I woke up the other morning – and saw a few leaves falling from the tree in my back garden. It was also a tad chilly. Not cold – just chilly. A harbinger of things to come. As George R R Martin wrote : Winter is Coming. I was born and raised in a hot…
Rat (Ratty to his friends) was so right … There is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats … I read the Wind In The Willows as a child – living in Queensland. The nearest significant water was the Myall Creek – some 17 miles…
My TBR (to be read) pile is growing – it has expanded to a second shelf in the bookcase – that’s a bit strange for someone who buys most of her books as e-books. The reason for the explosion is conference – in the past few weeks, I have been to the RNA conference…
This week, I had the absolute pleasure of spending some time at the Wellington Library , near Telford in Shropshire. The event was a readers and writers day held in conjunction with the Romantic Novelists Association conference. There was storytelling for kids and discussion about books and writing. Thanks to the library staff and…
Like so many people, I’ve seen Gone With the Wind. My vision of the American deep south was very much formed by Clark Gable’s charm and Vivien Leigh’s accent. I didn’t really believe either were strictly accurate, so on our Mississippi River road trip, I was very keen to visit some of the plantations…
Continuing my blogs about my US road trip – I thought I should talk about the cause of the whole venture – the Mississippi River. At school we were taught that the Mississippi is one of the largest rivers in the world (4th longest I believe). We learned about its role in opening America…
I’m back from a fabulous road trip – crossing the USA from south to north along the Mississippi River – 1400 miles (or close to). Over the next few weeks I want to share some of that with you … There were a lot of literary references during the trip – and a lot…
Wow – what a week it’s been. Along with some fellow authors from Choc Lit, I’ve been in New Orleans for the Romantic Times Booklovers convention. Something in the vicinity of 3,000 readers and authors and librarians and booksellers all in party mode – sorry, I meant to say all working very hard. On…