Tom Wiggins, Letter Carver & Writer

At the beginning of September, I went on a short break to Brighton.  I was in between one stonemasonry job and another and keen to do something worthwhile with this break I had manufactured.  I had arranged with my friends on the coast that I would go during that week, but I was laboured with indecision up until the morning I was due to leave.  I had spent much of the previous day reading Stephen Grosz’s ‘The Examined Life’ – a book I had discovered more or less at the right time.  It included a series of very illuminating and well-written psychotherapy case studies that went some way towards shedding some light on what I was feeling at the time.  While it had many points in its favour, it wasn’t necessarily something that eased the decision-making process over whether or not to go away.  I was still trying to make my mind up until the morning I was due to leave, trailing most of it behind me as I cycled to the hospital for a blood test.  It was the n...

The news of David Bowie's death sent the music world into a state of shock and mourning.  The extent to which Bowie was loved was clear: it was etched on the faces of his shell-shocked fans paying tribute to him at a Brixton mural and similar vigils all over the world.  Fans were paying tribute to the late singer in their masses.  They had to go there, often for no other reason than for not knowing what else to do.  Such was Bowie's impact and importance on people's lives that these vigils sprung up, almost creating themselves.  It came just two days after what would have been a double celebration for many of his fans: it had been the singer's 69th birthday and with it came the release of Black Star, his 25th studio album.  It was a sad day, and one that was best summed up by James Ward in this very poignant piece .   I'm sad to say that I wasn't directly exposed to David Bowie's music growing up,  even...

When David Haye steps into the ring on Saturday night, he will return to a different age in British heavyweight boxing.   It will be three and a half years since his last fight against Derek Chisora and he will find that the hierarchy has changed significantly.   Tyson Fury rules the roost as the self-confessed Gypsy King, complete with a Klitschko scalp, a swathe of world title belts and the title of Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year.   Meanwhile, David Price - once touted as a future world champion – suffered back-to-back losses against a 41 year-old Tony Thompson, which left the Liverpool man considering his future in the sport.   Then you have Anthony Joshua - the nation’s Great Hope - whose own professional career didn’t begin until over a year after Haye took leave of the ring.   The 26 year-old has already established himself as a world title hope by dispatching all 15 of his opponents well within the allocated distance.    In being so clini...

"All writing is garbage. People who come out of nowhere to try and put into words any part of what goes on in their minds are pigs.  All writers are pigs. Especially writers today." - Antonin Artaud 

And all of a sudden every house on every street folded in on itself handkerchief soft and the curve of the earth found the energy to straighten and all I could see were the upturned hands of churches and trees spires and branches limestone and leaves for miles and miles and miles. 

For Simon  In another life we might have stopped at a point where the road widened jumped out blessed whomever for our crops and the good that it would do  danced a wild goodbye to the drought until our shirts were soaked but instead we waved our fists behind the safety of your wipers   until we found a small but significant role for water to play in this but as we weaved ourselves north we came to see a weakness in it and we began to wonder how it would handle our growing spirit  and what it would do if it felt what we felt when we arrived when the smooth heat of her electric guitar slid down our throats and saw to it that rain was just there to cool our little patch of earth.

Mr Thomas Wiggins 9 Bradmill Gardens Hucclecote Gloucester GL3 9DT Her Majesty The Queen Buckingham Palace London SW1A 1AA Sunday 20 th September 2015 Madam, Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Your Majesty on becoming Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.  I speak for the vast majority of the British public and The Commonwealth when I say your reign is an exceptional achievement and long may it continue.  Please accept this letter as a formal invitation to attend my 30th birthday party on Saturday 4th June 2016.  My birthday actually falls on 8th June, but no one wants to party on a Wednesday, apart from Prince Harry (allegedly).  Details as to arrival time and venue have yet to be finalised, but it will almost certainly be held in Gloucester (for The Royal Sat Nav, it will be within half a mile of Edward II’s tomb).   A buffet (Mr Tesco’s version of a ba...