This is an old edition of Meanwhile from an inferior, more simian newsletter platform that has unhelpfully severed all the hyperlinks. It’s included here in the archive simply for sake of completion.
Edward Kinsella on illustrating the Folio Society's The Shining
“I have to say, the weight of this project was pretty heavy. People love The Shining. They love the book. They love the movie. They expect certain things. There’s a reason it's so famous … it's just so damn good. It’s haunting, and the visuals stick with you. A few times I even yelled out loud as I read. After finishing the book, I remember thinking, ‘This is the perfect book for me to illustrate’.”
Philip Pullman talks about a bunch stuff
Including: polar bear costumery; comic writing; ultimatum ponytails; how the national curriculum is stunting children's creativity; and why Pope Gregory the Great probably didn't have much time for Judge Dredd.
Virginia Woolf on the cultivation of taste, from the London Library's rather lovely On Reading, Writing and Living with Books
“To continue reading without the book before you, to hold one shadow-shape against another, to have read widely enough and with enough understanding to make such comparisons alive and illuminating — that is difficult; it is still more difficult to press further and to say, ‘Not only is the book of this sort, but it is of this value; here it fails; here it succeeds; this is bad; that is good.’ To carry out this part of a reader’s duty needs such imagination, insight, and learning that it is hard to conceive any one mind sufficiently endowed; impossible for the most self-confident to find more than the seeds of such powers in himself.”
Braille Bricks
Using Lego to teach Braille to children with or without visual impairment. Of course! This seems so face-slappingly obvious, I can't believe it hasn't been done before. Utterly brilliant.
Coralie Bickford-Smith talks about her role as Senior Designer at Penguin
“My feelings about the work I have produced are in constant flux. I am never really satisfied it is only with many years distance that I think I might see my work with any sense of perspective. I feel this keeps me trying and moving forward with what I do and keeps things fresh. I still get so passionate about new ideas, I feel that it is only with years of experience I can now see past the feeling of sadness when an idea you love does not come to fruition. Usually it is for a very good reason and you can look back and laugh at your intense drive. It is very hard to keep a sense of perspective about your own work.”
12 Things I Noticed While Reading Every Short Story Published in 2014-15 (or, Extremely Long Titles That Are Complete Sentences Are Still Very Much a Thing)
And other observations.
That is all.