A Frank Literary Blog!

Below you'll find blog pieces and short videos sharing my fiction, and take-aways on great literature, as well as my thoughts on mental well-being and the three principles understanding! For updates, please subscribe!

Oct 8, 2022

Ben Okri - The Joys of Storytelling (Episode 5)

Part 5 of my celebration of Ben Okri’s wonderful collection of essays, A Way of Being Free, published in 1997. I love this book, it’s a...

Nov 22, 2021

Ben Okri - The Joys of Storytelling (Episode 4)

My celebration of Ben Okri’s wonderful collection of essays, A Way of Being Free, published in 1997. I love this book, it’s a poetic and...

Aug 5, 2021

Ben Okri - The Joys of Storytelling (Episode 2)

Continuing my celebration of Ben Okri’s wonderful collection of essays, A Way of Being Free, published in 1997. Episode 2 here! I love...

Aug 4, 2021

Ben Okri - The Joys of Storytelling (Episode 3)

Continuing my celebration of Ben Okri’s wonderful collection of essays, A Way of Being Free, published in 1997. Episode 3 here! I love...

Jul 19, 2021

Ben Okri - The Joys of Storytelling! (Part 1)

My celebration of Ben Okri’s wonderful collection of essays, A Way of Being Free, published in 1997. I love this book, it’s a poetic and...

Jul 13, 2021

Underworld by Don Delillo

A little take-away from Don Delillo’s wonderful 1997 novel, Underworld! After a stylistically perfect opening sequence, set in 1951, the...

Jul 11, 2021

Stoner - A literary epiphany (short version)

My short take-away from the 1965 novel, Stoner by John Williams. William Stoner attends university to study agriculture with a view to...

Jul 10, 2021

Hamlet by William Shakespeare - Creating tension

My short audio on the opening lines of Hamlet by William Shakespeare! This week’s take-away focuses on how Shakespeare creates tension...

Jul 26, 2020

The Remains of the Day - Bantering!

My short audio on the issue of bantering in the novel, The Remains of the Day (1989) by Kazuo Ishiguro. For Stevens bantering is a...

May 29, 2020

Dante and the Lobster by Samuel Beckett

From the 1934 collection, More Pricks Than Kicks, Samuel Beckett's short story, "Dante and the Lobster" is for me, one of the great...

May 27, 2020

Stoner by John Williams: A Literary Epiphany

My short take-away from the 1965 novel, Stoner by John Williams. William Stoner attends university to study agriculture with a view to...

May 26, 2020

Why I Love... The Fly by Katherine Mansfield

Katherine Mansfield was one of the great short story writers of the 20th century, with works such as Bliss, In a German Pension, The...

May 21, 2020

Why I Love... A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease by Jonathan Safran Foer

Taken from the 2003 collection, The Burned Children of America, Jonathan Safran Foer's short story, A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart...

May 17, 2020

Why I Love... The Battler by Ernest Hemingway

My take on the Hemingway short story, "The Battler" from the collection, In Our Time, published in 1925. Young Nick Adams has just been...

May 14, 2020

Hamlet by William Shakespeare - The Greatest Line!

One of the great works of world literature, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, is famous for its revenge narrative, its existential angst,...

May 2, 2020

Why I Love ... "Dante and the Lobster" by Samuel Beckett

Sometime back in 1995, when most of the students of the University of Wales, College Cardiff had gone home to their families for the...

Jan 22, 2020

Ocean of Story - Christina Stead

Christina Stead, Australian writer, born 1902, died 1983. Best known for her novel, The Man Who Loved Children (1940).

Jan 10, 2020

Author Quotes: Ben Okri

Ben Okri, born in Nigeria in 1959, is an essayist, novelist, and poet, most widely known for his 1991 Booker Prize winning novel, The...