Love Literary London
There are many things to love about London, but my favourite is its celebration of literature. Besides theatre, Sherlock and Doctor Who. Dead authors appear on blue plaques on walls […]
T.C. Haliburton and the Olympics
The London Chapter of the Haliburton Society is joining the Olympics, in the same way that the Cultural Olympiad is running in parallel with the London 2012 Olympic Games. It’s […]
Jubilee and Dialect
In my last post I tried to start a discussion on the use of dialect and idiom in fiction. I expected people to exclaim Faulkner! and James Joyce! in the […]
Once You Break
Once You Break a Knuckle by D.W. Wilson has twelve stories and for that simple reason I will make twelve points in my review. This book is a must read. […]
The Orange Prize for Fiction
At the end of this month, the last winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction will be announced. The prize has been around since 1996, and is given to celebrate […]
2 on 1
Two Canadian writers on the same page this morning in the Guardian Review. The first is a very positive review by John Burnside of D.W. Wilson’s Once You Break a […]
Sara and Edward
I linger’d; all within was noise Of songs, and clapping hands, and boys That crash’d the glass and beat the floor; Where once we held debate, a band Of youthful […]
Screenplays and Scriptwriters
How did I get here? I don’t even write film scripts. Well, I haven’t written my Wilson book review, and I haven’t done my Smart research, so I was searching […]
Le Mas Blanc and Isabel Huggan
I am happy to be able to offer you this interview with Isabel Huggan about her writing retreat at Le Mas Blanc. A Canadian writer of fiction, essays and poetry […]
Big and Small
By big and small I don’t mean the play of the same name with Cate Blanchett. I mean Tuesday, when I went to the oversized London Book Fair at Earls […]
D.W. Wilson
Remember this aside from my “Masterclass”? (Hmm, University of East Anglia rings a bell. Ah yes, that’s where the Canadian who won the BBC short story competition was studying. Who […]
Sat down and
Think of a Canadian love story gone sad and who do you think of? The federal budget of 2012 has made a cut to the CBC of $115 million over […]
Writing Workshop with Sarah Selecky
What do you do when you are writing in a place where no one knows you, or you don’t know the language, and you don’t have a writing group or […]
A Love Story
When I’m at home, I listen to the CBC; when abroad, to the BBC. Naturally, while abroad I start to miss the CBC, and in Canada I miss the Beeb. […]
Exploration and Empire
For the past two Monday evenings I have fallen asleep in front of the BBC program “Empire.” During “Making Ourselves at Home,” on March 5, host Jeremy Paxman went to […]
Parry, Ponga and Pōhutukawa
“As if there aren’t enough horrors right here on earth to turn any man’s hair white without bringing in some unknowns from outer space.” -Simon on UFOs, Man & Other […]
Masterclass
My readers may know by now that I am a Guardian newspaper reader. So it is no surprise that the first writing workshop I tried out was one of the […]
Boffin
In the last episode of the BBC Sherlock series, “The Reichenbach Fall,” the viewer sees the newspaper headline “Boffin Sherlock Solves Another.” Sherlock tosses the newspaper aside, saying in disgust, […]
Karyn Huenemann and Sara Jeannette Duncan
Karyn Huenemann is the first contributor (other than me) to Canadian Writers Abroad – and her article makes clear why she should be. She has lived in England, India, California, […]
Jane Urquhart
“I think you will love me if I have stories too.” -Teo in Sanctuary Line by Jane Urquhart, MacLehose Press, p. 215 When I asked Jane Urquhart if living in […]
Sara Jeannette Duncan 2
It was easier than I thought it would be to find where Sara Jeannette Duncan lived in Chelsea — or, actually, Mrs Everard Cotes. Yesterday, at the public library of […]
Sara Jeannette Duncan
It’s time to talk about writers who lived abroad. I want to start with a Canadian writer who left home to write and never moved back. She was given the […]
The Canadian in Doctor Who
Who knew that “Doctor Who” was created by a Canadian? Sydney Newman transferred from Canadian television to English television in 1958. He worked on ITV’s Armchair Theatre series, which included […]
Shakespeare and Company
George Whitman, the owner of the bookstore Shakespeare and Company, died on December 14, 2011, at the age of 98. Whitman went to Paris from the United States after his […]
Compare and Contrast
I start making comparisons as soon as we arrive at our flat in London. “Oh, look, the furniture is the same as in our place in Vienna.” And New Delhi […]
Walls
During ten years of living outside of Canada I found that I took pictures of walls as much as scenery. I mean not only the walls that sheltered me but […]
Canadian Writers Abroad 