Welcome to justthoughtsnstuff

I started posting to jtns on 20 February 2010 with just one word, 'Mosaic'. This seemed an appropriate introduction to a blog that would juxtapose fragments of memoir and life-writing. Since 1996, I'd been coming to terms with the consequences of emotional and economic abuse that had begun in childhood, and which, amongst other things, had sought to stifle self-expression. While I'd explored some aspects of my life through fiction and, to a lesser extent, journalism, it was only in 2010 that I felt confident enough to write openly about myself. I believed this was an important part of the healing process. Yet within weeks, the final scenes of my family's fifty-year nightmare started to play themselves out and the purpose of the blog became one of survival through writing. Although some posts are about my family's suffering - most explicitly, Life-Writing Talk, with Reference to Trust: A family story - the majority are about happier subjects (including, Bampton in rural west Oxfordshire, where I live, Oxford, where I work, the seasons and the countryside, walking and cycling) and I hope that these, together with their accompanying photos, are enjoyable and positive. Note: In February 2020, on jtns' tenth birthday, I stopped posting to this blog. It is now a contained work of life-writing about ten years of my life. Frank, 21 February 2020.

New blog: morethoughtsnstuff.com.

Wednesday 8 June 2011

a book for all and none

Finished my online teaching in the Upper Reading Room of the Bodleian at 6.30 and headed for a pint at the Turf. Pub packed with joyous finalists.

Then on to Blackwell and the launch of my colleague (that should read boss) Clare Morgan's first novel, A Book for All and None.

I've not seen that many people at Blackwell for a launch for a long while. A great evening catching up with old friends and meeting new people, and listening to Clare's reading. That included that very long sentence that nevertheless hangs together and makes perfect sense. Nicely read.

A why-didn't-I-think-of-that book, I have to say.

Now on the bus home. Bright, frosty-looking sky to the west. Frost in mid-June? That's what they say, come Friday morning.

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