As many of you know, Edward’s Platform at the National Theatre takes place next Wednesday, 23rd March, at 6 p.m. in the Cottesloe Theatre. This event sold out very quickly, but the NT has just released some more seats. So if you missed out on tickets first time round, you can phone the Box Office on 020 …
At teatime last Thursday I received the first copies of my book, Slim Chances. Front cover This morning I go to the National Theatre, the Cottesloe, to see the set of a new play called The Holy Rosenbergs, which will be in situ on the stage when I do my book-launch Platform on the 23rd. Apparently …
Ever-inventive nature continually produces one shape from another. Nothing in the entire universe ever perishes, believe me, but things vary, and adopt a new form. The phrase ‘being born’ is used for beginning to be something different from what one was before, while ‘dying’ means ceasing to be the same. Though this thing may pass into that, and …
A poem I composed just over a week ago during a quest for Found Art. Today I planned to write a poem And find a ‘found object’ My treasured object at the moment – I found, A year or two back on a stall in Church Street Market The old man, already ephemeral himself, Sold …
The image is more than an idea. It is a vortex or cluster of fused ideas and is endowed with energy. Ezra Pound To photograph is to hold one’s breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It’s at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy. Henri Cartier-Bresson …
I have been reminded that, after an argument a year or three or four back about clutter, I wrote this poem after filling up the pigeon holes. I am currently engaged in trying to de-clutter the room around it and envisage a triumphant journey to our local recycling bins at dead of night. I met …
How many degrees of separation does the famous concept stipulate? I imagine that to have been named after a famous public figure doesn’t count, but I was named after King Edward VIII who, just four months after my birth, abdicated. Dr Alfred Blunt, Bishop of Bradford. Portrait by Bassano, February 1936. National Portrait Gallery, London. And …
What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? …
I am saddened to hear of Susannah York’s death. Her special radiance survives in her film performances, but just now I am remembering watching her from the wings one night in Stratford, being superlative as she spoke Gertrude’s speech, ‘There is a willow grows aslant a brook’ (Hamlet Act IV, sc.vii), describing Ophelia’s death to Laertes and the …
A hundred thousand welcomes. I could weep And I could laugh, I am light and heavy. Welcome. …
I recommend the following films from this extensive list: