Archive for June 2009
That all important short list…
Posted by: melissabenn on: June 29, 2009
- In: Musings
- 3 Comments
As the holidays approach, my attention is focussed on what music and books to take. My elder daughter has fervently promised to load all the music I could possibly desire onto my i-pod, in return for ‘borrowing’ it for the last couple of years, so that’s taken care of ( what a dream to simply [...]
Graft and craft.
Posted by: melissabenn on: June 22, 2009
Last Thursday, I was invited to dinner with a book group in London – the hundredth meeting of this group as it happened- in order to discuss my novel One of Us. I sat, under a small but persistent IKEA style spotlight, at the centre of a long table groaning with food, for about two [...]
Breaking through the silence
Posted by: melissabenn on: June 18, 2009
Please come to a special event, Breaking Through the Silence, put on by the English PEN Writers in Prison Committee and JAM, an organisation set up to nurture, promote and perform new music in the UK, in support of imprisoned and persecuted writers throughout the world, but particularly highlighting the situation of Aung San Suu [...]
Honest MP’s. Yes, they most certainly do exist!
Posted by: melissabenn on: June 11, 2009
Very thoughtful piece by Linda Grant in Comment is Free today on the existence – and existential difficulties – of honest MP’s, and the role played by the unholy triangle of politicians, press and communications experts aka spin doctors in making a life of reflective policy and law making far more difficult than it should [...]
Whatever happened to Holland Park?
Posted by: melissabenn on: June 11, 2009
- In: Musings
- 2 Comments
People often ask me what my old school, Holland Park comprehensive, was like and what it is like now. For the moment, I will direct people to Michele Hanson’s excellent article in The Guardian about the school in recent years. Enough said. I will be returning to this subject again, in this, Holland Park’s fiftieth [...]
A Good Read
Posted by: melissabenn on: June 8, 2009
- In: News
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Listen to Melissa on A Good Read, Radio Four’s book programme, Tuesday at 4.30 and repeated on Friday at 11 pm.
Today’s news.
Posted by: melissabenn on: June 8, 2009
As for the election results, these are deeply depressing and frightening – in terms of fascist gains – if predictable. Whether Brown stays or goes, New Labour has clearly failed to change Britain as it once promised to do. This, combined with the recession has opened us up to new right scare mongering from the [...]
Flett on Flint
Posted by: melissabenn on: June 8, 2009
- In: News
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Further to my post yesterday, I think Keith Flett in today’s Guardian has a point, about Gordon Brown, the Guardian -and other papers’ – use of the Flint picture, and what he calls the ‘amalgam technique’ in politics. Below the full text of his letter today: “As a socialist I have no time for the [...]
The conundrum of Caroline Flint
Posted by: melissabenn on: June 7, 2009
For the moment, I am only going to set out a couple of questions currently buzzing round my brain about the Caroline Flint affair, in particular the matter of those photos coupled with her angry comment that Gordon Brown used her and other women in the Cabinet as ‘window dressing.’ Yesterday I had at least [...]
Jaw dropping tales.
Posted by: melissabenn on: June 6, 2009
- In: Events | Musings
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The political world may be in free fall but so was I, for a brief moment last week, and here’s something I learned in the process. Last Wednesday night, when leaving the Orange Prize Party at the Royal Festival Hall. I tripped and fell, taking almost the entire impact on my chin and jaw. ( [...]
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