An Author's Notebook

Today I'm sitting at my computer in three jumpers, looking through the window at snowflakes swirling around the garden. As ever, I'...

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...

I'm feeling happy today. Naturally, I'm unable to be happy without taking time to analyse  why . This is the ideal state we all aspi...

Hubby and I nipped out for a walk first thing yesterday morning. The mist hung over the green hills of Turville while the sunlight was so pi...

It has been a confusing time. In some ways, I've found the last few weeks of relative freedom more challenging than full-on lockdown. ...

The first time I ever sampled sourdough, I was at a business lunch with a contact in New York during the late 1990s. Mid-conversation, sitti...

We got our letter from Boris yesterday. Poor man - I'm sure he didn't imagine he'd end up in hospital himself when he was sittin...

What strange times we live in. I walked into a petrol station yesterday to fill up my car and got terribly excited when I noticed multiple p...

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...

The word march was a misnomer. It was more of a gentle stroll on a mild spring day. A great tide of humanity rolling through the famous str...

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...

Hermaphrodite Mum Three kids and a single mum Little One stamps the pavement outside our house with her new Startrite shoe. "Don...

My husband and I were playing a fun game the other day. He would point to random objects in the house and I had to say where they came from....

Nothing quite prepares you for a journey into your own past. Last weekend I caught the 08:42 train to Cheltenham and travelled back in time ...

Many of us will remember where we were last Wednesday. The day a borderline racist and a man who thinks nothing of mocking the disabled be...

On Sunday evening, as I was quietly reading my book, I experienced a zapping sensation in my head. A bit like when you crick your neck, but ...

A few weeks ago I persuaded my friend Emma to join me on an organised dog walk to raise funds for the Red Cross . "Will it be very dogg...

In amongst the mobile ringtones and the ping of my computer, there is a new sound in our house: the shuffle of a letterbox opening and the p...