Blog
Progress Report: Living Inside Project Mirror
Six months in and the boundaries are blurring. Project Mirror started with a single conversation back in July. A client asking for “influencer hands” through surgery, not manicure. That moment opened something I couldn’t close, and now I’m deeper in this fictional world than I ever intended. The feedback on
When Country Speaks Through Canvas
The queues at Tate Modern stretched around the block yesterday. Everyone wanted to see Emily Kam Kngwarray’s work – Australia’s first major European showcase of an artist who started painting at seventy. I stood before “Ntang Dreaming” and felt something shift. These weren’t just dots and lines. This was language
Christmas Morning in London
Christmas morning in London felt quieter than expected. No snow, just that particular December stillness when most of the city stays indoors. I’d planned nothing elaborate. Coffee, reading, maybe a walk if the weather cooperated. The past months have been dense with festivals, conferences, teaching commitments. Sometimes the best gift
December at Daunt Books
The Marylebone branch always feels different in December. The Christmas displays are obvious, but the light falls differently through those tall windows when London gets properly winter. I wasn’t hunting for anything specific. Walking between shelves without agenda lets your brain process recent months without forcing conclusions. 2025 has been
When Psychoanalysis Meets Politics: Decoding the Present Through the Unconscious
Thursday evening at Beveridge Hall felt electric. Amia Srinivasan’s “The Impossible Patient” wasn’t just another academic lecture—it was intellectual archaeology of our current political moment. Srinivasan approached the podium with that quiet confidence you recognize in serious thinkers. Her premise? Political theorists are turning back to Freud not for nostalgia,
Burabay Reflections
Four days at Voices of Friends V taught me something unexpected about creative territories. Not the usual festival insights about networking or inspiration – something rawer. Watching Kazakhstani poets read alongside British writers, listening to Russian authors translate emotion into English in real-time, I realised we’re all performing translation. Not
The Algorithm Knows You Better Than You Do
Yesterday morning, whilst waiting for my flat white at Monmouth Coffee on Monmouth Street, I opened Goodreads to mark a book as finished. The app immediately suggested The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis. I stared at the recommendation for longer than seemed reasonable for someone standing in a coffee queue. I’d been
Project Mirror: Another Look
Four months into writing Project Mirror and I’m ready to share another piece. After the response to my first excerpt, several people asked to see more of how this world actually functions. This scene comes later in the book, when my protagonist starts noticing cracks in the system. A teenage
Finding Poetry in the Stacks
Spent yesterday at the National Poetry Library on the South Bank. Not planned, not strategic – just happened to be walking past and saw the sign. The building sits quietly next to the Royal Festival Hall. No grand entrance, no marketing banners. Just a door that says ‘Poetry Library’ in
