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

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Day Seven of Forever Friends

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Forever Friends Blog Tour Thank you for reading this blog entry! This is the seventh post on the Forever Friends blog tour and we have mad...
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Thursday, December 4, 2008

Over By Christmas by William Daysh

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Over By Christmas by William Daysh is a war novel. It is also a superb novel in which real events, imagined histories, human relationships a...
Saturday, November 22, 2008

Pain Wears No Mask by Nik Morton

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Pain Wears No Mask by Nik Morton is no ordinary thriller. It has an extra dimension that constantly encourages the reader to take an interes...

Notes On A Scandal by Zoë Heller

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In Notes On A Scandal, Zoë Heller presents a novel narrated by Barbara Covett, a history teacher in St. George’s, a comprehensive school in ...

A Sunday At The Pool In Kigali by Gil Courtemanche

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For me, Gil Courtemanche’s book, A Sunday At The Pool In Kigali, bore a great similarity to the screenplay for the film Hotel Rwanda. Having...
Friday, October 24, 2008

The Destiny Of Natalie X by William Boyd

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An aspect of William Boyd’s writing that always seems close to the surface of his work is an examination of selfishness. At the very least, ...
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Monday, October 20, 2008

The Heart Of The Matter by Graham Greene

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Over forty years ago a new English teacher at my school answered a question asked by an eager student. The question was, “What do you think ...
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About Me

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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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