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How to take a family gap year

I won runner up prize for The Green Parent writing competition 2018, talking about how we can travel responsibly with our families. Please find the article in full here.
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Where do Ideas come from?

Probably the question I get asked more than any other as an author is where my ideas come from. First of all, I'd like to debunk the myth that writers have better ideas than people who don't write. It's simply not true. It's what people…
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An Advent Calendar Poe-Tree

I had been meaning to create an advent calendar 'poe-tree' for my children for years, ever since seeing one on a children's book blog I follow. There's never going to be an easy time to do this, so I just decided to go for it this year, pulling…
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Living, Coping & Writing with Chronic Insomnia

When I wrote my second novel, The Girl and the Sunbird, I would sit at a desk in my upstairs bedroom with sunbirds flitting to and fro from the foliage outside (yes, really, hence the title's inspiration), type away at my story, and cry. And…

A love letter to the public library

Public libraries have been a lifeline for me for many, many years. This poem had been brewing in my head for some time, and I finally made the space and time to sit down and write it. By a lovely sleight of serendipity, it also happens to be…
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Want to help me write a novel?

As you probably know, I'm travelling round India right now with my husband and three kids (familygappers.com)and lots of people have been asking me, will your next novel be set in India and based on your experiences? The short answer is no,…
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#FeministFebruary - A shout out from India

Virginia Woolf As February draws to a close, I am sneaking in with a quick blog post to celebrate #FeministFebruary as I only discovered its existence the other day. Coincidentally, I am reading Virginia Woolf's book A Room of One's Own (1929) at…
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? Happy International Book Giving Day! ?

International Book Giving Day! It truly does exist! And, bookworm that I am, I cannot resist taking part. This is a day devoted, in their own words to 'getting new, used and borrowed books in the hands of as many children as possible.' What's…
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Speaking to students in India

Well, I have left Nairobi and I am now in India for 6 months, travelling with my family! For more on our Indian travelling adventures, take a look at our website and blog, familygappers.com. We even have a vlog which you can subscribe to on…
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Entry with Audio

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