The Sigla Blog

What makes anyone want to box, and why would a woman want to get into the ring? The reasons according to Kate Sekules - journalist, travel writer, food critic and boxer - are similar but varied. Sekules’ adolescence was where she discovered the driving forces behind her pugilistic urges. Just before her eighteenth birthday, her […]

It’s 2001 and in the wealthy suburbs of southern France post-millennium tension is sweeping the land. Vast business parks are home to largest corporate organisations and executives adhere strictly to the ethic of ‘work hard, play hard’. Immense buildings and phallic skyscrapers dot the landscape while the population resembles powerful workaholics in an ant colony. […]

‘Out of Me’ is the title of Fiona Shaw’s commendable debut detailing her descent into chronic post-natal depression and her subsequent attempt to claw back from this nightmare. The title of the book refers to Shaw’s overwhelming need to externalise her life. Her reason for writing the book is intrinsically connected to her desire to […]

“Farewell, but you will be with me, you will go within a drop of blood circulating in my veins”
These lines from a Pablo Neruda poem are the only link to the past that a young Cuban woman has to her mother. The words, scrawled on a piece of paper, are pinned to her clothes as […]

In 2001 an unusual development arose during the final judging of one of Britain’s most prestigious literary awards. The Whitbread Prize Book of the Year Award (the most hotly contested category) looked as though it might be a draw - until Tim Rice stepped in. As the literary world held its breath, Sir Tim used […]