About Bryan Hemming
Living on the edge, burning up highway between the last dusty pueblo and the next. Gigs with Hell’s Angels down by the Mexican border ain’t for wussies. Ballads about badlands for bad boys. You’re a long time dead. It pays a man stepping on the wrong side of the law to keep an eye out for the next redneck with no reputation and an itchy, trigger finger. When things get hot you gotta pack heat.
Dream on. I do.
The Reality
Born in Leicestershire of a Norwegian mother and an English father, my early years were spent in the small town of Syston. I studied graphic design at Loughborough College of Art and Design, now part of Loughborough University before embarking on a career of lost opportunites and staring out of windows thinking of nothing. For the last decade I have lived in the Andalucian pueblo of Conil de la Frontera in the province of Cádiz with artist and activist, Angelica Westerhoff.
Nowadays, more of a slippers and pipe sort of bloke, I’m waiting for someone to buy me a pair of slippers and a pipe this Christmas. Just like last Christmas. Just like the Christmas before that. Just like every Christmas.
I dabble a bit in writing, and I dibble a bit with my camera, when I’m not sleeping one off.
I can be very fussy when it comes to things like socks. I even wear them in bed. And with sandals. No, I don’t.
Articles
The Agony and the Ecstasy an article on the painter Edvard Munch, On the Trail of that Hamsun Man, and Last Orders at Juani’s Bar appeared in The Independent, London, starting last century and ending at the beginning of this. A couple of articles appeared in the long defunct Portobello Review.
Short stories
In 2009, the short stories Washed up and Smoked Out and Asses Milk and Water Shortages appeared in Angela Clarence’s Anda-Luz creative journal.
Two of my shorts stories Purple Haze and El Levante appear in Creature in the Rose an anthology of 21 short stories published by BeWrite Books in 2004.
I have been publishing short stories centred around the fictional town of Santa Catalina on the internet since 2003.
Poetry
The poem Morning came early as usual was published by Sebastian Boyle in ABC arts magazine in 1995
Other
A qualified graphic designer, I designed several albums for Steve Hackett, former leader guitarist for Genesis in the 1980s. I also designed posters and a CD for the popular college circuit band Mike Fab-Gere and the Permissive Society
Apart from writing and design, my photos – which can viewed on this blog – sell in Conil de la Frontera. Well, sometimes they do. Summer 2010 saw my first photographic exhibition at the Hotel Fuerte, Conil. What a rip-off that turned out to be.
After many years dealing in antique rugs and textiles, in the 1980s I travelled around Turkey looking for antique tribal rugs and kilims to take back to the UK.
In the summer of 2000 I spent some months writing in a fisherman’s hut on the small island of Væroy at the tip of the Lofotens in Northern Norway. Pedersen’s Last Dream, the eternally unfinished novel, was started there.
Copyright
© Bryan Hemming, bryanhemming.wordpress.com, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Bryan Hemming and bryanhemming.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Conil
29 comments on “About Bryan Hemming”
Don't bottle it up, let everybody know your opinion. And please feel free to leave a link to any of your recent posts
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Bryan Hemming 
Hi Bryan, I hope you have been well. I don’t see you much on WordPress these days. But, I’m also woefully behind in my reading.
I’m moving forward on my Enigma series. The ms is about ready for its frightful flight to the editor. Meanwhile, I’m thinking about what I could use to fill up the back cover. You’ve written many insightful and encouraging comments and I wondered if it would be okay with you if I used one of those as a blurb? This is the one I’m particularly leaning toward:
“If your purpose is to keep me on the edge of my seat till the next installment, worrying what happened to Adolph, you have me!”
Bryan Hemming
Feel free to answer me at linda@rangewriter.biz, if you’d like to.
And while I’m at it, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your carefully readings and thoughtful comments. You provided the most discerning feedback that I’ve received through the blog, and I really appreciate you for that.
