TAKING A BREAK – BACK SOON

Quiet, beautiful, and with very limited internet access. The ideal holiday destination.

Writers don’t do holidays very well, but I’ll be taking a short break from work, blogging, travel and almost everything else.

Thanks to all who’ve followed this blog during the year and especially to all those who’ve ‘liked’ and commented on posts, either here or on Facebook. It’s what keeps me doing it, as my fellow bloggers will well understand.

All the best for the silly season, and hope to be back in cyberspace with more stories to tell very soon.

THE NEWEST NETHERLANDER

Welkom, meneer! Our king is delighted you can join us.

We citizens of the world would like to be allowed to travel wherever we like and to live where we choose.

By filling in a form and forking out for a visa now and then, we’re able to do pretty much just that.

Others are not so fortunate. By accident of birth, many are condemned to live in places they would prefer to leave. Places which are dangerous to life, health and liberty. Places which condemn their families to generations of powerlessness and poverty.

Which is why a citizenship ceremony is an important, joyful and humbling occasion.

FREE BOOKS AT MELBOURNE BUS STOPS

I love the idea of these pop-up libraries at tram and bus stops in Melbourne.

It took me (and others) a little while to realise that the books were real. And free.

Well done, bookworld.com.au – advertising that people actually enjoy!

POST SCRIPT: Thanks to my correspondent Ian (see comments below) for directing me to Madison Wisconsin’s Little Free Library system. I recommend checking out their website and video.

We need more initiatives like this.

THEATRE REVIEWS – praise be to bloggers and tweeters!

Alison Bell, Matthew Whittet, Peter Carroll and Claire Jones in The Book of Everything. Photo: Heidrun Lohr.

Writers are a needy bunch. Releasing our work into the world begins with vanity, hope or a desire to engage, and having taken the plunge we’re pathetically grateful if people tell us they enjoy it.

It’s nice if ‘people’ means ‘thousands of people prepared to buy our books or tickets to our plays’, but even two or three supporters will do, as long as they rave about our brilliance and are not just saying that because they’re our parents.

Which is why, when a new play of mine opens, I love reading what people think about it on blogs, Twitter and FaceBook.