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, January 16, 2016

The Turn Of The Screw and The Aspern Papers by Henry James

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Henry James, great though his name remains, can be something of an acquired taste for some readers. Lest it be said, in terms a lay person u...

Lawrence Sterne’s Sentimental Journey

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Lawrence Sterne’s Sentimental Journey is very much the follow-up after the success of Tristram Shandy. The author does not try to re-create ...

Friday, January 15, 2016

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

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If Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell had been a piece of music, rather than a novel, it would probably have taken the form of a gigantic Bartok ...

The Story Of An African Farm by Olive Schreiner

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Reading takes you there, sometimes even to places where you, the reader, may not want to go. Someone else, someone we have never met, did th...

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Joseph Hanlon, Mozambique: The Revolution Under Fire.

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Why might anyone want to read a book describing contemporary politics and international relations some thirty years after its publication? S...

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Stoner by John Williams

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To reveal that “he dies in the end” gives no more away about the plot of Stoner by John Williams than the revelation that “he’s born in the ...

The Deposition of Father McGreevy by Brian O’Doherty

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In The Deposition of Father McGreevy Brian O’Doherty transports us into a world and culture that will be quite alien to most readers. By the...

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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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