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Slept like the proverbial last night - at last - and was indeed barely awake whilst waving Lord H goodbye on the school run (as it were). Mind you, I deserved the lie-in as I have at last reached the magic number of 40,000 words of Hallsfoot's Battle so, hell, a day off is mine, all mine, mwa-aha-ha (that's evil laughter, by the way ...).

But what fun I've had with the doctor this morning. I ordered more of the Metformin and the HRT patches last week online and put all the information down on the description box as per the hospital notes. Today, I've collected my prescription and nipped next door to the very lovely pharmacist to get it made up. Which she duly did. At home, I did what I always do (BIG NB: ALWAYS DO THIS YOURSELVES, AND IF YOU IGNORE EVERYTHING ELSE ON THIS BLOG, FOR GOODNESS SAKE DON'T IGNORE THIS), which is to check the new packets with the packets I had before, ie the ones from the hospital. My dears, they were all wrong ...


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“This is me smiling,” I say.

“Come on,” Pauline urges from behind her video camera. “You look miserable.”

“My face doesn’t register emotion. Rest assured, inwardly I’m bubbling.”

Pauline, my publicist, has brought me to a factory in Suffolk where someone in brown overalls is about to push a button which will begin the process of churning out the initial run of five thousand copies of my novel, Clear History.

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I promised myself I wouldn’t write another blog post until I had finished my draft. I suppose I got bored of writing ‘nearly there’ and wanted something more definite to offer. So here is the blog post stating that the draft is finished, and that it’s massive, standing at approx. 225,000 words.

The most worrying thing is that I think I’ve been pretty careful. I mean, I enjoyed writing this novel more than I’ve enjoyed writing anything. So much so that I actually slowed down towards the end – and not just because of time constraints – but because I was loathe to see it end...

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It's true. I don't. But I do like to mention books I've enjoyed, and I've not enjoyed anything more than Willful Creatures, by Aimee Bender in a long time.



So where to start? Well, the book's a collection of short stories, fifteen in all. And they're fantastic and I mean, REALLY fantastic. I ordered the book from my library after reading a review of it in The Short Review. The first story grabbed my attention, it was like being grabbed by the throat, to tell the truth. And after reading it I thought, wow, this is good, I hope she can keep it up.




And she does. And I mean REALLY. Each story seemed better than the last, which when I considered each one a gem, is quite a thing.




Three stories in I ordered my own copy. Now, this wasn't solely so I could have my own copy, though that was a big part of things. You see, I wanted to read the book slowly. Slowly. I wanted to savour the experience. Take one story at a time. One every few days, giving myself a real treat. And I didn't want a library fine.

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Not quite so much rushing around today, as there’s no Student Care Services stall to worry about, thank goodness. Mind you, I think it went very well, and everyone seems to be very enthused about it and the big presentation it was linked with. I’m hoping we’ll be able to do the same again next year, but I imagine it depends on budgets. As ever.

So this morning, I’ve been sorting the talks out for next week – as even though the big first week is over then, we still have individual talks to do. Thankfully, I’m not doing them though – I’m just arranging the dates and equipment. I don’t have to appear in public, thank the Lord. That would be enough to terrify all the unsuspecting students away ...


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I've been hammering away at the commentary of my PhD, and one of the small tiresomeness (as opposed to the large tiresomenesses, of which there are also plenty) which make it slow work is that 'writing' is such an ambiguous term. It can be an almost concrete noun - 'Some of the writing is fluent' - or an abstract noun - 'Writing is a creative practice' - or a verb - 'Writing stops me eating'. So quite often I want another word for the large body of continuous prose, the piece, that I've ended up with in A Secret Alchemy, for the work of... for the -

Yes, dammit, why can't I bring myself to call the novel I've ended up with a work of art?

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Here we are again. Day Two of Freshers’ Week. I got in early – though not as early as yesterday – and set our table up. Thank goodness no-one had taken anything overnight so I actually had stuff to put on the table. Even the tablecloth was still there – well, gosh. This year’s intake is very kind indeed. It wasn’t such a wild rush as yesterday either – so far, anyway. The queries were steady but not overwhelming ...


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First day of Freshers’ Week – say no more. Just wish I’d managed more sleep last night, but it was not too be – sinus troubles kept me awake and I now have a cold, dammit. Still, I got to work at about 8am and then didn’t stop rushing about like a demented gazelle (but not quite as nimble) until the finale. It’s madness out there, Carruthers … Though what a lovely bunch of first years – all totally charming and so far they’re laughing at my countless mistakes, thank goodness. I hope they’re as generous tomorrow. Because, as usual, I’m winging it. I do rather like our “Here to Help You” sashes though, sadly – slung over the shoulder, it makes us feel quite the thing, m’dears. Ho ho ...


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Marriott Attack:Time To End Pakistani Role In Other's Socalled War'

Pakistan is being punished for refusing to allow U.S. military boots on Pakistani soil, for the bombings in India, for the July 7 attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, and for the failures of the American military in Afghanistan. The attack is a clear message to the Pakistani ruling elite: We will bring the war to your home. The Americans are now accusing army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani of complicity in bombing the Indian embassy in Kabul, an accusation that even the Indians dared not make. The General is a suspicious man now in the eyes of the Americans and the Zardari government. After its bungled attempt on the ISI, there is a possibility that the pro-U.S. Zardari government might try to remove Gen. Kayani and replace him with a more pliant army chief who can subordinate the Pakistani military to Washington’s agenda in the region. To end this mess, Pakistan needs to say goodbye to the coalition that Washington assembled in 2001 to occupy Afghanistan, a coalition that has shrunk in seven years to only U.S., U.K. and Pakistan.

