Spring 2020. We are living in strange times. Coronavirus, more deadly than any terrorist, has attacked our world and is undermining hope. People feel threatened, frightened, challenged. Our physical horizons are dwindling but our mental horizons are expanding - people are more aware [...]
There are about 5 million people in the world who have their ‘real’ birthday every fourth year on 29th February. People born on 29 February are sometimes known as "leapers" or "leaplings." The odds of being born on a leap [...]
So my book, my new novel, my fourth book, Dear Magpies, has been out for a month. It was published as a paperback by SilverWood Books on 18th November - and, it seems, people are reading it. Amazing! I've been running [...]
Two weeks tomorrow, on Thursday 21st November at 6.30pm for 7pm, I am having a Book Launch for my new book Dear Magpies, at Winstones Books in Cheap Street, Sherborne, DT9 3PX. I will be giving a talk about my [...]
Creating a book and getting it out into the world is a little like having a baby - though it usually takes far longer. It grows more erratically and more slowly and its birth involves many people of different skills. [...]
Magpies are magnificent. Distinctive by their black and white plumage, they are intelligent and inquisitive - and more superstitions surround magpies than any other wild bird. The most common one is that it is unlucky to see a lone magpie but two [...]
In five weeks time, I’m going to be a grandmother for the third time. Its a role I love – and I’ve managed to get in plenty of training and practice with grandchildren numbers 1 and 2. It’s grand to [...]
May has been glorious. I love my garden at this time of the year - it's so green, so overgrown, so soothing. I am reminded of Andrew Marvell's wonderful poem: 'The Garden'. Here is my favourite stanza which echos my [...]
This time last week it snowed. Snow can be a big problem for elderly isolated people and stranded motorists but I defy anyone, when they open the curtains on the first morning after snow has fallen, not to gasp with [...]
This is the first Sunday in December and a poem beckons. I decide to read one of my favourites: ‘Sunday Morning’ by the American poet, Wallace Stevens. This poem was published in 1915 when the poet was 36. It is [...]