odds.
As the title suggests, this page is where all the bits and pieces that don’t have a natural home end up. There’s plenty on Jim’s involvement with writers’ group 26 and awards, as well as other side projects.
circle line.
16/11/2006-
This was 26’s major project for 2005, a two-pronged affair which took London’s Circle Line as its starting point. Writers were each randomly assigned a station - Jim was pretty miffed to end up with Euston Square which, on the surface, had little to recommend it.
They were also partnered with students from the London College of Communication. Jim was fortunate enough to land the highly talented Tommaso de Sanctis and Avital Benezra. After a couple of false starts, we hit upon the idea of an illustrative representation of Richard Trevithick’s Catch Me Who Can locomotive, going round a circular track in the middle of modern-day Euston Square, with all the 21st century high-rise, glass-fronted architecture around it. (Trevithick had originally set the track up in the same location in 1808 as a stunt to attract funding.) The result – wonderfully rendered by Tommaso – was surreal, thought provoking and tied-in neatly with the Circle Line.
The second part of the project was to write a chapter inspired by the surrounding area – you can read more about From Here to Here: Stories Inspired by London's Circle Line in the bookshelf section.