World Book Day 2025
I was a bookworm as a child, I became a teenage book nerd, I read books all through college (not surprising as I studied English and Irish literature, and I have spent a large chunk of the rest of my [...]
Ten Years since “Je Suis Charlie”
An unprecedented attack on the satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo on 7th January 2015 prompted an unprecedented collective response throughout France. Crowds of people followed the government’s appeal to march in protest throughout the land: they held pencils to symbolize [...]
Of Toes and Travels
A month ago I had my left big toenail removed. It didn't hurt at the time, but once the anaesthetic had worn off, it throbbed nastily for a few days. These things take a long time to heal and even [...]
A Reflective New Year’s Day 2025
View from my bed, in Dorset at 8am on 1st January 2025. A few fanciful thoughts: The bare trees symbolise the falling of the dead leaves and the ephemera of 2024. The Viburnham winter flowering shrub with its pink flowers [...]
Be a Barnabas
God-Given Talents Talents are abilities given to us by God in His wisdom. According to the Scriptures, these gifts include such ministries as faith, healing, prophecy, teaching, administration, reconciliation, compassion, and self-sacrificing service and charity for the help and encouragement [...]
Encouragement
Encouragement is a real gift which can lift people up, console, comfort and inspire them. But it is also an ability we can learn and develop with practice. I have selected various quotations under four headings which show how important [...]
Book Blest Festival
I am excited to be attending the Book Blest Festival in Stroud in early September and I am one of the authors speaking on the second day Saturday 7th September. Here is the Poster for more information. Do come along.
The Blue Mirror
Today I have finished my first children’s book, entitled The Blue Mirror. It has taken three months to write and it now has 12 chapters and over 17,000 words. It is aimed at 7 to12 year olds. I knew the [...]
Free Friday
Free Friday is the one day each week when there is no employee, contractor or part-timer working at our home either in the office or on the land. My ‘other half’ and I savour not having to get up early [...]
Status Quo – a micro fiction
Three years after their wedding Ella’s husband Andrei ran away to sea. He was a Romanian bricklayer who had always had a dream to sail the oceans. It came as no surprise - he had always been so impetuous and [...]