Beginnings

A first post should be a declaration of intent, nailing colours to the mast and giving some context for what comes next.

So this is Literary Wrench, a blog for mostly discussing my literary life, maybe providing a second home for some published work and lectures, linking to notional 'others', friends and fellow travellers who are also trying to make sense of the world through the written word.
The name has a few meanings for me:

First, Primo Levi's La Chiave a Stella, published in the UK as 'The Wrench' and in the US as 'The Monkey's Wrench'. Read and you will understand. (How poorly translation can serve an author: the US title is fantastically ugly in its prosaicism).

Meaning No. 2: when I was a student, working in a hotel in Scarborough during the holidays, I explained to one of the chefs that I was studying Chemical Engineering. 'What's that then?', Chef asked. 'It's not like you can get a spanner round a chemical.'

Back then, I had no answer. Now - well, not all wrenches/spanners are forged from steel to fit a hand to turn nuts and bolts.

No. 3: A wrench, as leaving one thing to begin another. Primo said something on this, too:
'The bond between a man and his profession is similar to that which ties him to his country; it is just as complex, often ambivalent, and in general it is understood completely only when it is broken: by exile or emigration in the case of one's country, by retirement in the case of a trade or profession.'