Balloon: Freedom and fate in the GDR

The following was taken from a letter to a fellow writer, with whom I spoke extensively about the research for my new book Alterity that will touch on events of WWII and the impact of the GDR system on the …

Communion with Plato’s Aesthetics

The following has been taken from a letter to a friend. His words on beauty set in motion a deeper investigation into the essence of this mysterious human form. Fundamentally beauty underpins art, and the very being of the artist. …

Success in the underworld

Still in pursuit of identity, one of my books has posed an interesting argument: Are crimes perceived as more terrible when the victims are anonymous? Yes, it is one of these obvious questions I never thought of (and this is …

Thoughts on their graves

While we have reasonable control over how we perceive ourselves in life, there is little control over how others see us in death. What gravestone they choose, how they decorate the grave with flowers, pictures and other thoughtful gestures. On …

Senses for the blind

Tiles, I mused, why would anyone put down tiles in a place like this? Click, clack, click, clack, click… then it stops and I realise my eyes are shut. There was nothing to see, or hear, or feel. Only the …

On the extraordinary dynamics of play

child in its essence is complex, and yet it is not so.Ruthless, proud, pure. Their game in itself is creative and imaginative[No losers in fate] is quite liberal to all and devoid of any goalother than pleasure in time; countless …

The faintest orange

Ceaseless. I wander the streets in a small town between nations. Narrow pavements, and I roam lines until they turn into dog piss, leak across the road and mingle with the dripping of sinks from open windows. This warm, soft …

Feeling, deeply

I never understood why adults aren’t seemingly allowed to use swings. For their pleasure or just to while away time. It was time. Time to take my ink, the paper, my diary and the camera, and walk out. It felt …