This is a relatively recent addition to this website, 2025, although it should be evident that writing has been a driving force. I have always aspired to write in some capacity. It strikes me as the most personal and exposing means of expression. The spoken word can hang in the air, it can be misheard and can be instantly forgotten. Yet the written word has permanence and as easy subject for scrutiny. I have not found it straightforward for the words to flow. For that reason I abandoned an outline and one-third of a written novel some years ago. I realised the effort to complete it and the expectation to follow it with another was more than I could manage.
Writing for the professional purposes outlined on this website was a challenge between the application of technical language of the subject ans finding the right low-level of readability in a school target audience.
In recent years I have added narrative and anecdotes to the brief notes on the various stages of my education and working life. Thus it has become more of a memoir than a curriculum vitae.
I have been using this statement on social media handles:
“A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world.”
Susan Sontag.
Words and Brunch
In 2024 I joined a writing group consisting of about six people to explore, through guided themes, both creativity and recollection. We meet at the Singleton Environment Centre and Sita Turner, an English teacher by profession, brings stimulus for a series of guided tasks. I have found it therapeutic and inspiring. I hope to develop it further and to write on. So far, we have had the themes of
- water,
- everyday objects,
- travel,
- food and
- friendship.
We followed this up in 2026 with quarterly creative writing sessions based on the four seasons.
Fountain Pens
Also for 2026 we have six sessions run by Sita at the Harper’s Cafe in Victoria Park. These have been funded by Ashford Borough Council. In the park there is the Hubert Fountain – see what they did there.
The exercises merit further time spent on them outside the session. And I really should find the time..
Life writing
I wrote a blogpost about memoir, in May 2026.
Why writers write
In 2012, I addressed ‘why I write’ in the old blogpsot site. Who better than George Orwell to read about the drivers for writing. If only he had known about blogs.
1. “Sheer egoism… Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen — in short, with the whole top crust of humanity.”
2. Aesthetic enthusiasm
On the blogspot I have referred to something similar as expressive life.
3. “Historical impulse
Desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity.”
Well, of course, he really means geographical impulse.
4. Political purpose
Oh, yes!
Source:
‘Why I Write: George Orwell’s Four Motives for Creation’
by Maria Popova
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/06/25/george-orwell-why-i-write/
Journaling
Journaling offers us a space to pause, reflect, and reconnect with what truly matters—ourselves.
See this blogpost which includes my 2025 experiment with journaling >