I always have too many books on the go at anyone time; a novel, a book of poetry and some non-fiction. At the moment the novel is Panenka by Ronan Hession. I read his previous book, Leonard and Hungry Paul and thought it was a fabulous book. The current one is just as engaging and beautifully written - very simple but very powerful. In terms of poetry, is is The Collected Poems of Les Murray. In the past I’d found his work difficult; but I was wrong. This collection is fabulous and being able to roam across his output makes each individual poem more resonant and the collective impact stunning. His early work is, for me, absolutely beautiful. The non-fiction is Hannah Critchlow’s The Science of Fate, a study of neuroscience and how our brains and out inherited “hard-wiring” affect our daily lives and the choices we make or, indeed, are able to make. Fascinating stuff.

I recently re-visited Edinburgh and, near the top of Leith Walk (not too far from one of the police stations that Ian Rankin uses for his Rebus novels) is a fantastic independent bookshop called Typewronger Books. It is a superb and stimulating place and the staff are so passionate about everything about books and writing. I had a long and fascinating chat with Elsa about all things book-ish and came out inspired. Also came out thinking hard about taking my books off Amazon. Thanks so much for nudging me back onto the straight and narrow.

The stimulus to write comes, for me, from a variety of places. I have just finished reading Ursula Le Guin’s book about writing; Steering the Craft. I know that it isn’t technically a visual stimulus, but many of the examples she uses are drawn from some of the great descriptive writers - Hardy, Woolf, Austen as well as other genres (see the next section, Re-reading for example) and even non-fiction writers. The descriptions in these quoted texts made me re-view the landscapes I am familiar with and learn more about the the ones I encountered while reading her book. Places such as North Northumberland (where I live) the cityscape of Edinburgh (where I used to work and where I was visiting) and the north east coast (where I do much of my walking) are all familiar. All are the subject of many tales, myths, fiction and narratives and are endlessly stimulating and inspirational in new ways. I occasionally need reminding to look up, look longer and look harder.

Just been to visit the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield too. The sense of place in the work of all the exhibitors is palpable and it is impossible to come away without being inspired to strive even harder to capture the genius loci of wherever it is that inspires your work.

Many new books pile up, waiting to be read for the first time, but an equally large pile is that for the books I want to re-read. Often, the stimulus is from other writing, from a chance comment or seeing them in a bookshop window. Currently, top of that pile are a couple of Alan Garner books, Thursbitch and Owl Service. I am re-reading these after having re-read A Wizard of Earthsea. I am not usually found reading fantasy novels, but these were prompted by Ursula Le Guin being quoted in an article, reflecting on the fact she has written over seventy books of various genres; her writing and her technique are fantastic as too are Alan Garner’s. Add to that, Alan Garner writes about the Peaks and the Cheshire hills - a part of the world I know well - and he loves words for their own sake, too. Good writing is good writing, whatever the subject.

One of the books I read recently was about quantum physics. Now, I’m no physicist, but quantum mechanics seems, to me, to be particularly difficult to grasp. The idea that light, for example, can be both a particle and a wave at the same time. Then I read Ursula Le Guin writing about Virginia Woolf’s prose - how the words as individual objects have power in their own right, but also how, in Woolf’s writing, they form a rhythm. So much so, that the words and the passage can behave in different but complementary ways; as both particles and waves, perhaps.