Category Archives: Uncategorized

Being kind can reduce chronic inflammation. Who knew?

On 10 January, in Dr Michael Mosley’s series, Just one Thing, there’s an episode called Be Kind. In it, Mosley talks to Dr Tristen Inagaki, PhD of San Diego University whose studies show that being kind improves our immune systems and … Continue reading

Posted in Baking, Gifts, Goodness, Health, Kindness, Love, Mental Health, Mind, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

A Valentine to the Earth: Terra Carta

On 11 January the Prince of Wales announced Terra Carta, Earth Charter, a Magna Carta for the twenty-first century: the basis of a recovery plan for nature, people and the planet. A valentine to the earth, I thought. He said: Humanity … Continue reading

Posted in Climate Change, Creativity, Equality, Good News, Health, Living Standards, One Green Thing, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Feeling Low? Try karunavirus. Seriously.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been feeling pretty low about the state of our corona-contaminated world (not to mention other depressing events) so I went looking for something uplifting. And I found karunavirus. Seriously. Nothing to do with … Continue reading

Posted in Climate Change, Coronavirus, Creativity, Good News, Good Things, Love, News, Science, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

George Floyd: I Can’t Breathe: BlackOut Tuesday 2 June 2020

LA Reid, record producer and founder of HitCo, posted this on twitter two days ago: And George Floyd’s brother, Philonese, says this on YouTube. He calls for peaceful protests and for people to use their votes in the coming US election … Continue reading

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Stories for Children in Lockdown

At the beginning of April Yahoo set up a short story competition for stories to entertain children during the lockdown.  Yesterday, 27 April, they announced the 20 shortlisted stories  and mine, FLYING COLOURS, is one of them. The stories are now … Continue reading

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City Tales, and Hive

Since 2004, Oxford University Press has been publishing volumes of City Tales, collections of short stories set in European cities translated into English. The guiding idea is to give the English-speaking reading traveller (I paraphrase): Stories expertly translated by writers with an … Continue reading

Posted in Bookshops, Fiction, Places, reading, Reviews, Storytelling, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Uncategorized, Writing | Leave a comment

Make Good Art, a resolution for the new year

In January 2016, I quoted Neil Gaiman’s wonderful advice which is, essentially, whatever you’re doing, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry … Continue reading

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Jericho Writers’ Self-Editing Your Novel Course, and the wonders of Atlas Obscura: destinations, food and drink

I’m in the final week of Jericho Writers’ Self-Editing your novel course run by Debi Alper and Emma Darwin and all I can say is if you’ve written a first (or even a twenty-first) draft of a novel and you know something’s … Continue reading

Posted in Drink, Fiction, Food, Places, Rewriting, Storytelling, Third Novel, Travel, Uncategorized, Writing, Writing Courses | Leave a comment

John Clare, gardener and writer; and Bloom & Wild

In this strange spring and early summer of ours, where March’s snow, frost and ice stopped all plant growth and May’s hot days and tropical rainstorms encouraged it wildly, I’ve been wondering how many writers worked as gardeners. I only found … Continue reading

Posted in Artists, Fiction, Gardening, Mental Health in Fiction, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Uncategorized, Writers, Writing | Leave a comment

Teaching kids to fall in love with science (a different kind of love for Valentine’s day); and things to do with rubbish

I was noodling around on the internet wondering what I was going to post about this month when I discovered Arvind Gupta. He won the Padma Shree on 26 January (India’s Republic Day) for his work in literature and in education, … Continue reading

Posted in Artists, Creativity, Design, News, Science, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A new writing resolution; and a new (to me) altruistic way of advertising

I’ve made a new writing resolution: I will not allow the confusing complexity, the sheer size and the constantly changing, shifting nature of a novel’s first draft to eclipse the excitement I felt when its guiding idea first electrified me. I. Will. Not. … Continue reading

Posted in Baby Boomers, Creativity, Fiction, Millenials, Psychology, Rewriting, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Uncategorized, Writing | Leave a comment

Laurie Lee’s A Village Christmas, and other things

I read about Laurie Lee’s A Village Christmas and Other Notes on the English Year at dovegreyreader’s wonderful blog early in November and I’m hoping it will end up under our tree this year. I’ve already bought it for several friends.A perfect book … Continue reading

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Just When … will we do something?

Just published by the wonderful Beautiful Books, is this volume of short stories: Inspired by Kipling’s Just-So Stories, the Just When Stories focus on the animals we need to protect today. There are stories about turtles and cranes, seahorses and … Continue reading

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Thursday last …

… on Thursday last I gave my second novel, whose working title is Hope Remains, to my agent. And now I feel oddly bereft. I have become so used to spending my days immersed in the sadnesses and joys of … Continue reading

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The Man Booker Shortlist

So here they are: Aravind Adiga The White TigerSebastian Barry The Secret ScriptureAmitav Ghosh Sea of PoppiesLinda Grant The Clothes on Their BacksPhilip Hensher The Northern ClemencySteve Toltz A Fraction of the Whole Two first novels have made the shortlist, … Continue reading

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Old work, new work

While staring through the window and dreaming about my new novel (and doing some planning) I find images from my first novel stealing into my mind. I ask myself if that’s because I’m afraid of stepping into the new or … Continue reading

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Congratulations to …

… Jonathan Trigell and Boy A on becoming THE Book to Talk About, 2008. (Press release here.) And thank you to everyone who voted for Speaking of Love. It has been a privilege for the book to be on the … Continue reading

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It’s a little bit funny …

… this feeling inside. The rest of Elton John’s song doesn’t apply, but today is a day when it’s difficult to concentrate because I’m feeling a bit funny inside and I’m not even trying to MAT: a MAT is being … Continue reading

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Book reviews … to blog or not to blog …

… is a very interesting question. And there’s a very interesting post about it all over on Vulpes Libris which I’ve only just discovered – from dovegreyreader – all about whether blogging book reviewers are the saviours of small publishers, … Continue reading

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Spread the Word some more …

On 4 February Richard Lea listed, on the Guardian Unlimited’s Arts Blog, the ten books on the Spread the Word shortlist under the heading: ‘What Goes into a “Book to Talk About”?’ Then he wonders why ‘the Kennedys, Enrights, Adichies … Continue reading

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