The difficulties of dealing with involuntary celibacy, from desolation to misogyny, seem to haunt some of Andrew Marvell’s most famous lyric poems. … More Was Marvell a seventeenth-century ‘incel’?
Hanya Yanagihara’s enrapturing novel A Little Life (2015) finds astonishing depths in suffering and the efforts to make it tolerable. … More A Little Life
It’s not often that I greet New Year with indifference. On the contrary, I’m notorious for indulging in it. But a change of attitude is exactly what’s needed – so let’s begin. … More Create Chaos to Find Quiet: An Epilogue, 2016
October 28th still registers as one of the most important days in my calendar after a horrible incident 17 years ago. It’s a day that changed me forever. … More The day that changed me forever
There are many good reasons why I don’t write much about work – one being that you’ve no way of knowing how well you actually know somebody you work with… … More Unearthing your private life at work
Green is the colour of innocence and experience, of sickness and of health. A glimpse at what it means to be ‘green’ in Andrew Marvell and William Shakespeare. … More Marvell, Shakespeare, and Green Sicknesses
I’ve recently started calling people out on their behaviour, and now find myself burning bridges where I had previously let them crumble. But having burnt no fewer than four in the past month, it’s becoming concerning and could be reflective of something else. … More Burning Bridges: A Twist of Character
The Telegraph recently published an article entitled “Liberating, not lonely: the truth about being single”. The problem with this message is that it marginalises the importance of choice. A brief examination of an alternative ‘truth’. … More Liberating, not lonely? Another truth about being single.
After six years of anonymity here at Writing Privacy, I’ve decided that it’s time to reveal myself. … More An End to Anonymity
A line of work we don’t think about too often is what happens to the dead when there’s nobody left. A poem by Rory Waterman and Uberto Pasolini’s remarkable ‘Still Life’ (2013) give us plenty of room for thought. … More Still Life
