Authors Electric

  Ma and her lasagna, c. 1973 'Tis the season to be eating. In our family - as in others close and extended - we've always celebrated the holidays with food -- replete with traditional dishes prepared joyfully, savoured to the lively music of conversation. We gathered smiling - sometimes overcoming discomforts -  from near and far. Each year I've enjoyed such meals with the fine wines of cherished memories that stretch unbroken, from my own childhood through the growing up of my daughters, arrival of grandchildren, with ups and downs, joys and sorrows well into my dotage. I name the chapters of my memoir - ever in progress - after memorable entres -- from childhood in Boston: my nonna's ricotta-stuffed ravioli and braccioli in rich ragu, as a struggling dad in Los Angeles and San Francisco: my own lightning linguine al le vongole from scratch : segue into pesto from garden-grown basil, and in California's Central Valley home-made Christmas Tamales. Time and pandem...

Daisy Ridley's Ophelia swims with the fishes It's a writer's nightmare. You've put everything into a novel based on an idea that you thought was original, only to discover that it's already been done - maybe better, and perhaps famously. How did you overlook it? Just like that, your shiny new bicycle has a flat and you're out there pedaling with no pants on! No matter. Call it "a reimagining" and carry on. Writers have done it for thousands of years, most notably, William Shakespeare, that all time master of tales retold in iambic pentameter. Romeo and Juliet , was already a popular Italian tale when the Bard made it the subject of his masterpiece, as were other most famous plays. He based Hamlet on a very old Danish play entitled "Ur-Hamlet" which in turn was derived from a lengthy, 1200 A.D. compilation of Norse legends written in Latin: Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum, or History of the Danes , telling of the rise and fall of t...

I was at a funeral a few weeks ago and the widow bravely did the eulogy. She kept it poignantly succinct, with just the right sprinkle of humour to remind us what a lovely, jolly man he was.  Bob'll do it One thing she said has really stuck with me. His name was Robert, known always as Bob. Or, said she, as   'Bobble'.  When we all looked a little puzzled, she explained: he was very clever and resourceful, able to turn his hand to any job that was thrown at him. Hence, whenever something needed mended, cleaned, thrown out, replaced, installed, improved, fiddled with, climbed up to, wriggled down to or renovated, the family wouldn't hesitate. "Bob'll do it,' they would say. Indeed he would - and did, all his life. It occurred to me this week that I may be becoming the Writing Bobble in my own family. Everything from tricky government forms to tarted-up CVs; from bereavement consolation letters to beefe...