Paul Magrs's Blog, page 9
June 19, 2020
The Week's Paintings
Since lock-down began, I've been keen to paint again... and to keep working at a series of pictures of our house. I wish I had similar pictures of all the places I've lived. Corners where you make the coffee, or sit to read, or put a record on - you think you'll know them forever. But it's the detail and atmosphere of these particular bits of home that I find I want to record.
June 18, 2020
Flavio and the Cats of Rome - by Pamela Binns
One of the most wonderful books I’ve read in ages. I read this twice in a couple of days: Pamela Binns’ mid-70s kids’ book about a black kitten who sets off across the rooftops of Rome to find the medicine that will save his dying sister. It reads rather like a Paul Gallico fable, having that magical succinct quality of Gallico… and also summoning up that feeling of – this is a story glimpsed out of the corner of your eye, somehow. Stories happening at the edges of things, or under your feet. The kinds of events that most people wouldn’t even notice…
It’s a series of meetings with feral cats and humble tortoises in sports cars, airline pilots, spoiled daughters of rich counts, sneering servants and corrupt cat emperors living in the ruins of the Forum. I loved every minute of this book because it’s written so gorgeously by someone who just understands cats and their behaviour so well (Flavio cleans his tail when he feels a bit scared and needs to think for a moment.)
It was published as a Grasshopper hardback in the mid-70’s. You rarely see their books in secondhand shops today. For some reason our school had lots of them, and that’s why one of my earliest obsessions was with the four books in the ‘Albert the Dragon’ series by Rosemary Weir. Doing a little online research and casting about, it seems to me that a lot of Grasshopper titles were in translation, or set in foreign lands. I don’t think ‘Flavio and the Wild Cats of Rome’ has ever been republished. It really ought to be, though.
June 1, 2020
i just wrote a poem - dedicated to all my friends! hang o...
i just wrote a poem - dedicated to all my friends! hang on...
a quick message to say
a quick message to say,i hope you're okand doing wellduring this strange season arc
I thought of youon the subwave Zoomthat we're going through,and it made mefeelhappy to be reminded
I really want togo to townand have a big night out.
I dream about it!
I actually dream about the squawking drag queenat Centre Stage announcing that it's 'Fingering Friday!'
I want to be able to nip out to buy warm breadand soft cheese at Venus Foodson the way back from the pub.
Anyhow, i just wanted tocheck in with you,and to sendmy love.
May 17, 2020
Get Colouring!
This is for all my friends who love Dr Who, and who love to colour in. Print this off A3 size and get colouring! x
May 14, 2020
Fancy Man and Not Saying Bollocks To It
I'm really proud and honoured that Liz Dexter is reading through some of my backlist of novels in a monthly marathon. Today she's reviewing 1999's 'lost' novel, 'Fancy Man', (which doesn't come out of it too badly.) Liz's review is here!
It's very easy to feel terribly neglected as a writer when almost everything is out of print and even after all these books no one really knows who you are, and no one in that great, glittering world of books and stuff ever really bothers with you... So it's extremely nice when a blogger like Liz goes out of her way to read through and talk about these books. I just wish she had some other readers to join her on her odyssey!
As I've said before... I may not have had the breaks or the prizes or the wonderful ride that many of my peers and fellow writers have had... but I do have some wonderful and very loyal readers.
(But still, it would be nice if people in the world of book publishing and selling etc had some idea what it is I've been doing all these years... Anyone less dedicated than I am would have said bollocks to this a long time ago. Perhaps twenty-one years ago, when I lost this particular manuscript Liz is reviewing today...)
(My earliest novels are available reprinted by Lethe books - here!
May 2, 2020
Sending Love in These Science Fictional Times
It's two years since we went south to Milton Keynes to visit our friends Carole and Kev, and took part in a lovely, literary charity jamboree and made lots of new pals. Then, exactly a year ago I was a guest at a lovely Dr Who convention in Sussex, having a whale of a time and - again - seeing old friends and making new ones. It all seems a lifetime ago. I wish we were able to do all that fun stuff again.
But... it's like I wrote to an old friend this morning, when I was doing my best to be bright and optimistic, and it's worth repeating here, to my friends on FB:
'I hope you're keeping well in these strange, science fictional times. I feel lucky that i'm here in our house with Jeremy and Bernard Socks.... I'm banking on the world rolling on and taking us all with it into a happy new phase, with no fear and illness and complicated stuff. When we can all get together and have a laugh and catch up and just enjoy the simple, ordinary, daft things we like to do.'
April 30, 2020
April 26, 2020
Lock Down Projects
I work from home anyway... but I really love the time that I get to spend out and about in the world, drawing, writing, mooching, exploring and seeing friends. Extra time at home in this past couple of months has resulted in me creating extra new projects for myself, though - and they've been the saving of me.
First there was my Dr Who Paper Puppet Theatre, and then I embarked on painting the rooms of our house in a kind of colourful, cheery, Fauvist style. Our Gay Men's Writing Group started using Zoom to hold our meetings on an even more regular basis than usual and we created a project to do with character monologues. And then I started my weekly live readings of my own work on Friday nights. I've loved doing all this stuff and I'm grateful to my online friends for checking in to see what I'm up to and liking some of my work and lending their support. Thank you!
April 23, 2020
Drawings from last April
These drawings just popped up on Facebook - from exactly a year ago. Coloured pencils scattered all over tables in pubs, cafe bars and galleries in Manchester and in Levenshulme. The first proper sunny days of the year and being out having fun in crowds on Canal Street and Levy High Street... watching all the people and sitting getting drunk with friends and drawing like crazy.
