Recommendations (1)

“Brasyl” by Ian McDonald Following on from 2005’s superb take on India-around-the-corner, “River Of Gods”, McDonald’s take on the glorious technicolour society of Brazil is as lush as the Amazon and as slick as the 21st century TV executives featured in one of its three strands. It’s wildly imaginative and it’s filled with truth. It […]

A fresh face

So, I’ve gone and combined the blog and the website. Sort of. I’ll probably tinker with it forever now, expect changes, but slow changes, but it’s basically done. Hoorah! Please come here in future for your one-stop-Neilly-shop.

Upcoming

I’ve got bored of having a website and a blog, so I’m looking into combining the two. Expect changes in the near future.

Done, and Done

I don’t really talk about the writing and such very often on here, but sometimes it’s worth noting certain milestones. So, I finished the novel. And I think…cautiously…that it’s okay. The interesting thing is the routine I managed to settle into in order to get the last of it done. I’d wake up, get out […]

Performance/Face

So, I’ve been thinking about performance lately. Specifically I feel the indie circuit too often misses out on the theatricality and mystique that sometimes goes hand in hand with music. Don’t get me wrong I like going to see music for music’s sake, and I prefer to watch musicians without pretensions – it’s never good […]

Out!

So, maybe it’s the weather or maybe it’s the clocks going forward or maybe just because it’s May, but all of a sudden good people are putting on good things to go and see. In the last two weeks we’ve seen a shitload of good music, for very little outlay.It all started two Saturdays ago […]

Monkey Music

Things that have pleased me no end this week. 1/ The Littlest Album launch at the 13th Note. A very eclectic collection of musicians marshalled and organised by Adam from The Plimptons. Some great music, most especially from Only Joe Kane, and we got to play a loud set including a new song. So we […]

One Of Those Things That Brightens Up Yer Life

I hear they call him the new Maradonna…Don’t know what they call this guy though…

Not a ConReport

I’ve always thought that if you do Eastercon right you should emerge on the other side with very little you can remember to tell people about, just a sort of warm, fuzzy, drained feeling like you’ve been on a week-long stag-do with a happy-go-lucky bunch of psychic vampires. So, considering that I feel I pretty […]

Perserverence Makes Prizes

Just heard that Tamar Yellin’s “The Genizah At The House Of Shepher” has won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature.Couldn’t have happened to a nicer, or more dedicated, person. The book was a long time in the making, but it just shows you what you can do when you perservere. I’m so excited for […]