Monthly Archives: May 2008

Favourite authors, at a moment’s notice …

Simon at Stuck-in-a-Book tagged me for this meme, which began on Heather’s site, Errant Thoughts. Thank you , Simon … . 1. Who’s your all-time favourite author, and why? John Fowles because his use of language is astonishing, glorious, erudite … Continue reading

Posted in Favourite authors, Jeanette Winterson, John Fowles, Lewis Carroll, Marina Fiorato, Rose Tremain, Stuck in a Book, The Glassblower of Murano | 10 Comments

Foot Planning

In the poem called ‘Words’ for Lucy in Don’t Let them Tell you How to Grieve, there are these lines: one foot in front of the otherand don’t forget to breathe They are the last lines in a poem which … Continue reading

Posted in Don't Let Them Tell You How To Grieve, next novel, planning, poetry | 3 Comments

Don’t Let Them Tell You How To Grieve

I read about this extraordinarily beautiful, touching, poignant, funny, sad, life-affirming, illuminating, comforting and grief-understanding collection of poems by Gina Claye on dovegreyreader’s blog at the end of April. I ordered myself a couple of copies which arrived this morning. … Continue reading

Posted in Don't Let Them Tell You How To Grieve, dovergreyreader, Gina Claye, grieving | Comments Off

Lost in Translation … ?

I found a clever little widget over at Bookersatz which translates your blog for you. It’s called Altavista Babelfish Translator and you can see it over there on the right and down a bit. But because the title of my … Continue reading

Posted in Altavista Babelfish, blog translation, Bookersatz, MAts in translation | 4 Comments

Research, and fiction

It is an extraordinary thing (although obvious I’m sure to all except me) the way that research informs fiction and changes its direction. Several years ago, when I was writing a series of Just-Soesque short stories for children, I spent … Continue reading

Posted in camels, fiction, inspiration, ostriches, Ostriches or the brids nobody noticed, research, research in fiction, Spider, Zoological Society library | 8 Comments