When did you ever see ‘wisdom’ on a job description?

This time next week I will be unemployed, or workless as our politicians like to say. It’ll be the second time this year I have left a job and both times I was glad to do so. The first time was redundancy after several years in the same place, some good, some bad, so I left with mixed feelings. It felt very much like a divorce. The job I’ve been doing for the last six months was only ever supposed to be temporary. It feels like the rebound relationship that you know all along is not going to last.

Showing the sunlight outside: why I will always love reading

There was a nice piece by Neil Gaiman in the Guardian this week about why reading is a Good Thing for children, and the rest of us. It ought to be obvious, but it obviously isn’t because there was a lot there that needed saying: about the importance of imagination and information, the value of culture and wisdom. And about fiction that opens a door and ‘shows the sunlight outside’. 

It reminded me to feel grateful for the gift of literacy. It’s easy to take for granted, but I can’t imagine life without it.

Why job interviews are a waste of time (and interviewers are a waste of space)

The stupidest question I was ever asked in a job interview was ‘What do you expect to be doing in five years’ time?’ I know it’s a standard HR-type question. But the interview was for a temporary job.

The weirdest thing said to me in a job interview was ‘We don’t employ people with punk rock haircuts here.’ This was in the early 80s when, like most young women at the time, I had short spiky hair. I should have walked out then but I smiled politely, finished the interview, went home and waited for the rejection letter.

Glastonbury festival? Life’s too short

Nick Cave at Glastonbury 2013 (BBC screen shot). There was something I liked after all.

I thought I might spend the weekend slagging off Glastonbury. But then I remembered I had a life.

Case Histories soundtrack - series 2

There are a  lot of things I like about Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie books. I love the way she writes about the sad important things: life and death  and family and loss (subjects made for a country music soundtrack). I love that in Started Early, Took My Dog Jackson has turned 50. Listen to this: "His definition of elderly had changed as he himself had moved nearer to the event horizon of death." What an absolutely brilliant metaphor.

And I love the way she tells you what music Jackson is listening to.