The Savage Frontier: Page 99 Test
- January 17, 2019
- by
- Matt
Marshal Zeringue’s Campaign for the American Reader blog has a fun exercise called ‘ the Page 99 test.’ Following Ford Madox Ford’s dictum ‘ Open the book at page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you,’ it invites writers to talk about page 99 in one of their books and see whether it bears out Madox Ford’s thesis. This is my contribution, about The Savage Frontier: the Pyrenees in History and the Imagination:
‘The Savage Frontier is a history of the Pyrenees, which challenges the stereotypical image of the...
What I’m Reading: Blog Piece
- January 15, 2019
- by
- Matt
When I’m writing non-fiction, my reading tends be dominated by the subject in hand. I try to read obsessively on whatever project i’m writing about so that I’m completely filled up by it. When I’m in between books, as I am now, I try to read more freely, either catching up on books I’ve been...
The Infernal Machine: the Relaunch!
- December 29, 2018
- by
- Matt
Hello world! It’s been a while since I posted on this site, and I must apologize to my regular readers for my prolonged absence. I haven’t been here for a number of reasons. Firstly, I simply didn’t have time. There is only so much of an average day that you can spend writing, and I...
Edward Abbey: Desert Warrior
- March 04, 2018
- by
- Matt
Over the last two years I’ve found myself reading a lot of what is often loosely called ‘nature writing’. This is partly because of my forthcoming book on the Pyrenees and my research into the so-called ‘discovery’ of the Pyrenees that took place during the nineteenth century. This was a period when the Pyrenees were...
Peter Kosminsky’s Islamic State
- August 22, 2017
- by
- Matt
The violence that we call terrorism has always been surrounded by a curious paradox. On the one hand virtually every terrorist emergency in history has declared terrorism to be a unique threat to society, yet the societies under threat are generally not encouraged and are even actively discouraged from thinking about what terrorism is,...
On Writing and Silence
- December 18, 2016
- by
- Matt
A loyal follower of this blog and Internet friend asked me last week why I haven’t blogged much recently, so I thought I should explain to those who are interested. There are three main reasons. In the first place, I’ve been extraordinarily busy. I’ve been writing two books, one of which required a...
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