Mask

Winter may still be raging outside but I felt it was time for a little spring cleaning. I've tidied up the blog a bit and, most noticeably, given it a new title and header (though the URL's the same): the Bosky Man.

I've talked before about how I started this blog on the recommendation of other authors as a way to promote my book, Shroom, hence the original, unimaginative but unambiguous title: Andy Letcher. Over the last couple of years the emphasis has gradually changed. It's no longer so blatantly about self-promotion (!) but more about the things that interest or intrigue me or just inspire me to write. I've come to love blogging for blogging's sake.

Bosky means 'wooded', 'full of bushes', 'tipsy' or 'intoxicated', and as you know the Bosky Man is a character I've been taking out onto the streets of Oxford on May Morning and the Day of the Dead. He's half traditional, half my own creation. He's a persona or mask.

The change of title is designed to reflect the changing emphasis of the blog. But it's also a reminder, to me if not to you, that the 'me' I present here is a fiction. However much it's based on the reality of what I do and what I think, the people I meet and so on, it's still a representation, another kind of persona or mask. It's how I choose to narrate my life, not life itself.

I thought the new title more honest.