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 contemporary. Show all posts

Saturday, September 17, 2022

Contemporary music in ADDA

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As a prelude to their forthcoming season of orchestral concerts, the ADDA orchestra of Alicante under their inspired and clearly inspiring...

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Costa Blanca Arts Update - Prisuelo-Sanford and Ars Musicandum in Alicante

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Like most places on the planet, the pandemic has denied us the opportunity of hearing live music in a hall with volume for several months....

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

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The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan won the Booker prize for 2014, an award that was probably deserved. Much has been ma...

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Kansas In August by Patrick Gale

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Patrick Gale´s novel Kansas In August was an interesting, if never a very engaging read. It features some rather strange people. There is a ...

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith

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In her novel The Autograph Man, Zadie Smith takes a comic tour of several aspects of twenty-first century life. Her foci are celebrity-worsh...

Monday, October 1, 2007

Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler

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Anne Tyler’s Breathing Lessons is a giant of a book, a giant because of the way in which it gently wraps you into its characters’ world and ...

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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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