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

Friday, January 29, 2016

A Reflection On The Annals Of Imperial Rome by Publius Cornelius Tacitus

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History changes when it is re-read. The casual reader, as opposed to the historian, always reads history w ith o ne eye on the present: the...

Thursday, January 28, 2016

A Few Chapters on The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentlemen by Laurence Sterne

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Chapter One – The Plot Well, gen tlefolk, at least that’s out of the way! Chapter Two – The Characters Young Tristram Shandy, s...

A Pair Of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy

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A Pair Of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy was first published in the eighteen seventies. It is a romance of the Romantic era. A cursory glance fro...

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Development As Freedom by Amartya Sen

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Perhaps not many people regularly read non-fiction, especially when it might appear to emanate from academic sources. Thus a title such as D...

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 ...

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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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