Origins
Oftentimes. Irregardless. Two unnecessary, ungainly, and redundant (non-)words that, for reasons I barely understand, have managed to weasel their way into my heart and gain my affection. Now here they are, somehow leading the way. May they be the constant irritant in my writing that one day, eventually, produces a peal.
Content
Part blog, part public notebook: this is the place where I share my thoughts, reflections, and general musings on life, literature, travel – and whatever else has captured my attention lately. Often(times?) I find myself turning over several different seemingly-unrelated ideas in my head, and in writing them down I begin to see their points of connection. A conversation with a stranger on the train reminds me of an article I read earlier that week; a game I’m playing gets me thinking about an old friendship; a half-remembered verse of poetry springs to mind during a walk through a new city. When I start to string these thoughts together they seem to knot in interesting places, a bit like mental macrame. I hope you enjoy the patterns they create!
Author
Jess is a writer, translator, and literary comparatist, who grew up with one foot in the north of England and the other in Singapore, where most of her family live. As an adult, she successfully grew a third leg and planted that foot firmly in Edinburgh, where she has lived for many of the past fifteen years. She completed her MA in Modern European Languages and MSc and PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Edinburgh. In the intervening years, she has also lived in Vienna, Granada, and Tianjin.
She loves reading (and wishes she did more of it), writing (and wishes she did more of it), and taking long walks in the sunshine (currently based in the north of England – she definitely wishes she could do more of it). With this blog, she hopes to improve at least one of those statements. She also loves drinking tea, does plenty of that, and hopes this is one thing that will never change.
Photography
Most of the photos on this site were taken by the prodigiously talented Boyd Goff. Even if he didn’t take all the good ones he still wants credit for the rest, because he has done his best to teach Jess photography, too. Boyd considers himself both jobless and homeless and is inexplicably braggadocios about both. He aspires to travel the world and live in multiple places on each continent (except, probably, Antarctica). You can see more of Boyd’s photos, and find out more about his pseudo-work, at boydgphotography.com and vanishingmomentsphotography.com