What the Peacock Replied
I spent a very interesting and enjoyable evening in The Keep, one of Guildford’s friendliest pubs, at the launch of Dempsey and Windle’s latest anthology – What the Peacock Replied. The anthology features the winners and shortlisted poets from the Brian Dempsey Memorial Competition and a fine mix of poems. styles and voices it was. […]
Interview
Last weekend I spent some time in Leatherhead at the new independent bookshop, Book Potato. While there, co owner Tom recorded an interview with me. Here it is – https://youtu.be/q-n8cfz4PC4
Yorkshire Day
Yesterday was Yorkshire Day. Always special for an exiled tyke, but of special relevance to Blessed Assurance with two of the main protagonists growing up there and a bolt hole for one of them in Nidderdale. So the image of a White Rose is the right one for this week’s blog. It’s also a timely […]
Threats and opportunities
I’ve attended two meetings in the last couple of days about threats, one about cyber crime, about which more another time, and one about the climate emergency. The landscape picture above was once a sea. Could it be again? Well, probably not but a lot of coastal land could be as we know. With governments […]
Tapas and the Edwardians
I spent a very enjoyable day cooking tapas last week. A day away from the pressures of pension scheme funding, book publication and the rest and an opportunity to learn a new skill. I was on a one day course at the Abinger Cookery School and the dishes I produced included braised octopus and chorizo, […]
Pebbles, poets and potatoes
I was musing on poets and publication as I walked the dog between Goring and Ferring at the weekend. This stretch of coast is not only home territory for two of the main characters in the book, Anne and Liza, but familiar territory to me and it struck me that a knowledge of place can […]
The thrill of making progress
Exciting times. The cover for my novel has now been agreed – as shown above – and it’s starting to feel real. I’ve booked the rooms for launch events, applied for temporary licenses so people can enjoy a glass of wine while I waffle on, and made a number of other small steps towards the […]