A Day of Words
On 29th March, I was giving a talk about my book, Dear Magpies, at the Blandford Literary Festival's Day of Words. It took place in the Woodhouse Gardens Pavilion. My talk was entitled: From Dorset with Love, because the novel [...]
Spooky Big Ben
For some years I have been a member of a small painting group in Dorset and each summer we hold an annual Summer Exhibition in Milton Abbas. Last year in 2020 it was cancelled owing to the pandemic, but this year [...]
Magpies took off a Month ago
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 [...]
Book Launch in Sherborne
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 [...]
Homeless not Hopeless
On the 10th October 2016 people around the world will mark World Homeless Day in many varied ways and try to change the lives of homeless people in their local community. Since its founding in 2010, World Homeless Day has [...]
Shakespeare and an Encounter with Death
William Shakespeare died 400 years ago today on 23rd April 1616. He was probably 52 years old at his untimely death. By strange coincidence 52 years ago last November at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, I had an encounter [...]
Fishes and Fools
We lived in Brittany for 14 years and our children went to school to the local primary school there. We discovered that on 1st April each year, the local children played ‘Poissons d’Avril’. They used to play it on us [...]
Festivals should pay Authors
I applaud Philip Pullman in his decision to resign as patron of the Oxford Literary Festival because it refuses to pay authors to attend and speak. He was right to say that writers should be paid. They are not on [...]
Talking to Professionals
It's always a challenge to give a informative entertaining talk to a group of people who have come to an event and are gathered to listen to what I say. Recently I was the Guest Speaker at the Autumn Lunch [...]
Independent Bookshops are great!
All bookshops are marvellous places but a good independent bookshop is really worth supporting. I'm lucky enough to have a book signing next weekend on Saturday 19th September at Winstone's Book Shop in Cheap Street, Sherborne in Dorset. Winstone’s is [...]