Middlefocus

Really enjoyed this memoir from the reserved shelves of Libraries NI.  An account of three artists, George Campbell, Gerard Dillon and James MacIntyre spending the summer of 1951 on the Island of Inishlacken on the western coast of Ireland across from Roundstone, County Galway. James was the youngest of the three and the author of the memoir. Gerard died in 1971, George in 1979 and James in 2015. What I liked about this memoir was the sense of comradeship and adventure back in the early 1950s. The stories of the artistic community in Belfast of the time and the familiar (to me) places mentioned all combined to keep me turning the pages. There are delightful pen portraits of the characters and islanders. The observations on the work of artists developing their style were fascinating. I went in search of this book having heard about it through the publicity for an event in the FE McWilliam Gallery in Banbridge. Back in November 2025 the Friends of the Gallery hosted an artist talk b...

Visited this exhibition at TheMacBelfast  today. Okay the sound was off but that didn't detract from a wonderful deepdive into the sea bed.  I'll be back to experience it again.  It's on to January. Why? The dark is inviting.  The colours stand out.  I didn't touch but Oh... how I wished to roll in that seaweed texture. Wonderful! The textures, the colours, the shapes, the fabrics. The creative process.   Do yourself a favour. If you are near this immerse yourself and Let flow!

Four reads for November.  Not weighty tomes this time but already sure that there will be plenty of stimulating content. Fiction: Breaking Point by Edel COFFEY Non-fiction: Women and Power, a manifesto by Mary BEARD French literature: L'Heure Exquise by Dominique BARBÉRIS Poetry and Drama: Red Velvet by Lolita CHAKRABARTI I've set myself a new goal of reading a lot more non-fiction - a genre that will include essays, biographies and commentaries.  Add to that a work of fiction each month as well as a French text and some poetry/drama. We'll see how that develops.

Managed to squeeze-in-a-read on our trip in Turkey.  How appropriate that it should be Orhan PAMUK's The Red-Haired Woman .  I thoroughly enjoyed this story which reprised aspects of the Oedipus myth - the interplay of tensions between fathers and sons. The context of the novel is well-digging in a small town on the outskirts of Istanbul. The red-haired woman is a member of a travelling troup of actors who visit the town. She becomes the object of our narrator's attention. There is a connection with the father. A terrible accident occurs and there follows decades of repressed guilt... and an unexpected denouement.  The story definitely kept my interest and the final pages definitely caught me off guard. Reading those I simply had to go back and restart the novel. Really?  Check it out - you'll get my drift. It was fascinating to read a novel in situ - travelling through parts of Istanbul mentioned in the story. I finished it while there but I didn't take th...

  Wasn't able to make this event - abroad on travels - but have read the book which I much enjoyed. Anyone out there attend? Reaction? What a great idea.

  The guide asked us to stop in front of this stone fragment on our visit to Ephesus in Turkey.  "What does it remind you of?" she asked.  Not being that sporty I didn't see the connection immediately. But now, I cannot not see it. According to the guide it was the inspiration for a widely recognised logo. Do you see it? It is an image of the Greek winged goddess Nike. She symbolises victory not just in wars but in more peaceful pursuits such as games and athletics.  She is renowned for her speed and strength. I guess the resulting stylised logo ticked all the right boxes.

  I am planning to read these four books this month.  My Name Is Red. Orhan PAMUK The heftiest by far is Orhan PAMUK's My Name Is Red published in 2001 by Faber&Faber.  We are holidaying in Turkey soon and as I like to read literature from the country I am visiting I thought this would hit the spot. Mind you, I'll have to be mindful of baggage allowances and so perhaps an e-version or audiobook might be more practical for carrying around. Here's some info on the book from Faber&Faber This train is for.  Bernie McGill It's Book Week NI later this month and local writer Bernie McGill will be sharing some readings and reflections at Suffolk Library where I attend a monthly reading group.  I've already started this one having picked it up at the library last week. The book, a collection of short stories, was published by No Alibis Press in 2022. Here's some details from the publisher  and information from the author herself here. There are plenty of eve...

  The plan has been a while in the making.  It is to address my ToBeRead (TBR) stack which gets bigger by the week.  Have you a similar pile? You know, the one that sits on a shelf or at the side of your bed. Yes that one! You pass a bookshop and something new catches your eye. Okay then, let's get that.  Or you've been to a book launch, met the author and because it was a free event (maybe with a glass of wine) you felt it was just downright rude not to buy a copy of their latest. Don't even think of the book programmes on TV and Radio when listening in inevitably leads to another purchase. So yes, I welcome all those opportunities for the new but feel the need to balance the flow and make room for them.  The way I'm doing that is through a reading planner. I'll share this on another post but essentially I have created a specific calendar on my phone to schedule a month's reading in advance. What's the saying? Those who fail to plan are planning to fail.  ...

