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...

An intriguing nugget I've learnt from my two weeks of #litfest indulgence? The novelist Ann Patchett slipped into her favourite ballgow...

It turned out to be quite an eventful holiday. At the beginning of half term, as I finished zipping up the suitcases  and disposing of the d...

This one is about friendship. The long-lasting kind. I've just got back from a reunion weekend with my university besties and I'm st...

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...

There is something about navigating through water in a small vessel that has come to symbolise our struggle as human beings. The concept of ...

Book Review These days a working knowledge of nutrition has become part of a parent's job description. I'm forever persuading my k...

It's a downward slope to Christmas but a recent family trip to Gran Canaria has made me feel quite chipper about donning my winter wool...

Notes from the Henley Literary Festival 2017 My son meets children's author Katherine Rundell, who researched her latest novel Th...

Notes from the Henley Literary Festival 2017 I've always been slightly intrigued by  Nick Clegg . A silver-tongued, liberal politician...

As a family, we have hit that magical sweet spot where the kids are becoming interested in the same kind of stuff as the grown-ups. In other...

For 51 weeks of the year, I rule over my children's diet with a rod of iron. Not too much sugar, oily fish twice a week, live yoghurt an...

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...

It's here, it's started! My brain is buzzing, my heart is full. Can you tell I'm excited? The Henley Literary Festival kicked o...

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...

Notes from the Henley Literary Festival 2015 My favourite event in Henley's social carousel has come round again. For one glorious wee...

Notes from the Henley Literary Festival...  Doreen Lawrence , Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, made a startling observation at the Henley ...

Notes from the Henley Literary Festival...  A few years ago an editor friend of mine at Headline Review sent me a copy of My Last Duches...