novel contained passages from fictional books and newspapers that established some of the history of Inishbannock, the fictional Kerry island where the story takes place. Ultimately, it was decided to cut these for pacing but I didn’t want to let them go to waste. So please, enjoy these early, blog-exclusive glimpes of the world of The Burial Tide.

(more…)

Moomins on the Riviera (2014)

The Moomins are a topic that I feel I understand less the more I try to get my head around them. I tackled another Moomin film, Moomin and Midsummer Madness, around ten years ago so I should have been ready for this. And yet, here I am, looking at this film all…

A brief refresher, the Moomins are a multimedia franchise created by Finnish author Tove Jansson that encompasses picture books, novels, short stories, TV shows, movies, theme parks and a comic strip written and illustrated by Jansson herself. The comic strip that inspired today’s film, Moomins on the Riviera, began in 1954 and ran until 1975. This was actually the second Moomins comic strip, the first having appeared in a left wing newspaper but which failed because the readership considered the Moomins to be “too bourgeois”, because even in the late forties there were people who needed to touch some fucking grass.

So what’s it all about?

The series features things called Moomins doing stuff.

I can’t really get more specific than that.

Sometimes they don’t do stuff. Sometimes they just chill.
(more…)

Thoughts on New York

The lift in the hotel goes so fast and so high your ears pop.

There is a constant rumble in the background. The sound of millions of living human beings. It sounds like thunder about to break but it’s also oddly soothing.

It costs how much?

No, I don’t want to buy your CD.

The bus tour costs over $150 and is worth every damn cent.

The hotel is near a fire station, and the wail of the sirens ricochets off the sides of the skyscrapers. It sounds like wolves tearing around the tower, trying to get in.

Times Square feels like reality is breaking down around you in a bleed of colour, light and noise. If someone walked up to you and said “This is a dream. You are about to wake up.” you’d believe them.

It costs how much?

The fancy food is great. The fast food is AMAZING.

For such a large city the people are really friendly.

“Hey, what part of the UK you guys from?” “Ah ha ha. Bravely spoken.”

(more…)