There once was a wooden beam in Edinburgh that switched my lights out. Yes, that’s right, folks I’ve had severe concussion since the beginning of August after I, over-excitedly, jumped up and smacked my head on a low beam in the author’s yurt at the Edinburgh Book Festival (no hard man rugby-playing injury for me…I [...]
He was born in the hot, desert wilderness of the Grand Canyon. Abandoned by his parents, he wandered, alone, lost, destitute across the orange-yellow rocks of the canyon's one-mile deep floor. Kicking up dust-spray from his dried feet, he walked for days, months, years. He truly had become a hobo bear; he had no clue [...]
The final step is often the hardest. And the bizarre thing, it’s usually the smallest. Thus it is so with accomplishing anything in life, including being a successful writer. The final step is that last little rung, at the top of the ladder, that feels so far up you might lose your balance if you [...]
My grandad was one of the last of the first men; one of the last of the surviving first soldiers to step foot on the Normandy beaches and fight. He was in the Royal Engineers during World War II, and one of his most clear memories was sleeping on a dirty chunk of grey pavement [...]
This coming Saturday will have been three years since my mum died. Time has rushed by and I can hardly believe it's been that long. Especially as, last year, I had no time to "feel" this difficult anniversary because I was travelling around the world; this year - however - I'm feeling it very badly. [...]
Compartmentalising. Wow, what a boring word. But, despite this, it's something I've really wanted to be able to do for years. You see, before now, I was crap at compartmentalising (or mashing things up into digestible bits, if you want it put slightly more interestingly). This included lots of things in my life and the [...]
So some of you may have noticed I recently went on a round-the-world trip for 10 weeks. Yehes, in case you didn't see this, I went to California, New Zealand and Japan for a jam-packed tour of skyscrapers, volcanoes, Hobbits, sushi and lovely friends. Along the way I popped into several bookshops. Oh okay then, [...]
Just recently I've been changing. Not in the visiting-the-swimming-pool-so-I'm-getting-into-my-trunks changing, more the Jekyll and Hyde sense. Yes, that's right, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Probably admitting such a thing at this point in the blog might lead you to imagine dark hospital wards, a padded cell, me drooling angrily over my laptop, throwing test tubes [...]
This year I've been lucky enough to be asked by The Reading Agency to be a Community Giver for World Book Night (which is tonight, April 23rd, 2014). As I love reading, writing and books with an absolute passion, I feel honoured to be among thousands of people across the globe - on this night [...]
There are many ways to get better at writing and the best one of these is to write. The second is to find the right path that gets you into the best mental and physical state to write. In a minute I'll take a look at some ways you and I can "trigger" this creative [...]
Anthony Burt 