Pete Hartley: sometime dramaturg, perennial scribbler
When we remember the fallen we should never forget why they fell Remembrance Day is for all who died in the conflicts of the wars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This post is predominantly about the Great War that stopped one hundred years ago today. (Technically the war did not ‘end’ then as an … Continue reading PUSHED
WEER AWL OWTSTANDEENG NOWE Another tale from Planet Academia It all went wrong when they introduced league tables. Prior to that Planet Academia was a delightful place. It was a world where learning was an expression of the love of knowledge, and academic attainment was a badge of honour. Teachers were guides, mentors, coaches … Continue reading Gothsted
The creative symbiosis of writing a novel without a name The idea to attempt to compose an untitled novel found momentum at The Word event at Astley Hall in Chorley, Lancashire in September 2013. Among the speakers were book designers Ned Hoste and Ed Christiano who delivered an informative session on the crafting of book … Continue reading Words, pictures and surgical scars
ONE “There is one condition. I cannot tell you my name.” He inhaled the aroma of spent tobacco. “That may make things rather difficult for me.” He wrote 27th September 1956, 10.10 a.m. at the top right-hand side of the blank page of foolscap paper. “If it were easy, I wouldn’t need your help.” His … Continue reading Untitled (Novel) Chapter One and trailer
A romantic reunion at Caernarfon Airworld It was my first time. Just me and she. I was five days shy of my seventeenth birthday and it only lasted three minutes but she lifted me a thousand feet high then let me down very gently. Last week we met again. In 1973 she was to be … Continue reading Spoiler alert: contains glider components
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s notorious attempt to kill off Sherlock Holmes was an infamous failure when an outraged public following demanded his resurrection and the author reluctantly obliged. Likewise, all attempts to bury the detective have proved impossible. His popularity is currently high. It was also buoyant in the mid-1980s due to the superb rendition … Continue reading Spare Parts from Sherlock
One millisecond after midnight on the first day of September 1978 death, fusion, reincarnation, resurrection and birth all occurred at the same instant. At that moment three hundred and thirty-three cumulative years of education concluded and continued. Three colleges ceased to exist and lived on. That was the precise moment when three historic Preston Catholic … Continue reading Hard Terms
Planet Academia As examination Results Day draws near the pulse rate rises, the appetite shrinks, limbs involuntarily tremble, tempers shorten, bursts of perspiration erupt and sleepless nights are wracked with waking nightmares. And it’s almost as bad for the students. Only the smug can feign confidence, or those who specialise in subjects that are not … Continue reading Paper Helium Day
Staging Equus in Edinburgh We hear so much these days about poor mental health and how there appears to be a plague of it presenting with epidemic proportions, especially among the young. There have always been dramas that focused on psychology and the sometimes horrendous consequences of mental malfunctioning. Of all the modern texts that … Continue reading Horseplay on Princes Street
Observations on a commemoration A couple of years ago a video installation at the Harris Museum in Preston projected extraordinary film footage onto the wall of the main staircase. It showed crowds of smiling, waving and cheering people standing on the platform of Preston Railway station as packed carriages of eager, and blatantly exuberant, soldiers … Continue reading A Whiter Shade of Pal
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