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John-Paul Flintoff

Hello!, thanks for popping in. I'm a writer, illustrator and performer.

📖 7 Books in 16 languages 📚 including: How To Change The World A Modest Book About How To Make An Adequate Speech.

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Featured Post

A lilac for you

Greetings Reader Have you stopped on a pavement, recently, to take a whiff of a neighbour's lilac? I recommend it. I wish you could smell the one on Crewys Road, between me and Childs Hill Park. It looks a bit like this: Ink, pencil and pen on A3 textured 250gsm paper. In other news: Using pictures to develop stories. I asked a recent International Booker Prize winner if I could do his portrait, along the lines of this one. He seems willing. Magnolia prints now available. (These prints are -...

12 days ago • 1 min read

Hello Reader Until you attempt to describe a still image, using actual words, it doesn't really mean much. Or, to put that the other way around: by describing a picture - actually choosing words and uttering them or writing them down - you can't avoid finding stories in it. I recorded a short video about this (see below), at the request of Helen at Arvon, to drum up interest in the upcoming online writing course. In the video you can see examples of the to-and-fro of words and pictures...

14 days ago • 1 min read

Hello hello Recently, I sent you an email with this photo of writers NOT having a beastly time: They were finishing an online writing course, run by the Arvon Foundation. I mentioned that I'm running a one-day course later this month. Some who replied said that, alas, the date doesn't work. I hope you won't mind if I trouble your inbox with details of an alternative (below). Instead of a one-day intensive, you can join me and the sensational Alice Jolly over five weeks. I've run Arvon...

16 days ago • 1 min read

Hello Today, I zoomed with someone who has been procrastinating about setting up a newsletter. "Why don't you do it right now?" I asked. OK, she said. ARCHIVED EMAIL: links may no longer work, facts may have changed. So I showed her (by screen sharing over Zoom) the backstage area of this, my newsletter thingy: Within 10 mins she had set up her own account, using the same platform, ConvertKit, and with a spot of encouragement from me, she created a Landing Page, including headshot, inviting...

18 days ago • 1 min read

Hello Reader Do these people look as if they’re having a beastly time? Not to me, they don't. They were participants on an online writing course with the Arvon Foundation. Later this month, I’m running another Arvon course. This time it’s concentrated into a single day. You’ll discover creative ways to develop your stories – to bring people and settings to life, and play with narrative structures. As if that wasn’t enough, you also get the chance to meet the editor of my latest book,...

19 days ago • 1 min read

Hello Exactly six months ago I was artist in residence at Redstone Press HQ. I made a little booklet to send in thanks to Julian. It was printed on my desktop, using heavier than normal paper. Digital isn't the same as A Real Thing! I’m thinking about how to create and share more stuff as print-it-yourself physical artefacts. Here's the larger inside page: And this is the digital drawing: Thank you to Julian, at Redstone Press, for allowing me to visit. It's based on a photo collage I shared...

20 days ago • 1 min read

Hello Reader Thank you for your replies last week. These included useful, touching and potentially entertaining tip-offs, distressing personal news (I sincerely hope the medical trial goes well) and an invitation on WhatsApp that I missed until too late (I’m sorry, you-know-who (Andrew)). I missed it because I have turned off notifications on WhatsApp, which I loathe (forgive me) because is owned by Facebook, aka Meta. Perhaps I should quit, you might say. Perhaps I should. A few months ago,...

26 days ago • 2 min read

Hello Reader It's all very well having access to smart phones and YouTube. All the tech in the world can't make you sound natural on camera - because it's just weird to speak into the void, all on your own. You press "record", you speak, then you press "stop". Afterwards, you watch the recording you've made and decide it's flawed for some reason - there's always some reason - and start all over again. Eventually you give up, meaning to do it another day. Which would be fine except that the...

28 days ago • 1 min read

If you hate stuff about religion, skip this one. Hello Reader Whatever else Easter may be, to you or to me, it's certainly a time of great drama - if you know where to find it. Over the last week, I've seen plenty, and missed some too. A week ago, I watched professional musicians perform Bach's St John Passion (on its 300th anniversary). There's something deceptively simple about the effect of the piece: one singer takes the part of St John (the "author"), while others provide the voices of...

29 days ago • 1 min read
Drawing of two people, in some kind of relationship

Thank you for your replies to last week's email about conversations that led someone (you? them?) to go off and do something extraordinary. Sometimes those conversations are only memorable to the person who is inspired by them. The other person may forget about the whole thing, unless reminded. In today’s email I’m going to write about the daily opportunity we all have to be part of such dialogues. ARCHIVED EMAIL: links may no longer work, facts may have changed. It’s on my mind a lot, for...

about 1 month ago • 3 min read
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