Title: Montaigne Author: Stefan Zweig.  Translation and Introduction by Will Stone Published: Pushkin Press / Kindle 2015 First published 1941 I regret to say that I had not previously read anything by Stefan ZWEIG (1881-1942).  However, I was intrigued to follow up on a recommendation to read this small volume on Montaigne, whose lifestyle and essay writing I have long found fascinating.  What struck me most in this short biography is the overlap with Zweig's own situation in fleeing the Nazi onslaught of the 20th century to Montaigne's position as a renaissance philosopher and essayist amid societal upheaval at the end of the 16th century.  There are clear resonances with our modern world and I found myself on several occasions marking material that could apply just as much to today as it did in those earlier periods.  There is a substantial introduction to the book by Will Stone who translated the original and in his observations there was also much to highli...

  In Kraków for a short break we had been making our way to the Oskar Schindler factory which sits alongside the Museum of Contemporary Art.  We chanced upon this painted doorway which certainly catches attention. I knew as soon as I saw it that it would pass the test for inclusion in my photo collection of Closed Openings.  No descriptive words for this one.  Just look at it.  Observe.  Anything come to mind?

Walking a beach today, we came across a group of stones balanced on top of each other. Not a natural formation and clearly someone had found the time to engage in creative effort. How much time? How much effort? No doubt it was a meditation of sorts. Picking the right stones and shells to lend structure and support. The stack looked as if it would topple over at the slightest touch but no…it resisted the incoming waves that washed and frothed around. I stepped into the foam to get a close-up picture. I thought of other times; childhood, when armed with buckets and spades we sculpted with sand. This seemed the product of maturer effort - a rock castle and moat. Later we watched as a small flock of turnstones flew down, plumage the colour of the foreshore, and got busy living up to their appellation, flicking over pebbles in search of food. Did the stack look out of place to the birds? Upset their larder? Not a bit of it, they took it in their glide. A small stone stack, kinder to the en...

  It may have been the light from a sunny day at the beach because a glint of something caught my eye and made me pay attention. Glass. I stooped to look closer and picked up a bottle. Had it been just discarded or washed up? It looked as if it had been buried, brown caked-on sand around its neck, still stoppered. I could feel the embossment on the body and dusting it down could read the details: REGISTERED. WJ. BRIGGS. BELFAST and signed WJ.Briggs. But what did it contain? Holding it up to the light I peered inside hoping to find a roll of paper - a message in a bottle maybe. No such luck, it was quite empty. No hint of or even a trace of whatever liquid it once contained. One thing was sure, it was a glass bottle, dulled by abrasion but clearly vintage. This would-be beachcomber wanted to learn as much as possible about it. Questions surfaced. Why was the bottle here? How come? What was nearby? Who left it, an adult or a child? Does the Briggs company still exist? Where was it? S...

A railway line runs close to the rear of our home. Local and express trains including the hourly ones serving the Belfast/Dublin route hurtle past every fifteen minutes and apart from the occasional sustained warning blast of an air horn we don’t pay them much attention. Visitors to our home are taken aback: “Does that noise not bother you?” It doesn’t. It is simply part of the soundscape of where we live; something we are used to. Our paternal family has close connection with the railway. Granda Christy was a driver on a steam locomotive for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) which also operated in Northern Ireland. A story is told of him stopping his engine on the Antrim Coast as he felt that the sound coming back to him from up ahead was not quite right. His intuitive experience was correct, boulders had fallen unto the track. Catastrophe avoided. A close call. Christy TRACEY with his steam locomotive. Photo source unknown. Exterior sounds are one type of resonance and t...

  There are times when I feel that I have to clear out some of my books. It’s not that I no longer appreciate those that I have decided to re-home, it’s more about making more space to let in the new. My latest dispersal included several books not on display but stored away in cupboards. It has been years since I opened them and I decided that they needed a more conscientious custodian.  Use them or diffuse them!  is my new guiding mantra. Mind you, flicking through some that I had earmarked for donation, I found myself rereading. Interest renewed I decided to keep them. They live to light another day. I wondered how much I had invested in the books and did a quick online search to check availability and current values. Even some of my pristine hard covers were only just a few £ pounds and there were loads for sale. So having decided to send the books on their way to new owners, it would be relatively simple and cheap to buy them again if I found I was missing them. Selec...