An Author's Notebook

I'm in a retrospective mood. December is a month for sorting through our photos and thinking about the year that has passed. It's n...

Someone sent me a polite message via Twitter earlier in the summer. He introduced himself as Aidan Martin  and said he wanted to flag up a b...

Throughout the coronavirus lockdown, there will be children stuck at home who have suffered emotional or physical abuse; kids who've wit...

So it's Day One of social isolation. I feel like I can hear the Big Brother voiceover ringing in my ears, giving a running commentary o...

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 time last week I dropped off my 15-year old daughter at school for her French exchange trip. In the dark, lamp-lit morning (4:30am), se...

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...

Something struck me the other day. I could be halfway through my life (assuming there are no unforeseen accidents). Not so long ago, I celeb...

Closing the door on the past It's finally happening. After three years of viewing properties and hoarding house particulars, we ar...

Over the past days I've danced to Rita Ora, cheered on the English football team, watched a class of eleven-year olds sing their hearts ...

Fan -tastic for staying cool on the sit! Hot, hot, hot... This is summer,    someone told me the other day, so let's stop calling it...

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

My 10-year old son and I are playing a game at the moment: the 30-day Happiness Challenge *. I bought it after he finished his entrance exam...

Dream, believe, achieve is emblazoned on my teenager's sweatshirt when she surfaces late morning. Not that there is any rule about sque...

Whenever I succumb to a bit of navel-gazing, the subject is always the same. How to be happy. You'd have thought I'd got it sussed b...

Three years ago writer Ali S was due a mammogram. "I almost didn't go," she says. "At the time, I thought I really haven&...

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 ...

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...

Self-belief is a powerful but fragile gift. One of my personal heroes has always been Amelia Earhart , a pioneering pilot and a woman of inc...

What a week it has been. The appalling murder of MP Jo Cox has shocked us all and left many feeling bewildered and resentful about the whole...