Linda
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Dear Bryan
I, too, was published by Angela Clarence in her Creative Journal. My item about the rise of Spanish Cinema did little to change world opinion. But I firmly believe that the world would be a poorer place without Spanish, Mexican and Chilean film directors.
I am also the ex-brother in law of Quentin Kean and his lovely wife Jenny. I still miss the magazine that she edited (La Luz), for which I wrote a classic series of restaurant reviews.
We spend 12 weeks or so a year in Conil. I like your blog and have even bought some of your photographs. We may possibly meet up…..
Regards
David MacGowan
PS…The novel “Norwegian by Night” by Derek B Miller is an exceptionally good read.
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Great to hear from you, David. Hasn’t calle Cádiz changed since the days Quentin used to run the delicatessen? Judging by the flocks of tourists, he’d certainly make a pile if he was there now. The place gets so packed I avoid it during the holiday season. All the restaurants, bars and cafes in the centre of the pueblo are doing better than ever, despite the fact there are so many more since the old days.
Even if your article didn’t do much to change world opinion, you were certainly right about Spanish cinema, we love it. Coincidentally, we watched Jamón Jamón, which you mentioned, on telly just the other night.
As you recommended ‘Norwegian by Night’ I might as well exploit the opportunity slip in plug for my other blog. ‘Pedersen’s Last Dream‘ (click on the title for a link) is based around the first ten chapters of the first draft of a novel I began in Norway some years ago. It also features an account of my travels to Arctic Norway, which formed the background for part of it.
Apart from visiting Hammerfest, the birthplace of my Norwegian grandfather, I stayed in a fisherman’s hut on Værøy, a tiny island at the southern tip of the Lofotens for a while. Oh, I already mentioned most of that in the puff piece above. Never mind.
I also popped in a few short stories and articles on Norway on the blog for good measure.
Angelica now has a spot at the entrance to the new Mercado de Abastos, where she takes commissions for portraits and sells the occasional drawing or painting.
Please pop by next time you’re in Conil, we’d both love to meet up an have a chat.
Regards,
Bryan.
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Brian, I navigated here from Consortium News with your comment on Tulsi Gabbard. Thanks so much for your great commentary. I will be visiting often.
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Thanks, Bob. Glad to hear you enjoyed the piece and love the fact you took the time to write and say so.
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Lovely to stumble across your blog Bryan. Your work is inspiring. I send you happy new wishes from Australia.
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Thanks for popping by Miriam, One of my oldest friends lives in Cheltenham, Melbourne. Though I’m not going to make the stupid comment “you might know him” there is a bit of a chance you might know of him, as a novel he wrote was published some years ago.
Dave (Treweek) is the author of A Close Run Thing a humorous tale centred round the antique business in Melbourne. I think it did quite well at the time. Not only did he and I share a flat in London but we were also involved in the antique business together for a while. We still keep in contact. And that reminds me, I must write him a letter.
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Bryan my brother I love to see you are loved say no more
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PS. I miss your voice.
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You would’t like my voice at the moment, as my head has become a snot-making factory and I’m all bunged up!
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How are you Bryan? You’ve been so quiet lately. I hope all is well.
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I’m touched by your concern. I have popped by your site every day and left my ‘likes’. Been quite busy over the last week or so, and have had a lot of other sites to look at. Will be back soon! Apart from that, I have a cold.
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Hi Bryan.
I hope you feel better soon.
No obligation here, whatsoever. I always notice, appreciate, am honored, and like when you stop by. I just wanted to check-in.
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Hi Bryan, thanks for finding and following my blog! SD
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Hey Bryan,
Guess we were both wrong about Spain then? I’ve nominated you for the ‘versatile blog award’ have a look here: http://anovelspain.com/2014/06/23/most-versatile-blogs/
Thanks.
Barry
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Hi Bryan. It’s been a long time. How are you? Last session you, Val and me and Chivas Regal. Hope you remember it’s been a while.
Anna from Ireland
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Hi Anna,
A long while indeed. Of course I remember the first bit, after that it all gets a rather hazy. You’d both just got back from China.
