Archive for March 2009
A sorry tale.
Posted by: melissabenn on: March 30, 2009
- In: News
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How many dimensions can one uncover to this trivial, slightly tawdry news item? The sight, yesterday, of the Home Secretary’s husband Richard Timney issuing a twenty two second apology outside the family home for downloading two pornographic films, which his wife then mistakenly claimed as part of her parliamentary expense account, fills me with an [...]
An Inspector shouts, an audience giggles………….
Posted by: melissabenn on: March 29, 2009
- In: Events | Musings | Reviews
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Now feels like a particularly good time to revisit J B Priestley’s An Inspector Calls, a classic piece of polemical theatre that held me spellbound me when I first saw it a very long time ago. It was inevitably less thrilling (for me) this time round, because it’s a play that relies on mystery style [...]
Quiet Chaos: Mother’s day reflections on the latest Nanni Moretti film
Posted by: melissabenn on: March 23, 2009
I love the work of Italian actor and director Nanni Moretti, that subtly animated stillness he possesses. I could happily spend my time watching him eat pasta, drive a scooter or simply sit on a bench doing nothing very much at all. So why did his most recent film, Quiet Chaos, out this month on [...]
Bury the good news
Posted by: melissabenn on: March 19, 2009
Discarded needles, enforced mediocrity, petty bullying, too much political correctness, not enough Jesus or competitive sport: New Statesman readers with children in state schools will be surprised – but perhaps not that surprised – to hear that these are common features of our nation’s schools, at least according to our press and broadcasting media, few [...]
A message to the Facebook fraternity/sisterhood.
Posted by: melissabenn on: March 16, 2009
- In: News
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Here’s an interesting looking group you could join……….
What I learned from a hundred seventeen year olds last Thursday
Posted by: melissabenn on: March 14, 2009
A while ago, I realised that one of the tricks – or is it paradoxes? – of speaking well in public is not to be afraid of your audience, to approach the whole encounter with an open hearted curiosity and excitement; to be interested in who your audience are and what might emerge in the [...]
No quick fix for the soul
Posted by: melissabenn on: March 13, 2009
This week I was at the House of Commons, chairing a meeting for The Maya Centre, an Islington based multi ethnic voluntary organisation that offers psychodynamic therapy to women on low incomes, work that is clearly making a huge difference. Despite its reputation as home of the rich and cool, Islington has many pockets of [...]
One of Us nominated for British Book Award
Posted by: melissabenn on: March 10, 2009
- In: Events | News
- 2 Comments
One of Us is one of six books on the shortlist for the Waterstone’s New Writer of the Year – a prize aimed at identifying ‘literary stars of the future’ – at this year’s Galaxy British Book Awards. The nominations were announced today, March 10. The award is decided by popular vote and voting lines [...]
Men, women and the political novel
Posted by: melissabenn on: March 5, 2009
- In: Events | Musings
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To the Bath literature festival earlier this week, to speak with Roma Tearne, author of two vivid, wonderfully told and swift moving novels about both her native Sri Lanka and life as a recent immigrant in Britain, to which she came, aged ten, fleeing the civil war in her country. I am at the festival [...]
Finally, a “young lady” answers back…..
Posted by: melissabenn on: March 5, 2009
- In: Guardian article | News
- 1 Comment
Below, a flavour of the kind of response I attract whenever I write any political piece, particularly about education. I will protect the privacy of the man who wrote it, who mounted a robust and highly personal defence of grammar schools, but I will take the liberty of quoting the more personal parts, that relate [...]
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