John Baker’s Blog

What phases are involved in the creation of a text?

I came back from vacation earlier this month, and the forest across the street from my grocery store had been chopped down to make way for a shopping center. It fascinated me, how completely that changed the look and feel of a street that I use [...]

I spent this morning, World Book Day, with a radio crew in a shop window in Harrogate giving away new books for old. Don’t ask how I got involved in it. I was offered it by a local radio station and then got swept up in the euphoria.
I write novels and publish, most of the [...]

There are many problems with a list like this. It heavily favours white American males, and in its myopia manages to avoid mention of some of the 20th century’s best novelists while including other names which really shouldn’t be there.
The list was compiled by the editorial board of the Modern Library, which is a division [...]

This is a sample:
Times had changed at the church, too. He could see that as soon as they entered. Oh, physically it was the same - dim and glimmery, smelling of wax candles - but only the very oldest mourners were in black. The others had on every colour of the rainbow, clothes they’d [...]