I’m still here in Conil with Angelica, poor and struggling as usual. We live on a diet of hope and forlornness, clinging to the belief we’ll find comfort in the eternity of merciful death.
Don’t we all? Oh, we don’t? So, it’s just us then?
Hope all is well with you.
Bryan
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Bryan,
I saw Mike Reynolds in the pub the other day and he mentioned your Blog. I’m not one for posting ‘public’ comments but after trying a series of email addresses with different configurations, thought I’d better try the most straightforward route.
I have so much to tell you but I’m not doing it here.
I hope we might exchange news in the future.
Best.
Stuart
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You TOTALLY sucked me in with your first para (I realise I commented earlier today – but that was before work & sort of cursory – now that you’ve visited me, I’m taking a second look if you don’t mind…… )
OMG why did you have to say that shit about lost opportunities & staring out of windows … NOOOOOOOO! But I gotya, I read on…
Imagine if BANKSY bought you some slippers & graffed on them – that’d be DIFFERENT, surely??! Oh but please tell me you’re not serious. What kind of person REALLY – LIKE, REALLY AND TRULY – buys a man/no matter what man (but particularly a man capable of buying his own) – slippers & a pipe?
Yeah, I know: someone who does not know the man.
I wear socks in bed too! And with sandals too!!!!!
No, I don’t 😉
Hey! You’re way published. This is very cool & not to be played down. It means you are a writer, not just in your head. This is great, & kudos to you 🙂
Very sorry about the summer of 2010 – whatever happened there. It sounds like shit.
Your first para is really seriously engaging – you gotta write more, as well as design, I say – because I imagine from the collection of words you set into symmetry, you’re very much a writer too.
Loved your stuff – & I thank you for dropping by – & seriously, if your lady can relate, I’d love her to visit…
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The slippers and the pipe are lies too. And the socks in bed. I never like having to write stuff about myself the way people expect, and realise most people lie. So why not go the whole hog, I say.
If you want to visit my lady’s site she’s at angelicawesterhoff.wordpress.com The blog features her pictures and paintings.
I’ll get her to visit your site. Coincidentally, her son’s name is Daniel too, Dani, for short, but he’s sixteen now.
Thanks for your comments, I’ll get in touch again when I’ve read some more of your stuff.
Bryan
2012/1/23,
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Ha ha – you totally sucked me in – and then I saw “dream on, I do” 🙂
Well done with your published successes – this is just great! I’ll have to look at your stuff…. I’m intrigued.
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That was an excellent comment that you had in The independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/julian-assange-i-did-not-rape-those-women-2358652.html
comparing the treatment of Strauss-Kahn and Assange.
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Thank you very much, Peter. I had been following both cases separately when I saw the similarities – along with the discrepancies – that drove me to write such a long comment. Up till now, my site has concentrated on the fictional portion of my output. I hope to be able to offer more in-depth opinions and comments on the blog over the coming months.
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I’ll be back (without the accent) – checking out that site…
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Well done bryan, very funny in parts, like it very much!
George Blynd
Waiting for the next installment!
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Glad you enjoyed it, George. I love doing it. I’ve got a couple of things just about ready to post. One’s a short story about a school in Leicester based on the school I went to before Longslade. It might amuse you. Another short story is giving me problems and taking much longer than I would like. Added to that, I’ll probably be out and about with my camera over the next few days snapping shots of the penitents dressed up in their KKK type hoods parading the streets of Conil. If I get any good ones I’ll put them up on the site.
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Bryan,
You wouldn’t happen to be the Bryan Hemming of the old ACTT days? If so, how are you? Peter.
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No, I’m the Bryan Hemming who emailed you about a documentary project on The Pazyryk carpet some years ago.
We spoke for a long time on the phone, and you were very encouraging. Shortly afterwards I came to Spain to live, and have been here ever since. Unfortunately, I have been unable to devote the time and money for the research necessary to further the idea, though I still believe it would be worth the effort. Bryan
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This is intriguing Peter & Bryan!! 🙂
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