31 Comments

Simon, this is bliss. There is something so remarkably creative about a 'form' that defies description save for the one you apportion to it yourself. Beautiful writing triggered by beautiful writing ... thoughts evoked by the thoughts of others, captured in words. I love the playfulness of the word play ... as a lover of words, I like nothing more than the unfolding of definitions in lyrical prose. Having missed seeing your words on Instagram - that void into which we all gently insert something of quiet meaning to combat the cacophony of algorithmic rumblings and shouty, needy celebrations of 'self' - I am excited to see them afresh in this space. I have a small archive on our website (written by others) and on Medium (which I cancelled earlier in the year) that might merit a review and a selective migration. Thanks for the nudge to consider doing so.

In the meantime, your writing is enviable.

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Thank you! Have you ever ready Ali Smith? She loves her word play, and that has definitely seeped into this bit of writing. It's nice to find a proper home for these words, whatever they are, and you should definitely encourage yours to migrate over from Medium.

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I'm slightly embarrassed to say I haven't ... I meant to read the seasons books - how can it be that 'Autumn' was published all the way back in 2016?! I'm a little behind!

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They were quite something to read at the time – she captured all the feelings of the times. I recommend How to be Both, it's my favourite and less bound to those crazy years.

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Thank you for the recommendation. We’re back in UK in November so I can indulge in an indie bookshop or two.

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I recently read Summer from the Seasonal Quartet and even before you revealed the inspiration for this piece I could detect the cadences! I haven’t read Companion Piece but will have to round out the Quartet with it at some point.

I also followed your goodreads account earlier this year and saw one of your responses to another book, Milkman I think it was, and (before I noticed that you aren’t active on goodreads anymore) commented that you captured the voice perfectly. Really a compelling way to respond to a book, and a talent to be able to draw out its voice while still creating in your own.

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Oh thanks Anne! Yes I completely forgot about my Goodreads, where I had been crossposting things for a while. I guess no one commented on them and I felt it wasn't worth the effort – so thank you for being the person who proved me wrong! I loved reading Milkman and writing that piece. Maybe I should post it here someday.

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Goodreads is a bit of a desert, haha. Unless you have actual friends active on there. But I’m happy to stumble on your reviews there, and yes the Milkman one would be worth retrieving!

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Did you ever use LibraryThing? I feel like I've used so many different apps to track my books. And now I don't track them at all.

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No, haven’t heard of that one. I resisted goodreads for a long time and used a spreadsheet (which I still have) but I decided goodreads was a more shareable way to store reviews if anyone asked for recommendations etc. And now I have some friends I enjoy exchanging with on there. Maybe someday I won’t feel the need to track anymore 😅

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Oct 6, 2023Liked by Simon Haisell

Simon, this is beautiful. Just beautiful. Res ipsa locquitor.

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As usual I had to resort to google there. My grasp of Latin is pretty negligible.

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I really enjoyed reading this "tangent". And I like this kind of reading, which leads to creation.

I choose the curlew, a bird with an evocative call that takes me back to my childhood in Devon. And as for curfews, I have had to suffer them in one or two places round the world and I hope never to have to do so again.

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Thanks for reading Jeffrey. Let's hope we never have to return to curfews. I only visited the coast on holidays growing up, so I have few memories of the curlew. But I do love how birds intersect with so many of our memories, thoughts and feelings.

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Nov 3, 2023Liked by Simon Haisell

I’ve been pulling back from Instagram and will one day delete my account. Glad to connect with you here on Substack now so I can still participate in your book clubs and read your writing.

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Oh wonderful. Yes, I'm fed up with IG and spending all my time here now.

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It is such a good idea to revisit old words - as a new audience, it will be delightful to read them for the first time.

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Thanks Kate. I feel this is where they belong.

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Oct 7, 2023Liked by Simon Haisell

I love that you are bringing some of your older insta posts over here, it's a joy to re-read them

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Any excuse to replay the classics.

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This is lovely, Simon. I'm fairly new to Ali Smith but I get why she's inspired you to write this. A beautiful piece of writing for my early morning walk this morning ❤️

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Ah lovely to hear it accompanied you Kat!

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I'm sorry if I'm repeating a question or have missed something but is that you reading?

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That's me! 🙈

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That's very (a) brave and (b) cool. It just improved like a thousand times.

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I started recording my readings when I first tried to make reels. God I hate reels. And hate recording my voice. But people were very kind, and I do write things that are meant to be read aloud.

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I hate reels, too. I get frustrated by the limits of my ability and by the limits imposed on me by IG. I really hate the way my voice sounds, but it was a great cause of hilarity when I used to be the autoattendant at work. Apparently I sound like the queen 🤦🏼‍♀️

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Thought provoking

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Oct 6, 2023Liked by Simon Haisell

What a gorgeous piece of writing - thank you for bringing it over to Substack ❤️

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And thank you for reading!

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