Janet Cameron

Image Copyright Gareth Cameron John Walsh says that to disapprove of the depths to which adult humour sinks is to disapprove of humanity itself. Does he have a point? Any number of unpleasant situations have affected British comedy over the past few years, beginning, for example, with the nasty trick Russel Brand and  Jonathan Ross   played on Andrew Sachs in 2013 by dissing his granddaughter. Comedians today are dishing out yet more and more cringe-making, intrusive comments about the Royal Family and various forays into formerly taboo territory. Adjectives are flung around, vile, obscene, puerile, disgusting, etc.  John Walsh, in his article "Going 'too far'? It's the oldest joke of all" admits that "rudeness" reigns, and that we are simply stuck with the humour alluding to sex and bodily functions. It may be in poor taste, but it has a tradition going way back into our early history. Now we have a new fun-poking programme, Newzoids, caric...

What Price Individual Rights? "Hard Times" opposes the Utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham. Copyright Janet Cameron Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was incensed by the new moral philosophical movement of Utilitarianism.  The movement's founding father, reformer, Jeremy Bentham, a Philosophical Radical, believed that human beings behave in a certain way in order to maximise pleasure and minimise pain, therefore society's responsibility was to promote "the greatest happiness in the greatest number of people." While Charles Dickens agreed with many of Bentham's beliefs, for example, with regard to social reform, minimum wages and prison conditions, he objected to the general ethic of the movement, which he believed ignored the importance of individual rights. The central protagonist in his novel,   Hard Times , set in the fictional town of Coketown, is the headmaster Thomas Gradgrind, bent on treating his small charges as "little pitchers" w...

When they hear about my murder books, people sometimes say, ‘Why is it women love writing about murder?’ Well, it wasn’t really like that for me. I didn’t  choose  to delve into all that gut-wrenching material from England’s colourful and bloody past. I began, innocently enough, with a serious history book,  Canterbury Streets , having been introduced to the commissioning editor of Tempus Publishing through my good friend Sylvia Kent, herself a prolific history book author. My  Streets  book was followed and outsold by another book which practically wrote itself , Haunted Kent . (Never assume the writing at which you work your hardest is synonymous with the writing that sells the most copies.)  Local history publishers tend to plan their titles in series and these are then taken up by regional authors. The Murder and Crime books were simply part of a series currently underway, so I was invited to write for Kent. I started off with Murder & C...

Entrants to writing competitions naturally have concerns about bias and subjectivity. How can creative writing be judged fairly? Isn’t it all just a matter of personal opinion? Well, yes and no. Yes , because, ultimately, when evaluating a number of quality mss, a judge will choose what s/he likes best . No because there is a range of specific criteria against which quality writing can be assessed. Being aware of this process may help you increase your chances of achieving, at least, a higher placement. Wins cannot be guaranteed since while judges generally agree on the top five or ten percent of entries showing special ability, the final choice will be a matter of personal taste. The Basics of Good Writing In college coursework, students’ portfolios must be assessed to a percentage. There are firm guidelines in reaching an overall score and there is nothing about this process that could be described as ‘arbitrary'. Here are the six main areas markers consider in assessin...

Here are some of the members of my U3A Philosophy Group on the occasion of our Summer Party at Anna Barnard's house (Anna is on the far right of the picture and provided us with a beautiful lunch in her garden.)  We start our sessions again on the 14 September, discussing, analysing and dissecting all the hefty issues of ethical, political and moral philosophy, plus a smattering of metaphysics when we feel like it. This is one of the smartest groups I have ever taken, and has been running for two years. Our oldest member, Joyce Jones, is the beautiful lady, seated right front - our meeting was just a few days before her 90th birthday so we had a double celebration with champagne and plenty of laughs.

Frog Heaven and Other Stories - Short Literary Fiction by Janet Cameron. The stories have been published previously in good lit mags, and/or won writing awards. Award-winning short fiction by Janet Cameron. Uncomfortable truths slice through the artifice of characters as odd, funny and unique as any you might meet in real life. You may even recognise aspects of yourself in ways you may not have thought possible. Janet Cameron's short fiction has been widely published in national women's magazines and reputable literary journals. Her work has been described by the Chairman of the Society of Women Writers and Journalists, Val Dunmore, as equal to anything in the repertoire of Joyce Grenfell. Princess Michael of Kent was so impressed with her title story, Frog Heaven, that she asked her for some writing tips! Reviews from Amazon.com 5.0 out of 5 stars These short stories offer thought-provoking, glimpses into the complexities ... By  John   on April 28, 2016 For...

http://decodedpast.com/samuel-taylor-coleridge-supernatural-rime-ancient-mariner/13572   Samuel Taylor Coleridge - for readers who love old-fashioned poems with rhymes and stanzas and a clear moral perspective. Read it on Decoded Past, see the link above