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

Saturday, June 9, 2012

The Seven Sisters by Margaret Drabble

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The Seven Sisters is a superb novel by Margaret Drabble. Seven characters – who all happen to be women – eventually find themselves on a cla...

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Winter In Madrid by C J Sansom

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C J Sansom’s Winter In Madrid goes a long way beyond the habitual territory of the historical novel. Not only does it present fiction alongs...

From One Master To Another - Po-on by F Sionil José

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Po-on is the novel that completed F. Sionil José’s Rosales project, in which, over five books, the members of a single family appear to live...

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Lucky by Alice Sebold

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It is possible to start reading Lucky by Alice Sebold under the misunderstanding that it is a novel. As the opening pages unfold with their ...

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Girl With Green Eyes by Edna O'Brien

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It is fifty years since Edna O’Brien published Girl With Green Eyes. It is conventional nowadays to regard the late 1950s and early 1960s as...

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

A Barcelona experience - Antoni Gaudí by Rainer Zerbst

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Rainer Zerbst’s book, Antoni Gaudí – The Complete Architectural Works, is just what it says, the complete works. Treated chronologically and...

Monday, April 23, 2012

The Whole Day Through by Patrick Gale

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The Whole Day Through by Patrick Gale is an extremely well written love story. It is so well written that at times the gentle gradients of i...

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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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