An Author's Notebook

Here we are again in Covid country. Either I've become habituated to lockdowns, or I secretly crave a quiet existence, as I'm not f...

The depressing thing about getting old er is that you'll never be young again. Yes, an obvious point (but bear with me). I look in the ...

Ever since I gave up full-time work to look after the kids, I've resisted - whisper it - becoming a housewife . The plan, back in 2003 w...

Gratuitous picture of dogs... I was walking the dog this fine morning when we encountered a cockapoo bounding towards us. It was the epi...

Chiselling away... page one! Just when you thought An Author's Notebook might have died and gone to blog heaven... here I am! The r...

Two themes are dominating my notebook this week - literary festivals and our imminent move to a new house. In amongst pages of removal quote...

I blame Facebook. For all those wasted hours. Every morning, I settle down in front of my computer, flex my fingers above the keyboard and m...

A much-loved grandmother leaves behind a precious legacy. My own one passed away a few years ago, but every so often I honour her memory by ...

Life has overtaken the blog recently. Which is a good thing, I suppose! Anyway, lots has happened over the last month or so. My main piece o...

Christmas with all its excesses becomes the last stop on the route to self-improvement. This seasonal splurge seems designed to usher in a p...

Some of you will know that my nine-year old son, Tristan , was a finalist in the Henley Literary Festival short-story competition, run by D...

Available on Amazon 6/6/16 On Monday the 6 June, my latest novel, The Puppet Master , will be published on Kindle. It tells the story of...

One of my earliest memories is playing happily in a friend's garden before being unceremoniously yanked inside by our panic-stricken mot...

Silence descends on the house. The kids are back at school, the dog has been walked and I am finally free to get on with some work. For the ...

I am immersed in what I hope will be the final edit of my second novel. At this point in the process, I am trying to look at the 'arc...

This is my short story that was shortlisted in the Henley Literary Festival 2015 short-story competition . A few of you have asked me to pos...

Yesterday was a significant day for me. I sent my new novel out into the world on the wings of an email. The laptop even made that little wh...