nothing in the rulebook

A collective of creatives bound by a single motto: There's nothing in the rulebook that says a giraffe can't play football!

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Author: professorwu

  • Writers on their favourite books

    Everyone has that book they can’t get out of their head. The story that will forever hold a special place in their hearts and souls. We were lucky enough to have the chance to ask* five famous authors about their favourite books** – here’s what they told us… Jonathan Franzen – The Hungry Caterpillar “This…

  • Self-doubt and the cure for procrastination

    The well-known ailment of any artist, writer, illustrator, photographer, comedian, actor – anyone creatively inclined at all, in fact – is of course creative block. So often, this mental obstacle that seems to stifle our ability to think clearly about creative challenges is met with hours of another well-known symptom: procrastination. Indeed, this symptom is…

  • The little-known poems of Chinua Achebe

    The Nigerian novelist is rightly regarded as one of the greatest writers of the past century. His debut novel, Things Fall Apart, is still the single most widely read book in African literature, despite being published in 1958. Yet despite his fame and status, few people are familiar with his lesser-known – though certainly not…

  • We’re breaking up: how technology is dampening our creativity

    Reading the wonderful exchange of letters between Pulitzer Prize winning author, Willa Cather, and her friend and fellow writer, Sarah Jewett, one is struck immediately by how rare such thoughtful examples of communication have now become. Where once it was common to place such great thought and care into penned – or pencilled – correspondence,…

  • Our silent friends: stunning short film celebrates our spiritual connection with trees and nature

    Trees – the oldest living things in our world – have been mankind’s ever-present, silent companions from the dawn of time and life. They have been transmuted into myths and metaphor, and have long been used to symbolise and visualise human knowledge and the cycle of life. “The Tree of Life” means so much and…

  • Productivity vs creativity: writing and the stock exchange

      How many of us have ushered the phrase ‘I work to live; not the other way around’, insisting that we believe this to be true even while we toil away at our desks for hours after hours? Apart from the general unpleasantness of finding ourselves caught in this corporate entrapment – which is entirely…

  • Ebooks blamed as Penguin cuts jobs

    Book publisher Penguin Random House has blamed ebooks for 225 potential job losses at its warehouse in Rugby, Warwickshire. The publisher pointed to figures from the Publishers Association, which show that UK digital book sales rose 11% last year, while print copies fell 5%. “The revolution in reading habits, with ebooks becoming more popular, has…

  • Storm

    A storm is brewing. See how the clear sky dims before the advance, A new wind blows, unheard in a lifetime of years, One to make the shutters dance; A storm that plays to people’s fears.   A storm is brewing: One of our own making, One to shake windows to frost, Splinter the eaves,…

  • The tricks of the essayist; a sympathetic summary

    In his magnificent 1866 guide to the art of conversation – Martine’s Handbook of Etiquette, and a Guide to True Politeness –  Arthur Martine provided the following advice for those who find themselves in “disputes upon moral or scientific points”: “Let your aim be to come at truth, not conquer your opponent. So you shall…

  • The reality of success and rejection in the publishing industry

    This year, the Jamaican writer Marlon James won the 2015 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for his novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings. In the aftermath of his win, much was made of how the manuscript of his first novel, John Crow’s Devil, was rejected almost 80 times before finally being accepted by a…