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 reduces the inflammation that can cause serious diseases. Being kind on a regular basis can … Read More
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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 has made incredible progress over the past century, yet the cost of this progress has caused … Read More
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 that virus; all to do with kindness, compassion, good news, good things and full of … Read More
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 to call for the change that’s so badly needed in white supremacy and white fragility … Read More
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 open to public vote (until 8 May) and if you’d like to vote for mine, … Read More
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 intimate knowledge of the city in question. The collections have black-and-white photographs to illustrate each … Read More
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 that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, … Read More
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 wrong but you can’t put your finger on it, or you’ve had agent(s) ask for … Read More
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 one: John Clare. John Clare, 13 July 1793-20 May 1864 (aged 70) by William Hilton, oil on canvas, 1820 … Read More
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, particularly scientific education. He’s an engineer, toy-maker, scientist, teacher and book-lover who spends much of his time … Read More
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. Ever. Again. Which means I’ll hang on to my curiosity however much confusion and chaos threaten to … Read More
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 for this time of year (Lee’s daughter Jessy discovered seven pieces by her father in the … Read More
The rewrite, continued …
For various reasons (life in all its glorious unpredictability, mostly) I find myself re-rewriting my second novel. It’s not an unusual state, after all, all writing is rewriting (finally found the man who said it): Writing is rewriting. A writer must learn to deepen characters, trim writing, intensify scenes. To fall in love with the … Read More
Rewrites and primroses
I’ve just delivered the rewritten manuscript of my second novel, WRITTEN in WATER (as it is now called) to my agent. Wish it luck, please. I’ve written about the novel before, here, but it was a while ago (writing a novel is like climbing a mountain, you keep reaching a summit which, you discover, has … Read More
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 chimpanzees, ducks and elephants and dolphins, tortoises and tigers and more. The stories are published … Read More
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 the characters, in watching them move about in my head, in omitting long passages that … Read More
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, Adiga’s and Toltz’s, which is wondeful. But I’m very sad that John Berger’s book didn’t … Read More
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 hours in the Zoological Society’s library because I wanted the anatomical details of the animals … Read More
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 afraid of letting go of the old? I also find weaknesses in the first. Just … Read More
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 shortlist.
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