A S H Smyth › <i>War Horse</i>: (a tangent to) <i>the real story</i>

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War Horse: (a tangent to) the real story

Monday, March 5, 2012

Channel Four runs with variation on Michael Morpurgo’s dubious theme – reviewed. — For theartsdesk

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged film, horses, Michael Morpurgo, Steven Spielberg, theartsdesk, theatre, TV, war | Comments (0)

theASHtray, vol.3

Saturday, February 18, 2012

In which Whitney Houston spoils my Valentine’s evening. — For theartsdesk

Filed in column, Journalism | Also tagged Alexander McCall Smith, art, David Shrigley, Elizabethans, film, John Banville, Julian Fellowes, Lucian Freud, Minette Walters, music, National Portrait Gallery, Ricky Gervais, Sir Paul McCartney, Terry Pratchett, The Beatles, theartsdesk, Tracy Chevalier, TV, Valentine's Day, Whitney Houston, Yorkshire | Comments (0)

Zona (my other Valentine)

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

A Q&A about a book about a film about a journey… ft. Geoff Dyer. — For Guernica

Filed in interview, Journalism | Also tagged choc-ices, film, Geoff Dyer, Guernica, Russians, Tarkovsky | Comments (0)

On tennis, Twitter and telly

Monday, February 13, 2012

Out-takes plus trailer for my forthcoming Geoff Dyer Q&A. — For Guernica

Filed in interview, Journalism | Also tagged Geoff Dyer, tennis, TV, Twitter | Comments (0)

theASHtray, vol.1

Saturday, February 4, 2012

In which James Bond, Beyoncé Knowles, WG Sebald, Daniel Craig, Grant Gee, Alain de Botton, Eddie Redmayne and that girl with the dragon tattoo are discussed. — For theartsdesk

Filed in column, Journalism | Also tagged Alain de Botton, Beyoncé, Daniel Craig, Eddie Redmayne, film, Germans, Grant Gee, James Bond, music, Sebastian Faulks, Sweden, theartsdesk, TV, war, WG Sebald | Comments (0)

After Wood (after Sebald)

Friday, January 27, 2012

… and it was here, while re-reading an article by the American critic James Wood on the oneiric nature of the writings of ‘Max’ Sebald, that I found myself impressed more and more by the feeling that it was in fact Wood himself who had at least once previously caused me to look up the […]

Filed in Fictions | Also tagged Americans, Germans, James Wood, micro-fiction, WG Sebald | Comments (0)

Middle-distant memory

Thursday, January 12, 2012

of queuing outside the toilets with Roger McGough, talking about why we hate rap.

Filed in Non-fictions | Also tagged Galle Literary Festival, micro-non-fiction, music, rap, Roger McGough | Comments (0)

Like father…

Monday, September 5, 2011

My father has no fewer than eight pots of coloured ink on his desk. He has written nothing of note. I have a biro, with a missing top. I also have not written anything.

Filed in Non-fictions | Also tagged Father, Ink, micro-non-fiction | Comments (0)

Interview(ed)

Thursday, June 9, 2011

(for the British School in Colombo yearbook 2010/11) 1. So, what’s with the beard? After I graduated from the War Studies Faculty at KCL I rather fancied myself as a war correspondent, so I grew the beard. Then I just rather fancied myself. 2. We somehow get the impression that you are always very sarcastic […]

Filed in Fictions, interview | Also tagged Alexander (‘the Great’), Amazonian tribesmen, Arthur Rimbaud, beards, Beethoven, books, Bruce Chatwin, Chooties, Christopher Hitchens, cynicism, Dr Gregory House, Dr Hannibal Lecter, Geoff Dyer, GF Handel, Helen DeWitt, Jacques Kallis, Jeffrey Barnard, Jim Morrison, JM Coetzee, John Nash, John Wilmot 2nd Earl of Rochester, Lydia Davis, Margaret Atwood, Maurice Bowra, PE instructors, Peter O’Toole, Philip Seymour Hoffman, piano, Radiohead, Roald Dahl, Russell Crowe, school, sex, singing, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Sri Lanka, TE Lawrence, teaching, Thom Yorke, Toby Ziegler, university, War Studies, Wendy Cope, WG Sebald, Yasmina Reza | Comments (0)

Note to my biographer

Thursday, April 28, 2011

For the record: that page I’ve turned down – 102 – in the Alain de Botton paperback (the one with the Cambodian price sticker) is to mark the linguistic curiosity of the author’s ‘goo-goo gaga’ [inconsistent hyphenation of onomatopoeia]; not the stuff about Eric – the protagonist – and his alleged emotional coldness.

Filed in Non-fictions | Also tagged Alain de Botton, micro-non-fiction | Comments (0)