I believe it is suggested that one reason authors write is to take control of someone else’s life, be the mastermind or god figure in a way that is not possible in their own. As I watch builders taking apart a roof which I can view from my writing perch, fixing weatherproof material, fastening swathes […]

Is this best time of year for reading and writing? Out there is uninviting; even my visit to the exhibition of Rembrandt’s Late Works was hampered by rain, the dismal thought of battling through a downpour, arriving with wet clothes. An excuse for a treat of coffee and praline Danish at Le Pain Quotidien and to […]

The Angel Child is gaining an audience; I say ‘audience’ although others will talk of ‘readers’. Or is this an exaggeration? An audience is associated with theatre; a play where there is a visual ensemble. The scene or scenes are presented through someone else’s imagination. The characters are played by actors, entering the emotions, the dynamics of […]

I recently came across an article on Pick The Brain called Pen or Computer: Which is Better for Writers? which made me think about which was my preferred tool. Both I would say. The dangers inherent in both match the ease they each offer. The pen affords a more fluent thought process, I find, but […]

Valuing books; are reviews the best way forward for writers? A good promotion through someone else talking with praise about what you’ve written is gold dust, wind in the sails for any writer. To hear or read the pleasure something you’ve written has brought to another person is pure joy. It vindicates that scary moment […]

Dreary days, dark evenings, plenty of time to read and right. And as I sit at my computer, fairy lights flashing on Christmas trees, outside lights bright on the pavement, I realise that I don’t want to close the curtains and shut the world out. Ideas, the imagination live in my head but are fed […]

Nicotiana sylvestris – with a head of slim white trumpets, exuding a powerful and sophisticated scent, beloved of moths. Tall and elegant by day, with huge green leaves displaying it’s genus; by night an ethereal flower, perfuming the darkest hours. From the first gift of seeds twenty years ago I have sown, nurtured, protected, encouraged and […]

Remembering and commemorating, telling the stories which mingle to bring out some truth; of going off as if for a carnival, the excitement of a trip abroad and then the appalling truth of war. It was not over by Christmas, the horror of blowing up, shooting, cutting up other men even after a Christmas truce, […]