Short Story: The Octopus Curry

The Octopus Curry  – A Short Story by Penny Nair Price Liz and Roger worked together and were great comrades in the office – Roger had had his eye on her for some time but he was strapped for cash and when  Friday evening came,  another colleague – Chris invited him to eat locally to the office as a treat. Liz said her goodbyes and went on her way for the weekend.  The chosen restaurant was on the first floor.  Roger took his rucksack with him, found a space for it,  and the two colleagues sat down to a wonderful … Continue reading Short Story: The Octopus Curry

Alice Munro, master of short story and Nobel Prize winner dies aged 92

Alice Munro known for mastery of short stories and depictions of womanhood in rural settings, has died in Ontario, Canada aged 92. Born in 1931 in Wingham, Ontario, Munro grew up in a fox and mink farm, in the most disreputable part of the town. Munro found an escape in reading as a child and her favourite writers like Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens, and Lucy Maud Montgomery guided her in appreciating literature beyond her age. “Books seem to me to be magic, and I wanted to be part of the magic, Books are far more important to me than life”  … Continue reading Alice Munro, master of short story and Nobel Prize winner dies aged 92

Agony and ecstasy engulfed by desire

Provoking offbeat sexual acts, challenges the binary of marriage and explores sexuality in perimenopause.  All Fours is tender, hilarious and sexy. A semi-famous artist announces her  pan to drive cross-country, from LA  to New York. Twenty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey. Miranda July in All Fours, a 45-year-old “semi-famous” artist who remains unnamed locks eyes with the young man who’s squeegeeing her . Their intense but … Continue reading Agony and ecstasy engulfed by desire

On the Brink of fear & disaster

Philip Notman, an acclaimed medieval history professor whose fondness for Emerson’s scariest quote “ I  am glad to be on the brink of fear”, attends a conference in Bergen, Norway. On his return to London, and to his wife and son, something unexpected and inexplicable happens to him, and he is unable to settle back into his normal life. Seeking answers, he flies to Cadiz to see Inés, a Spanish academic, with whom he shared a connection at the conference, but his journey doesn’t end there. A chance encounter with a wealthy, elderly couple sends him to a house on … Continue reading On the Brink of fear & disaster

Past pains follow present pleasures: Tangled-colonial roots

Do you cherish British countryside, the moors and lochs, valleys and mountains, cottages and country houses. Historian and professor of colonialism and heritage at the University of Leicester, Corrine Fowler brings rural life and colonial rule together with transformative results, through ten country walks, roaming the island with varied companions. She connects the Cotswolds to Calcutta. Dolgellau to Virginia and Grasmere to Canton. Empire transformed rural lives for better and for worse, whether in Welsh sheep farms or Cornish copper mines, it offer both opportunity and exploitation. Flower shows how the booming profits of overseas colonial activities, and the select … Continue reading Past pains follow present pleasures: Tangled-colonial roots

Spectacular Opal’s Gene operation begins a new era for deaf

In another trial at Addenbrooke’s NHS hospital, (Cambridge), Opal Sandy (18months) from Oxfordshire,  a girl completely deaf, after she was diagnosed with auditory neuropathy caused by disruption of nerve impulses going from her inner ear to the brain,  can now hear after having world-leading gene therapy.   A working copy of the fault gene that caused it  was delivered by infusion through a tube into her right ear during surgery last September. Within three months, her mum Joy 33, realised Opal could hear clapping. “ I thought it was a fluke, or something caught her eye, but I repeated it … Continue reading Spectacular Opal’s Gene operation begins a new era for deaf

Facing the ghosts of his childhood

Michael Donor’s Grow Where They Fall,  where the protagonist considers buying a Robert Mapplethrope print, the photograph of a nude Black man, but the sitter’s pose- pulling his knees up in front of his face – is troubling, “ Was a weeping or was this a moment of gentle repose? Wonders Kwame. “Was this clutching and supporting of himself the model demonstrating he needed no one else?   In 2017, Kwame is teaching English at a South London secondary school. His pupils consider him one of the “safe’ ones, and he lives with his university friend Edwin, a generous, willowy, Period Drama … Continue reading Facing the ghosts of his childhood

On the Brink of fear & disaster

Philip Notman, an acclaimed medieval history professor whose fondness for Emerson’s scariest quote “ I  am glad to be on the brink of fear”, attends a conference in Bergen, Norway. On his return to London, and to his wife and son, something unexpected and inexplicable happens to him, and he is unable to settle back into his normal life. Seeking answers, he flies to Cadiz to see Inés, a Spanish academic, with whom he shared a connection at the conference, but his journey doesn’t end there. A chance encounter with a wealthy, elderly couple sends him to a house on … Continue reading On the Brink of fear & disaster

Wales school stabbing leaving shocked teacher seriously hurt

Police and  two air ambulances were called out to Ysgol Dyffryn Amman Valley School  a Welsh secondary school, in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, after Liz Hopkin (53), a special needs teacher was stabbed in the neck four times by a female pupil during an attack is seriously ill but has been sent home to recuperate. Three people and a  pupil were injure in the attack at around 11:!5am on Wednesday. Worried parents waited for several hours at the gates of the school, which was “in lockdown”, before being tearfully reunited with their children as the school day ended. A teenage girl has … Continue reading Wales school stabbing leaving shocked teacher seriously hurt

Reincarnation: Why older man should end up with a young woman

The Gentleman From Peru, gives poignant insight into a story of regret, fate and epic love. Raul, a 60-year-old, white-bearded, lone wolf staying at a resort on the Amalfi Coast is the Gentleman  featured in The Gentleman from Peru by Andre Caiman. When a group of college friends find themselves marooned at a luxurious hotel on the Amalfi Coast in Italy, including Margot — a gallerist simply described as snarky. While their boat is being repaired, they can’t help but observe the daily routine of a few hotel guest- a mysterious, white-bearded stranger who sits on the veranda each night … Continue reading Reincarnation: Why older man should end up with a young woman