How Influential Can Writing Ever Be

How influential writing can really be is the enormous question that, from time to time, makes me stop and think. It’s far too big a question to be able to tackle in one short blog, so I’m merely skirting the edges of a much bigger issue here.

Just over a week ago, Jack and I were staying in a sassi hotel in Matera. Sassi is the name of the two districts carved from stone that line the Matera ravine in Puglia’s Basilicata and make up the extraordinary town of Matera. Here, orn...