Last June I went to a writing course in Wales. My current novel, at that point, was at its fairly early thinking stages and one afternoon I sat in an old barn enthusiastically telling the tutor (a writer I really admire) my ideas for the book. I remember her looking puzzled and incredulous. There was […]
I recently came across a picture that my eldest daughter drew when she was about 7 (she’s now 17) that I found on an old blog. She drew it unprompted, just because she felt like it and somehow inherently understood at that tender age the importance of sharing books with the young people in our […]
This ia a very good question, and one I’m struggling with. For my work in progress, I have four female protagonists spread across four centuries. I’m used to writing historical fiction so I know and enjoy that process of research: going to the library, digging through archives, piecing together a picture of how people would […]
I have barely managed to make a dent to my TBR pile this year. I keep getting waylaid by one book or another. Which, to be fair, is absolutely fine. So here’s my top five reads of the year, in no particular order. How about you? I’d love to hear your top reads. The Love […]
LESSONS IN WEARINESS As I lie on my back at the edge of Parliament Square, I stare up at the canopy of plane tree leaves above me and the clouds grazing the sky, and I don’t feel fear or anger or any of those things I’ve felt before. This time I just feel weary of […]
I have a friend who runs Ecotherapy East, bringing nature and mindfulness-based workshops to people, mainly from their rewilded land that they steward in Suffolk. It’s a beautiful place and I visited a while ago with my family to help with a land-tending day. I wondered if we could ever run a writing workshop there […]
In June of this year I attended a writing course in the beautiful Brecon Beacons in Wales run by three amazing writers: Jay Griffiths, Tom Bullough and Pascale Petit. It was held at Black Mountains College and was called Writing, Climate and the Living World, drawing in writers from across the UK who are exploring […]
It is wonderful to welcome Ruth Jenkins onto my blog, talented spoken word poet and textiles artist. I first met Ruth a couple of years ago through activism circles. She is now part of my writing group and is rarely to be found without some yarn or a spindle. Listening to Ruth delivering her spoken […]
IN DEFENCE OF LIFE AND LOVE. A CONTEMPLATION WRITTEN IN HAIKU Morning I leave and wildflower meadow grounds me: cornflower, sainfoin. This is why I go. I will march for this beauty; this wildness roots me. The London-bound train, my curly-headed daughter writes in her journal. She challenged me and it’s because of her I’m […]
It is such an honour to have on the blog today talented poet Caroline Mellor. I became aware of her work through her facebook posts and I must confess, this is a first for me – to buy a book as a direct result of being drawn in by social media posts (maybe other people […]