The final version – a certain kind of writer’s magic!
I have just printed off the final master copy of my new short
story collection Kaleidoscope – inspired by a series of well
received workshops I offered last spring on the crucial connection between
memoir and the short story. This master
copy will go to my third highly informed and insightful reader whose views I
will welcome.
The
title – Kaleidoscope – Stories From The Frontier –
and also the nature of these short stories – was inspired by a good deal of
reading, especially the work of Diana Athill and Jean Rhys.
I
was particularly engaged by Diana Athill’s insightful comment on the late work
of Jean Rhys, with whom she worked in the last 15 years of Rhys’s long
life. Athill remarked on Rhys’s writing ‘from the ‘frontiers of old age’ as
being of her very best,
I
realised recently the degree to which my mind and imagination is a storehouse
of experiences of my whole life – perceptions, sensual reactions, pleasures and
pains. These elements are like the tiny bits of glitter in a kaleidoscope
– each bit existing in its own right. Each time I shake my kaleidoscope I make
a unique pattern, a unique story, reflecting of elements my life in different
times and different places.
After
much thought I have come to the conclusion that all memory is best transmuted
through fiction and that all fiction is a vehicle for memoir. My Kaleidoscope
collection here echoes these ideas and, I hope, reflects the intimate literary
relationship between memoir, fiction and the short story,
Kaleidoscope will be published in the spring. I’m looking forward to that. My
life is there on the page. I hope Kaleidoscope will resonate with
a wide range of writers and readers interested in this complex
connection between memoir and fiction.
My heartfelt hope is that Kaleidoscope will resonate with a wide range of writers and
readers interested in this complex and intriguing connection between
memoir and fiction.
Ah!
Titles!
The titles of the short stories here are part of the
essential truth of the life they reflect – the meat on the bones, as it were...
Kaleidoscope – Stories from the Frontier
Keong Sak. ‘
I do enjoy Singapore, very
much.’ Tim Rice
Watching
and Feeling. ‘Blake said the body was the
soul’s prison unless the five senses are fully developed and open.’ Jim Morrison.
Masculinity. ‘Prithee, peace/ I dare do all that may become a man; / Who
dares do more is none. Shakespeare: Macbeth
‘
This Working Life. Nothing will work unless you do. Maya
Angelou
‘The door is inscribed in gold Gothic lettering. Miss Hogarth: Principal…’ R.E
Patchouli. There is nothing
automatic about political change, about liberation. Gloria Steinem.
1963. ‘So, how’s your love life?’ Amanda’s small,
round face examines me, top to toe, her eyes shrewd…’ R.E
Bandages. No one ever told me that grief
felt so like fear. C S Lewis
‘The man, his coxcomb of silver hair bobbing, walks
with a spring in his step down the hospital corridor …’ R.E
Ruthie’s Rant. Even
though I was shy, I found I would get onstage of I had a new identity. David Bowie.
Brown Velvet.
I think writers are, at best, outsiders to the society
they inhabit. John Irving.
Educating Tegger
The only person who is
educated is the one who has learned how to learn …and change. Carl Rogers
Governess… it is the duty of the poet to obtain
citizenship for an increasing horde of nameless emotions…Ágnes Nemes Nagy
Going By Train.
‘I have learned
how faces fall to bone,
how under the
eyelids terror lurks…Anna Akhmatova,
1957
The Fox
House.
Only connect
the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be
seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. EM Forster
Story
Teller’s Apprentice. My daughter is one of my
greatest inspirations… Every day she surprises me and teaches my something. Patti Smith.
White
Frost on Grass .Parts One, Two &7
Three
The first lie in fiction is that the author gives some
order to the chaos of life. Isabel Allende.
Big Issue; Esme’s Story.
Now I know what a ghost is. Unfinished business,
that's what.’
Salman
Rushdie.
Tiananmen. Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance
you must keep moving. Albert Einstein.
