<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Small Talk<\/strong><\/p>\n Doorbell; the first guests, an hour table devoid of plates and cutlery, grin on your face, open the door and smiles. And this is the thing: of blandness, a jailer in disguise to keep this joint clean, to police a shiv of opinionism or is able golf and cricket club anecdotes debate. God forbid guests impart Be alert for these kind of tricks; talks smart, you take \u2019em down.<\/p>\n Neil Fulwood<\/strong> is the author of \u2018The Films of Sam Peckinpah\u2019 and runs film review blog Agitation of the Mind<\/a>. He\u2019s a member of the Alan Sillitoe Committee, who are raising funds towards a permanent memorial to be sited in Nottingham. Neil co-designed their website www.sillitoe.com <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Small Talk Doorbell; the first guests, an hour early for dinner. You\u2019re not ready. Hair still damp from the shower, table devoid of plates and cutlery, oven pre-heating, wine uncorked. You get into character, fix an easy grin on your face, open the door to the soft minefield of the evening, its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4518"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4520,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4518\/revisions\/4520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nearly for dinner. You\u2019re not ready.
\nHair still damp from the shower,<\/p>\n
\noven pre-heating, wine uncorked.
\nYou get into character, fix an easy<\/p>\n
\nto the soft minefield of the evening,
\nits nuances and niceties, small talk<\/p>\n
\nit must remain perfectly civilised
\nat all costs. You\u2019re the custodian<\/p>\n
\nrattling the keys of middle class
\ndecorum; the guy whose job it is<\/p>\n
\nthe cellblock of the dinner table.
\nSo you make sure nobody carries<\/p>\n
\nto distract the guards (i.e. those
\ndroll and endlessly repeatable<\/p>\n
\nyou trade on) with a whip-smart
\nbut loaded remark that provokes<\/p>\n
\nsensible perspectives on politics,
\nmorality, religion \u2026 or even art!<\/p>\n
\nrecognise warning signs. Frown
\non disrespect: any of these pricks<\/p>\n