CD of the weekish – Bela Bartok, Bluebeard’s Castle
Well, I’ve been listening to Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle… with big thanks to beautiful Clare. I’m not sure if this exactly music to write to because I find it too engrossing, but it certainly is music...
View ArticleWriting Prompts and Blossoms
It’s spring … or near enough! Every weekday on Twitter, I put up writing prompts. I follow these myself, and am delighted and amazed that other people find them useful too! And now because it’s the...
View ArticleFlorence for Writers … Ten Personal Recommendations
I have been mulling over what to write about my recent trip to Florence, so much, too much… and then I realised I couldn’t do better than write the kind of post I wanted to read before I went. It was...
View ArticleIf you have a …
… garden… … and a library… … you have everything you need. Cicero Related articles Villa Gamberaia, Florence Cicero in the Garden Related PostsAngels in FlorenceCaught – a 50 word photostoryMore...
View ArticleFor Making A Man Happy…£10
Having never been a fan of Margaret Thatcher, all I felt yesterday was annoyance that the kind of Daily Mail mentality she’s always invoked was coming into play once again. And it felt particularly...
View ArticleMy cool …. gardening friends
One of my highlights from last week was going to the launch of Lia Leendertz’s My Cool Allotment book at the Garden Museum. It was particularly exciting for me as I always feel I’m a ‘wannabe’ garden...
View ArticleFill your ‘writing well’ this June….
I’m really pleased to let you know that there are still a few places left on the Writing Oasis weekend the poet Victoria Field and I are running at Ty Newydd in June. If you don’t know Ty Newydd, it...
View ArticleGIVEAWAY – The Fate in The Box by Michelle Lovric
It’s no secret that I love all of Michelle Lovric‘s books, but maybe I have a secret soft spot for her children’s books most. It’s partly because they are exactly the sort of books I wish were around...
View ArticleBusy in the garden…
Sorry about the silence on here, but I’ve been busy visiting and writing in London gardens. You can read more and hopefully find some new gardens AND poets here… Related PostsFound!Garden open day...
View ArticleFive Sentences with … Jane Ayres
Now here’s a thing. I have been so busy in the garden that I’ve been neglecting the ‘house’ blog but books are always the first thing I turn to when I want something to feel more home-like, so here I...
View ArticleFor a limited time only…
I’m pleased to tell you that my publishers are making my first novel, Something Beginning With, absolutely free for the Kindle. You can read about its relaunch, with some advice for newbie authors,...
View ArticleFive Sentences with… Angela Vick
I think that anyone who teaches writing will tell you one of the nicest things about it is the people you meet. If you’re lucky, they’ll teach you something new too – and if you are doubly lucky, they...
View ArticleHow to blurb with style when you haven’t even read the book…
Being asked to recommend another writer’s book is one of the best things about being published. A real privilege. And so maybe it’s bizarre that I don’t say yes all that often. The trouble is it also...
View ArticleMy Holiday Reading List
Here are mine – a mixture of carefully selected, re-reads, and gems found in our holiday house. And here’s where we went … … sit with me and read a little… The Cruise of the Rolling Junk, F Scott...
View ArticleMy Snake – a 50-word Photostory
It was never about the apple, or even the snake. It was always Adam. How he couldn’t stop naming things until they lost their essence, became properties. Like her. His wife. Be careful, the whispers...
View ArticleFresh Air – a 50 word photostory
She fell in love with the tree by accident. She’ll freely admit how she’d been planning a conventional life, with mortgages and 9-5 days and rising stress levels, but when she’d seen the tree, she’d...
View ArticleRunway – a 50-word photostory
You glide down a runway, ready to fly, to set trends, to steady yourself before the next step. A runway is a place to be looked at, admired. Get too greedy though, swallow the ‘a’ and you become...
View ArticleMoney, Shopping and Sex….
I’m delighted to have two poems selected for the forthcoming anthology, The Poetry of Sex to be published by Viking in hardcover in January 2014 and by Penguin in paperback in January 2015. And now...
View ArticleA Feast of Words
Come to a feast of good food and poetry at Canterbury’s Goods Shed restaurant on Thursday 8th August to help raise money for the fantastic Wise Words Festival. There are still a very very few tickets...
View Article“If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you’ll never learn.”
There’s an interesting analysis of Ray Bradbury’s book, FAHRENHEIT 451, as you’ve never seen it before! Well worth watching… Created by AcademicEarth.org Related PostsWRITING QUOTESWISE WORDS FROM RAY...
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