By Mr Sajid Hussain
Investigative Journalist
Sunday, 21 September 2008.


International Desk:-------------------------->
The Americans had hoped that the pro-U.S. Zardari government in Islamabad would move to neutralize or disband the ISI and check the Pakistani military. They waited enough. The Zardari government did make a failed attempt on July 27 to clip the wings of ISI, which would have ended the agency’s external counterintelligence operations, crucial for the world’s sixth declared nuclear power and an important regional power that has legitimate security and strategic interests to protect. But it seems Mr. Zardari has decided not to risk alienating the country’s powerful military. Hours before the attack, President Zardari told a joint session of Parliament “We will not tolerate the violation of our sovereignty and territorial integrity by any power in the name of combating terrorism.” This statement ended the confusion, at least for now, on Zardari’s apparent reluctance to endorse army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani’s stern warning to Washington not to attack Pakistani soil.

The punishment for Pakistan is not limited to the Marriot hotel, which was more of a symbolic target, close to the houses of the President, Prime Minister, federal ministers and senior federal bureaucrats. Hours earlier, explosives-laden cars attacked two military convoys in the tribal belt. Eight hours after the Marriot attack, the power grid in Swat, northern Pakistan, was blown up. The frequency and intensity of attacks inside Pakistan have exceeded the attacks that U.S. military is facing in Afghanistan.
Which is in itself a strange thing. If the U.S. accusations are true and Islamabad is behind Afghan Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan, then why are the ‘Pakistani Taliban’ attacking Pakistani military targets? They should be happy that Pakistan is allegedly supporting the Afghan Taliban? But what is happening is the opposite: The so-called ‘Pakistani Taliban’ is punishing Pakistan, exclusively. The question is: Who benefits?
According to one Pakistani source, there are close to 8,000 foreigners in the country’s tribal belt at the moment. Before 9/11, they were under 1,000, and most of them were peaceful leftovers from the anti-Soviet war in the 1980s, grownup, aging, with local wives and children. Yes, Pakistan did have a domestic religious extremism problem but it consisted of small groups and not armies with endless supplies of money and sophisticated weapons and, apparently, advance knowledge of Pakistani military movements.
There is no question that many of these 8,000 foreigners are agents of foreign intelligence agencies who have infiltrated the Pakistani tribal belt from Afghanistan. This is not Hollywood. During the 2001 war against the Taliban government in Kabul, U.S. military used special ops teams made up of Pashtun look-alikes complete with perfect Pashtun accents, assisted by local help, purchased in U.S. dollars, in the areas of their deployment.

In Pakistani tribal belt, the numbers of foreigners dramatically increased in the years 2002 to 2004. These foreigners used the natural local anger at Pakistani military’s alliance with U.S. to work up the locals against Islamabad. The area remained quiet for most of the time after the 2001 war until it finally erupted in insurgency led by a series of ‘rebel Mullahs’ who caught the Pakistani government and military by surprise.

Karzai’s security and intelligence network is populated with strongly anti-Pakistan officers. The Indians received an American nod to establish an elaborate intelligence and military training setup in Afghanistan. Indians and Karzai’s men are directly involved in training, arming and financing rebels and insurgents and sending them into Pakistan. There is a full backing for an ethnic insurgency in southwestern Pakistan where China is building a strategic seaport. There are reports that the Israeli intelligence, the Mossad, is helping the Indians and Karzai’s security in destabilizing Pakistan’s western parts. The Israeli ambassador in New Delhi admitted in February that Israel offered crucial help to India during the Kargil war in 1999 which was the only reason India managed to repeal what appeared to be a surprise Pakistani victory. The Israelis have built a close defense relationship with India ever since and are also helping India perfect its occupation methods in Kashmir.

Pakistanis don’t have evidence that shows direct U.S. involvement in this anti-Pakistan campaign. But the circumstantial evidence is more than overwhelming. Afghanistan could not have turned into a staging ground for anti-Pakistan covert operations involving several players with out Washington’s nod. U.S. military has also been deliberately attacking those militant tribals inside Pakistan who are pro-Islamabad, and sparing those militants who only fight Pakistani military. Also, U.S. government has refused to designate the ethnic insurgency in southwestern Pakistan as terrorism. One very interesting piece of information that points the fingers to both India and U.S. is that these shady ‘Pakistani Taliban’ have focused their efforts in the past four years on attacking Chinese citizens and Chinese interests inside Pakistan. No U.S. or NATO citizens have been attacked.
The Afghan Taliban –who are the real Taliban before this American-orchestrated insurgency in Pakistani border areas was deceptively termed ‘Taliban’ – have never attacked Pakistan despite Islamabad’s policy change after 9/11. In fact, senior Taliban officials, like its ambassador to Islamabad Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, never said anything against Pakistan despite having been captured and handed over to the Americans by Islamabad.
There is no question that Washington destabilized Pakistan using the same methods it had perfected in South America in the 1970s. As Pakistan faced instability on the border, Washington moved in late 2006 to destabilize the country from the inside. A discredit former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, was convinced to end her self-exile and enter into a U.S.-brokered deal with a weakened President Musharraf in exchange for endorsing the U.S. agenda and having her stolen millions whitewashed. The fast paced political change threw Pakistan off-balance and resulted in massive internal upheaval that continues until today, almost ending Pakistan’s remarkable economic rise of the past decade.
Once Pakistan was trapped, U.S. media sprung into action and mounted a massive propaganda about Pakistan becoming ripe for an Iraq-like U.S. intervention to neutralize its nuclear weapons and to ‘save’ the country from turning into a haven for al-Qaeda.
The entire purpose of this anti-Pakistan campaign is to remove the Pakistani hurd

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