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, October 31, 2010

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

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On the face of things the two families featured in Zadie Smith’s On Beauty are fairly functional. The Belsey family lives in New England, ne...

Thursday, September 23, 2010

My Brother, My Executioner by F Sionil José

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F Sionil José’s novel, My Brother, My Executioner, is set in a period of Philippine history whose international significance is worthy of wi...

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

The Music Of The Primes by Marcus du Sautoy

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The Music Of The Primes by Marcus du Sautoy is not a book for the faint-hearted. The author may be a populariser of mathematics, but certain...

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Deterring Democracy by Noam Chomsky

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It is almost twenty years since Noam Chomsky published Deterring Democracy. Its contemporary context is an important starting point in the u...

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The Child In Time by Ian McEwan

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Stephen Lawes appears to be pretty well-heeled. His successes seem remarkable. He is a successful writer of children’s books. He is acquaint...

Friday, August 27, 2010

The Steps Of The Sun by Caroline Harvey, aka Joanna Trollope

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I approached The Steps Of The Sun not knowing what to expect. Its author was listed as Joanna Trollope writing as Caroline Harvey. I had pre...

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Arabia by Jonathan Raban

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At the end of the seventies Jonathan Raban wandered across the Middle East. Arabia was the book he wrote after impressionistic visits to Bah...

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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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