Author: James
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A Life With, and Within, Cyberspace
It’s difficult to imagine what it will be like for Toby to grow up in a time when the internet is not like some marvellous, twinkly unicorn, but is rather more like a ubiquitous (but still occasionally remarkable) crow. I didn’t even have an e-mail address till I was 18; I was 22 before I…
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The War-and-Peace-O-Meter: Week Eleven
Previous weeks: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Avid readers of my War-and-Peace-O-Meter will have wondered what happened to Week Ten’s instalment. Had I abandoned my mission, to concentrate on the oeuvre of Maeve Binchy? Had I dropped the book on my foot, broken every phalange and metatarsal, and spent the…
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Smiler McChucklesworth
Our Little Monkey has lately taken to brightening our days with face-splitting grins that have nothing to do with feeling bilious or passing wind, but that indicate his pleasure at seeing our gurning faces. Naturally the smiles are gorgeous, but Mrs. Monkeyshines and I have mostly been too delighted and distracted to get a decent…
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A Baby’s Ever-Changing World
Things can change very quickly in a baby’s world. Sometimes the Little Monkey will be kicking away on his playmat, and suddenly he’s assailed with a wrenching, terrible pain: “No-one has ever hurt like this before” he thinks, “All the light has gone out of the world, my whole being feels empty, I am the…
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Brain Attachments
It’s sometimes said that dads don’t get interested in their offspring until they get old enough to be thrown up in the air, or kick a ball across a room. But I’m not sure if that’s really true; babies really are fascinating creatures (I know I’m biased in the case of the Little Monkey, but…
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The War-and-Peace-O-Meter: Week Nine
Previous weeks: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 We’re past the halfway mark, folks, and squarely into the book’s third volume. It starts with a rather fine, and admirably precise, review of the causes of the 1812 French invasion of Russia. Tolstoy muses on the strange way that huge incomprehensible events are…
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The Monkeyshines Troop
It’s somewhat strange to reflect that our Little Monkey owes his existence, in part at least, to Sarah Beeny, the (seemingly) ever-pregnant host of a range of home improvement shows. For Mrs. Monkeyshines and I met via the dating website that she founded, mysinglefriend.com (MSF). MSF’s schtick is that a friend writes the bit of…
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The War-and-Peace-O-Meter: Week Eight
Previous weeks: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 I’m glad that I’ve got a good solid hardback edition of the book; it’s taking quite a beating on my daily commute, but is bearing up well. I like to keep books looking as nice as possible, but there’s nothing sadder than a pristine book,…
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The War-and-Peace-O-Meter: Week Seven
Previous weeks: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 I’ve broken the 500-page barrier this week. I wouldn’t want all books to be this long, but there is something almost luxurious about the opportunity you have, as a reader, to become absorbed in these characters’ lives. The epic scale of the novel is very much…