Uncategorised – Jack Sanger

Lost times

Sometimes you see something in a documentary and it is so poignant, you wished you had written it in your dialogue as an author. I saw a couple of programmes when I returned to Ghana both on case histories of people with exceptional memories. They were so exceptional we watch flabbergasted at the thought of… Know More
Read more: Lost times
Killing them Softly

I saw this film last night. It was brutal, a choreographed montage of everything that lies beneath the self-deceiving hyperbole of American politics. Set against the electoral rhetoric of Obama, Bush and McCain the script is taut, gutter-dirty and with a self-contained obscene morality that is so authentic it makes you reel. Life is brief… Know More
Read more: Killing them Softly
Time and Space in a Story

It is said that Stephen Hawking’s book A Brief History of Time is the least completed book by its readers in inverse proportion to sales. The more it sold the less it was read. It was the title that seduced its buyers. I think this is because we want answers to deep questions about our… Know More
Read more: Time and Space in a Story
Abandoned not Ended

Even the above introduction to the character of Jennifer Cord has had to be changed slightly. The description of Jennifer so that her qualities are consistent with the tale that is to follow. It’s right to say that no act of writing is ever finished, merely abandoned. This has been attributed to just about everyone… Know More
Read more: Abandoned not Ended
Window to a Hidden Reality

In Azimuth there is a scientist who ‘sees below the surface’ using a glass fashioned from crystal. The idea of the eye not seeing reality is the stuff of philosophers’ musings. I have just finished the first draft of a novella in which the eye is not quite a window to the soul but at… Know More
Read more: Window to a Hidden Reality
A great film needs a great writer

I added this to my diary Latest News at www.chronometerpublications.me just now. And it fits here as well. Had a two hour walk today down the mountain to Vernet Les Bains, once the home of Rudyard Kipling. The eye held up ok in the heat. Thought about a clutch of films I have seen this… Know More
Read more: A great film needs a great writer
On The Road Again! And another short story

Thanks to Canned Heat and a bit of Kerouac for the title which sees me writing this in Millau – the place of the greatest bridge this side of St Peter’s Gates. As The Latest News window mentioned ( www.chronometerpublications.me ) we were in an Auvergne B&B last night. The host, Francois, appears to have… Know More
Read more: On The Road Again! And another short story
Empathy and Reality

I was struck, after my two hours plus fully conscious operation for a detached retina (gory details in Latest News: www.chronometerpublications.me), how doctors must inflict pain to do their business. Also that, in the main, they will have little idea of the depth and variety of pain that a patient suffers. The best they can… Know More
Read more: Empathy and Reality
Writer as Medium

The joy in writing what you could never have known to be true until afterwards is both spellbinding and uplifting. During the ten years of Azimuth’s emergence from my unconscious I learned to leave control over the destiny of the narrative to my imagination. What transpired was occasionally quite spooky. Characters with strange lineage, implements… Know More
Read more: Writer as Medium
Life Imitating Art

This is going to be brief because my eye hurts! But it has resonances. I wrote Azimuth over a ten year period and regard it as my legacy. It is a strange book, both an adventure story and an agnostic’s search for enlightenment. Much of it was written in a divine effluvia, a semi- unbridled… Know More
Read more: Life Imitating Art

Jack’s Blog