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 28, 2023

Billy Budd by Herman Melville

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Billy Budd is doubly famous. He is the eponymous principal character of Herman Melville’s novella and, by adoption via E M Forster’s hand, a...

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

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I did not begin the two hundred thousand words plus of Moby Dick expecting to be surprised. Herman Melville’s book has been on my reading li...

Friday, January 27, 2023

Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf

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Between The Acts by Virginia Woolf is the author’s last novel. It is often described as a difficult read. And indeed, difficult it is, not b...

The Ambassadors by Henry James

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Soft words butter no parsnips is an English saying that is, let ’ s admit, not overused, especially these days. It probably means get on wit...

Thursday, January 26, 2023

Musical perfection - the Bamberger Symphoniker, Jakub Hrusa, and Patricia Kopatchinskaja

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Many years ago, when I was a student, I, along with many others, bought a new stereo system and we regularly listened to chosen LPs to asses...

Monday, January 23, 2023

Jenufa by Leos Janacek in Valencia – simple triumph for Corinne Winters

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Of all operas, there are a couple by Leos Janacek that I would profess to ‘know’, in that I have seen multiple productions, read and studied...

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Folk song, dance and ritual - ADDA Simfonica with Ramon Tebar and Juan Perez Floristan

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In another loosely themed concert, ADDA Simfonica played four works written in the forty years that spanned the dawn of the twentieth cent...

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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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