Philip Spires commonplace book

I have kept a commonplace book for many years. It's a place where scraps of impressions are filed for future reflection. It's not a diary, it's just a mental scrapbook, concentrating on book reviews, concert reviews, visual arts and some occasional pieces on travel. It is also a place where I occasionally reflect on what I write. Details of my books can be found at http://www.philipspires.co.uk

Showing posts with label canada. Show all posts

Saturday, January 23, 2021

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

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The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is a novel about loss. It deals with the idea that bereavement changes the living, opens a hole in survivor...

Saturday, January 16, 2021

Mary Swann by Carol Shields

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I have just completed four years of thinking through a project. There were several false starts, many rejected, some reworked ideas. What I ...

Sunday, March 25, 2012

The Republic Of Love by Carol Shields

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Republics do not have kings or queens, nor princes or princesses, so, we must assume, fairytales are out. Winnipeg is not exactly a republic...

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Vermeer´s Hat by Timothy Brook

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Vermeer’s Hat by Timothy Brook is not really about Vermeer, or hats, or art for that matter. It’s a book about globalization sixteenth centu...

Monday, January 9, 2012

Another Side of the Slave Trade - Rough Crossings by Simon Schama

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No short review of Rough Crossings by Simon Schama could begin to do it justice. It is far too big a project, far too significant an achieve...

Monday, March 24, 2008

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

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Sometimes, when reading a big book, one gets the feeling that the author set out to achieve size, as if that in itself might suggest certain...

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About Me

philipspires: I was born in Wakefield and was brought up in Sharslton, a mining Village. I went to London University and then became a maths teacher, working initially as a volunteer teacher in Kenya. I spent sixteen years in London, in Balham and Islington. In 1992, I left Britain for Brunei and then Zayed University in Abu Dhabi. I currently live in La Nucia, near Benidorm in Spain. I am interested in the relationship between nature and nurture, birthright and experience. Themes of culture and identity and their relation to economic and social roles underpin my writing. What we are born into relates to what we become, but we are rarely in control. What others do, our interests and intellects and the way we choose to earn a living, all of these shape us into what we become. It may be that culture is the sum of all assumptions that others make on our behalf, whereas identity represents our reactions to them. I did a PhD on the effects of education in economic development in the Philippines. I was President of Alfas del Pi Music Society for twelve years.

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