It’s officially December and you know what that means… Christmas shopping. Most of us spend at least some of this month scratching our heads as we try to come up with just the right gift. So I thought I might put forward a few suggestions for the writer in your life—gifts for writers are just…
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.…
It’s a while since I’ve posted a knitting blog – and not for the reason you are thinking. Here in the northern hemisphere, summer is gone and WINTER IS COMING – cue portentous music (thank you George R R Martin). I didn’t stop knitting in summer. I knitted my heart out – and made not…
It’s been an exciting week – mostly postage related. It started when the nice parcel delivery man knocked on the door to give me a big brown cardboard box. It contained my paperback copies of Little Girl Lost. The paperback is officially released this month. It’s lovely to have a copy to pat. And no,…
This week, the publishing world lost one of its best and brightest… agent Carole Blake. Her sudden death was met in equal measure by shock and grief. A world without Carole was somehow unimaginable – even to those who imaginations light our lives every day through the pages of their books. How we will miss…
A little while ago, Bob Dylan was award the Nobel Prize in Literature – the first songwriter ever to receive the award. I found this really interesting for two reasons… Firstly that some people should question that a songwriter should be given an award for literature. And secondly – why hasn’t it happened before? Personally –…
Don’t you hate it when someone’s phone goes off at a really inopportune moment. Like during a film, or a live performance. That’s why I always turn mine off, or to vibrate. Last Sunday I was at a folk club, listening to some really good music, when the phone started to vibrate in my pocket.…
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…
