This blog is long overdue; my last blog went out on 30th May nearly four months ago. One a month was my plan but … is anyone interested in hearing from me, I think? Mainly, though, I forget when being embroiled in whatever new piece I’m writing, or doing all the other things that keep me away from my computer. 

I know that’s not the right attitude, dear readers, for the practice of analysing or merely contemplating aspects of writing are valuable. Principally for myself but possibly for other people out there who are interested in different aspects and techniques of writing. I know that I’m intrigued by other writers methods and concerns, regularly read or listen to what they offer, as you will know from quotes I’ve used in previous blogs .

Recently I was asked which was my favourite of the books I’ve published. I know that the piece I’m writing at the time is always going to be the best I’ve ever written which is as it should be, always striving to do better. It’s exactly what I heard Ian Rankin say in an interview a few years back. 

But a favourite? I look along my shelf of those already written, those that have gone through all stages of elation and disappointment to satisfaction and publication. 

Is it ‘Incident on the Line’ where Greta tried to understand the incidents in her own life, the men, her child and a coincidence that seemed too awful to contemplate? She’s a writer, a woman who’s made a career on her own terms who I admire. 

Then what about ‘A Retrospective’, the novel that originally intrigued an agent enough to represent me. Edward and Eleanor are two characters who I’d like to meet and whose world I’d like to enter – the world of art. Edward would receive me with charm, Eleanor with some impatience. And would I want to know if Tom and the parrot are still alive?

Angela in ‘The Angel Child’ would undoubtedly give me short shift if I ventured into her world, despite my offer of a circus, a fortune teller and a variety of unusual men.

It is Leonard in ‘Ladybird, Ladybird’ for whom I have the greatest sympathy and love. I’m concerned to know, what has happened to the pearl necklace and the silky black nightdress? 

Which brings to me to the fact that all my novels are character based, something I knew already, but writing this brings it into sharp focus. I find human beings, their relationships and their reactions to situations, fascinating and that’s what I wish explore. 

But as to a favourite, that’s not possible. I would be a terrible creator if I could choose one over another for, as with a parent, there can never be a favourite child. Even as I write this I can feel the other ‘children’ hustling at my back, the ones not named here, the one to be published soon and even the story only half told.