-
About this site
My name's Jonathan Pinnock. I lead a dual life. In one half of this, I run a software development company called Jonathan Pinnock and Associates. If you've come here looking for that, here's where you need to go.However, if you've come here to find out about the other half of my life, as a writer of fiction and non-fiction, you've come to the right place.
If, on the other hand, you've arrived here by accident whilst searching for Japanese Tentacle Porn, I suggest you try using a different search engine.
Dec
31
A Winter’s Chill Strikes Hampstead
Filed Under Performances | 2 Comments
On Sunday I took the family along to the New End Theatre in Hampstead for an evening of chilling stories expertly told by Miles Barden and Joshua Dickinson (including a new version of my own piece, “After Michelangelo”), and we all had a great time. I’ll leave the review to the far more eloquent Oscar Windsor-Smith here, noting in passing that the show turned a profit, and that the team are actively looking for a venue for a further presentation prior to taking it to the Edinburgh Fringe. An excellent result all round, I’d say.
Nov
24
Ah, this is more like it. From the website of the New End Theatre, Hampstead, London:
Obstacle Productions presents
A WINTER’S CHILL
Including work written and inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, M. R. James, Janet Baldey and Jonathan PinnockPerformed by Miles Barden and Josh Dickenson
The spine-tingling horror of M. R. James combined with the mysterious monstrosity of Edgar Allan Poe to quicken your blood and addle your mind. In the depth of winter and the full dark of night these legends of terror alongside two entirely new, contemporary tales will be narrated in classic style by two connoisseurs of the art of storytelling. Experience the delight of true, full-blooded, psychological terror. Allow yourself to feel the shock of the supernatural and the unknown, and the fear of things that only lurk in the dark.
Suitable for ages 12 and above
Sunday 28 to Monday 29 December 2008
Sunday and Monday at 7:30pm
Tickets £10
So click away people!
Nov
20
More About “A Winter’s Chill”
Filed Under Performances | Leave a Comment
Ooh, take a look at this. Well, I’m excited - aren’t you?
Oct
28
Of All The People To Pick On …
Filed Under Other people, Performances, Stuff | 2 Comments
Couldn’t give a toss about Russell Brand, but I used to like Jonathan Ross. He always struck me as someone who had a little more behind him than the average celeb. But after this stunt, I’m not so sure.
I haven’t had many encounters with celebs (apart from - God help me - Margaret Thatcher, and I’m not entirely sure that she counts), but I did once receive a phone call from Andrew Sachs. Bizarrely, this means that probably the one thing I have in common with Brand and Ross is that I also have Andrew Sachs’ mobile phone number. This is how it came to pass.
Once upon a time, I wrote a radio play. It was a very strange radio play, and to this day it remains unbroadcast, although I would dearly love to hear it produced. I sent it off to the BBC - which in those pre-Writers’ Room days was a lot more straightforward to get into - and I received an invitation to meet Jeremy Howe, who was then in charge of drama at Radio 3. He basically told me that he really liked it, but it was too short, and did I have anything else? And I admitted that, er, no, I didn’t, apart from one half-baked idea that we kicked around for a few minutes, and that was that. In those days, I didn’t have the tenacity and single-mindedness to follow it up (to say nothing of having a young family to support), so nothing more came of it.
A couple of years back, I dug the script out of the drawer, and sent it off to Dirk Maggs, who also liked it, but said that it was too short, etc. etc.. Then I had an inspiration. Why not send it to Andrew Sachs? One of the lesser-known facts about Andrew Sachs (in fact one that is currently missing from his Wikipedia page) is that he was the writer of the radio drama “The Revenge”. This is an unusual piece, in that it has no words, only sound effects (but it works - especially when you’re wearing headphones, because it’s recorded binaurally). And it was, to a large extent, the inspiration for my play. So I wrote to him, via his agent, enclosing my script, explaining that “The Revenge” was the inspiration for it - and would he be interested in taking one of the parts should it ever come to production?
So it was that one Sunday morning in February last year, I received a phone call from Andrew Sachs. Once I had picked the phone up from where I had dropped it on the floor, we had a very pleasant five-minute chat, in which he seemed extremely down to earth and genuinely interested in what I was doing. He also mentioned that I could certainly say that he would be interested in playing the part that I had suggested. On the basis of this call, I would like to suggest that Andrew Sachs is possibly the nicest celeb on the planet.
And Jonathan Ross, you’re a git.
Oct
23
A Winter’s Chill
Filed Under Performances | Leave a Comment
Ooh, this is exciting. Up and coming actor Miles Barden will be doing a one-man part of a two-man show at the New End Theatre in Hampstead between Christmas and New Year, performing four chilling stories under the heading of (appropriately enough) ”A Winter’s Chill”. I don’t know details of all the stories involved, but I do know that two are classics and two are new, and that one of the new ones is … (roll drums) “After Michelangelo”. Or at least, a suitably adapted version of it. I’m really looking forward to this, because there’s nothing more a writer loves than to hear someone who knows what they’re doing reading their work.
So get your diaries out. The performances are on Sunday December 28th at 6PM and Monday December 29th at 8PM. More details to follow.
Sep
9
Liars’ League: Crime and Punishment
Filed Under Performances | 4 Comments
Another excellent night out at the League. My piece, Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions had the honour of kicking off the proceedings, and the lovely Sabina Cameron coped splendidly with the challenges posed by its somewhat convoluted language. Here she is (with apologies for the fuzzy nature of the picture - my wonderful new Samsung phone claims to have a 5 Megapixel camera, but it clearly wasn’t quite behaving itself tonight):
Sabina Cameron
She told me afterwards that she’s planning to use my story for practice. I’m not sure whether I feel flattered by this or perturbed.
The other stories were excellent. In particular, Simon Hodgson’s piece, Thieves We Were contained one fantastic line about a gangster’s car being the colour of day-old blood. Perfect.
I met lots of nice people, including James Burt, who was the only other author present (the others being unavailable owing to living in places like Glasgow, New York and San Francisco - you think they might have made the effort). His piece, Eat at Lovecraft’s, was great fun - listen out for that one when it appears on the podcast.
Amusingly, one of the authors who wasn’t present was Jim Murdoch, whose blog I added a comment to only the other day. The comment was in relation to an interview that he did with Adrian Graham, who I met at the League last time I went, a couple of months back. It’s a distressingly small world …