Last night the Romantic Novelists Association held their Romantic Novel of the Year Awards Ceremony. This is a glittering evening of canapés and bubbles in the wonderful Gladstone Library in Whitehall Place. It was particularly special for me this year, because my book Little Girl Lost was shortlisted for the Epic Romantic Novel of the…
Did you know that January 21st was/is World Squirrel Appreciation Day? I certainly didn’t. I grew up in a country that doesn’t have squirrels. When I say that, it startles many of my UK friends. Squirrels here are so commonplace. They have adapted well to an urban environment. And of course are all over the…
This week, I travelled half way around the planet in 22 hours. Well – 22 hours in the air plus quite a few more hours hanging around airports. But when you say 22 hours, it seems so impressive. Move over Jules Verne and your 80 days. Verne wrote a lot about travel in exotic places,…
When I first came to live in England, one of the things that amazed me was all the conversation about roads – or more precisely routes. I’d listen to people saying – ‘The M3 was jammed so I exited at the A30 and came via the B389…..’ This doesn’t happen in the outback of Australia.…
When I travel I love going to museums – but recently I found myself going to a museum near my old home town in Queensland. It was like looking back into my own past. The thing about remote and rural communities is that they don’t change quickly. Whether it’s Australia, or the UK or…
I met an old friend at London’s Royal Academy the other day … a friend who caused a million dollar controversy in Australia when I was still at school. I remember it so well. The ‘friend’ I am referring to is Jackson Pollock’s iconic painting – Blue Poles. Painted in 1952, it was purchased by…
We all have them – the ‘one day’ house. Go on… confess. I bet you have one too. ‘One day – when I win the lottery….’ or ‘One day when I am fabulously rich…’ It’s otherwise known as the dream house. I think I started designing the house of my dreams when I was about…
Ok –authordom isn’t a real word, but bear with me. I think it should be. According to the Oxford dictionary, dom is a suffix which denotes a state or condition (freedom); rank or status (earldom); a domain (kingdom) or a class of people (officialdom). That’s us – isn’t it?