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

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro

›
In When We Were Orphans Kazuo Ishiguro constructs the life of Christopher Banks via a series of episodes, ostensibly written by the characte...
1 comment:
Friday, January 9, 2009

The Yellow Rain by Julio Llamazares

›
The Yellow Rain by Julio Llamazares is thankfully a short novel that describes life, or rather the end of it, in a Pyrenean village called A...
Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Asylum by Patrick McGrath

›
Asylum by Patrick McGrath is an intense study of self-obsession and self-interest. Narrated by and experienced from the point of view of Pet...

Ways Of Escape by Graham Greene

›
Ways Of Escape is one of the most rewarding and, surprisingly, surprising reads one might encounter. On the face of it, the book is Graham G...

Lord Of The Flies by William Golding

›
A review of a book as iconic as Lord Of The Flies should surely only offer comment, not mere description. It is over fifty years since its p...

Brick Lane by Monica Ali

›
A review should always try to address its subject in its own terms. The purpose, after all, is many-sided, to summarise, paraphrase, context...

The Fall Of Troy by Peter Ackroyd

›
In The Fall Of Troy, Peter Ackroyd explores some grand themes against a backdrop of a grander history, but always from the narrowed view of ...
‹
›
Home
View web version

About Me

My photo
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.
View my complete profile
Powered by Blogger.