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THE LOVE CHILD
Today sees the publication of my new novel, The Love Child. It makes me happy to write that, happier still to see my labours bound so beautifully and available for public consumption. But there are other trickier feelings floating around too. Such as a mild sense of anticlimax (it takes so * long *to reach this point!), and nervousness as to how it will be received. Because The Love Child…
Love Matters
Every so often (not just on Valentines Day) I am struck, all over again, by the astonishing reach and drive of human love. The Technological Revolution, Wars, Famines, Rockets On The Moon and Melting Ice-Cap... his non-stop backdrop of epic, game-changing events continues, often at breakneck speed, changing our world. And yet it is still the abstraction we call Love that beams mostly fiercely in…
It's not so bad!
It is hard not to be gloomy at the moment, don't you find? For Brits it is always hard, but what with the "triple-dip recession" imminent (does that mean the double-dip is finished....???!!), dumps of wall-high snow landing across the country, crushing limp frost-bitten daffodils and necessitating the rescue of pensioners, it is especially difficult. With friends, shopkeepers, cabbies, blogs…
One Great (Virtual) Leap Forward
I have decided that the British seasons are like one of those fairground Big Dipper rides... antalisingly sluggish to the top of a steep climb (that's winter), then whizzing down the slope on the other side (that's May-Oct) at a hundred times the speed. We are in that whizzing bit now and I want it to slow down. I don't know where April went. It passed in a blink. I got drunk on all that…
The Fox Cub
I first spotted the cub about a month ago. I know, I know, urban foxes are disease-carrying vermin (and they terrorize my cats), but it looked irresistibly dear, curled up into a glossy ball in the sunshine next to its scrawny Mum. They spent the afternoon dozing and nibbling fleas off each other, and I thought how sweet, and tried to work rather than watch. Then it stood up. Or tried to. It's…
September & Dickens
My summer reading bonanza produced two stand-out favourites: Elizabeth Strout's The Burgess Boys and Colum McCann's Transatlantic. (I am glancing at them now, sitting in the books-I-have-loved bit of my bookshelf, looking worn and warm, old friends, begging to be revisited. Do I need to offer any other reason why, for me, a Kindle still holds no appeal?!) But now it is September and the days are…
Halloween Confession
I am not a fan of Halloween. Sorry. But there it is. To be specific, what I am really not a fan of is the dubious tradition of 'Trick or Treating'. I first came across it while living in America in the early nineties. My sons were then aged two and four and I simply could not see the appeal of taking them out in the cold dark streets to knock on the doors of strangers and ask for sweets. But…
If you are struggling in the July heat
I make a point never to complain about hot weather in the UK. EVER. For those who may be struggling to stay positive, here are 10 of my reasons why the heatwave is a Wonderful Thing: The faint but indelible feeling of bein... n Holiday! It takes about one minute to get dressed in the mornings. T-shirt, shorts, flip-flops. Job Done. (More time in bed). The butter is soft-soft. Easier to spread…
December Digital LAUNCH News!
December 6th: Digital Publication Day for my novels 'Relative Love' and 'A Family Man': I can dimly - very dimly - remember when I thought 'digital publishing' wasn't going to be something that would affect me too much... a ha ha. I never was any good at reading global trends. It was one of the reasons why I knew it was a wise decision to leave my first career in advertising. In fact, you are…
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