Catch the Wave: Pre-Order The Breaking Wave by Ian Marchant
It’s been much too long since I did a blog post, but I could not let this moment pass without sharing something exciting with you. On 18 September, my new book The Breaking Wave...
Category: Writing
Ian’s FACup Challenge, 3rd Qualifying Round Report
Emirates FACup 3rd Qualifying Round, October 1st Basford United 1 -1 Boston United Replay, Tuesday 4th October, Basford win on penalties. I have been suffering from Bad Faith. I’ve been working on a book...
Second Qualifying Round report
September 17th, 2022, Emirates FACup Second Qualifying Round, Trade Tyres Community Stadium, Brownfields Road, Lichfield. Lichfield City 0 – Boston United 4. Att 704 Pies: 7.59 A few years ago I read somewhere (can’t...
One Fine Day
This morning (24/08/02019) at the Presteigne Festival, I talked for the first time about my new project, which is called, as you might have guessed, One Fine Day. So It seemed an appropriate moment...
How many miles, how many?
I know of two bilingual signposts that show Leominster with its Welsh name, Llanllieni. There’s one up on the A44 by the Fforest Inn, and the one in this picture on the Presteigne by-pass....
Real, Decent, never Ordinary. My Ranting CV
I wonder what Mr. Nigel Farage meant in his speech at the UKIP victory rally that ‘Leave was a win for Real Decent Ordinary People?’ Does he mean working class English white people, I’ve...
Popular, but hard to get.
After five years work on a book about the British Freaks (told through the person of my great good friend Bob Rowberry), I’m nearly there. Nearly, but not quite I’ve still got questions. In...
Carr’s Herefordshire, with extras….
This is JL Carr’s map of Herefordshire (taken in a winter window, so there’s a bit of glare.) Readers of this blog will remember the post earlier this year, where I wrote about solving...
All Souls Day
Just been to church. I live opposite St. Andrews Church in Presteigne, one of 4 Church of England churches in Wales. (It’s a long story, with which I won’t bore those readers uninterested in...
J.L. Carr and Stocken Farm
I am a long time fan of the great English novelist J.L. Carr. The title of my novel ‘The Battle for Dole Acre’ is an homage to his ‘Battle of Pollock’s Crossing’, and I...
How indeed…
This is a first pass in some haste to say hello to you, subscribers, regular visitors, victims of search engines (North/South divide? Tit-rub?) etc to the new look website. This is the fifth full...
How to Get Your Head Together in the Country
I’m having a meeting with old Perry Venus in Hay about updating the website. I think that the night thing has had its day. Something of the Night will stand or fall without my...
Teachers getting lost
When I’m teaching, I often tell my students not to worry about originality. ‘Originality,’ I tell ’em, ‘is a shibboleth. The only writer who we know for sure was original was Homer. After that,...
Lumb Bank week in the snow.
Just back from a wonderful week tutoring an Arvon course at Lumb Bank, in the hills above Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire. All week, the snow stayed about a foot deep, until Friday night, when...
A Walk to Bongville
I have been waiting to read Olivia Laing’s ‘To the River’ for a year; I couldn’t afford the hardback when I saw it in the summer in the Penrallt Gallery Bookshop in Machynlleth, but...
Novels and Kindle.
Hope springs eternal, especially in the hearts of mid-listers. This week my novels ‘In Southern Waters’ and ‘The Battle for Dole Acre’ are republished for the Kindle, and hope insists that maybe this time...
