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Thoughts while waiting to walk from Manchester to Rome in 2022

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Passing Greats

November 2, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

There’s a maple tree by our front door. It goes orange most years and this year, it’s more orange than it has been for years. I thought I’d collect a leaf a day in November and build a picture if I keep adding them, one leaf at time, to a pile on the glass of my desktop scanner.

[Read more…] about Passing Greats

Filed Under: Anchoritism, Fake Memoir Tagged With: ew thomas, photos, ptsd, robert fisk, the spokesman, tony blair

Brief Encounters: 1976

July 26, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

August 1976

The hitchhiker on the outskirts of Ballyshannon was a large man and cleanly dressed. Tall, broad-shouldered under sun-bleached hair behind an engaging smile, he looked interesting by the standards of the day. That was once the way that drivers assessed hikers. Would they be interesting to talk with? Today we might put safety first and rarely offer a lift to a stranger.

He put his back-pack in the boot and we drove north towards Donegal Town.

Most hitchhikers I’d encountered had been continental European or Kiwi. This Joe was American and I was enjoying the cartoonish drawl of his Georgian accent. We got on well enough that I suggested a pint and a sandwich as I dropped him to wait at the bus stop for Killybegs.

The view east across southern Lough Eske 1976 (scanned from a negative)
[Read more…] about Brief Encounters: 1976

Filed Under: Fake Memoir Tagged With: 1976, buncrana, donegal, fleadh ceoil, geology, glencolumbkille, lough eske, music, photo, ptsd, the troubles, travel

Total Failure and PTSD

June 5, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

There’s a small collection I like to keep beside the bed, things to dip into when the news of the world depresses me. One of the items is My Life as a Foreign Country: A Memoir (2014); a depressing yet brave collection. These are stories about a soldier from a family of soldiering trying to hold onto his humanity. Brian Turner has written a lot about his PTSD without really addressing it directly. I’m very pleased that we have his signature on the copy beside me.

Brian Turner and Lia Mills signing books in Enniskillen in 2014.
[Read more…] about Total Failure and PTSD

Filed Under: Anchoritism Tagged With: beirut, booklink, brian turner, michael herr, pandemic, photos, popular, ptsd, robert fisk, tim o'brien, war

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