Credo / Mark Oliver

'All the things in your head'

I was listening to a an old Guardian book club podcast with Hanif Kureishi about the Buddha of Suburbia and he said something which rang true with me, that a novel is about the writer trying to find a story which allows him to write about what is currently in his head (his interests and observations and curiosities).

I was listening to it as I went for a run around the dinosaurs in Crystal Palace park. This is my first blog posting with ScribeFire, a Firefoxplug in which lets you post to blogs quickly, within the browser.

'You never see the Taliban'

Interesting little film on Afghanistan by BBC's Ben Anderson, for VBS. A British squaddie tells him most of the guys he's with have not seen the Taliban even though they have had firefights with them for hours. During non-combat they have probably seen lots of Taliban because, as he says, they only need to "pick up a pitchfork and then they are Johnny farmer".

The most difficult thing is fighting against guys who don't fear death and are looking forward to "27 virgins or whatever". Anderson says some positions that are being fought over are now being administered by "Good Taliban", a scenario they could have reached six years ago with far less bloodshed.

Colours

My first blog from an iPhone