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Taking a 'Tech Shabbat' each Sunday

For a few months now, my family and I have been putting our screens away from Saturday to Sunday evening. Everything goes into a locked box (yes, laptops, phones, i-pads, all of it) and I place the key in a hidden place in case it feels too…
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How to Grow a Library

A couple of years after moving with my family to Nairobi (where we lived between 2013 and 2017), I started thinking about the fact that the school my children attended didn't have a library and I felt unhappy about this. A reading culture in…
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The Stories We Tell Ourselves

I realise that I'm pretty good at telling myself - and other people - carefully crafted stories that have endured over a long period of time; stories that I've never thought to question. In my non-fiction book coming out later this year…
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Write to Travel

In my previous blog, I penned a few thoughts around the curbing of my incessant travel habit. As I was writing it, I considered a poetry competition I entered last year with Trip Fiction (a brilliant online resource pairing books with travel).…

This is not an easy blog post to write

✰ Caveat - Before anyone reads a word of this, the following blog is not intended to make anybody feel guilty. Guilt is such a counter-productive, ungenerous emotion. It leaves no space for change, for reflection, for openness. Everybody…
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An Icelandic Flood of Books

It was only a couple of years ago that I first heard about Iceland's Christmas tradition of Jólabókaflóð, roughly translated to 'Christmas Book Flood.' On Christmas Eve each year, Icelanders cosy up in front of the fire, drink…
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May I touch your hair?

I recently read a book by Aja Barber called Consumed which caused me to take a long, hard look at the clothes I wear, their provenance, and how the clothing industry is helping to fuel the climate crisis. I've really never been into fashion…
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Five on Friday with Jill's Book Cafe Blog

I loved these unusual questions I was asked by Jill Doyle of Jill's Book Cafe Blog, such as what are my top 5 pieces of music, 5 things I can't live without and 5 pieces of advice I'd give to my younger self. It was really fun and thought-provoking…

Interview with Backlash Press

Recently, my third novel The Secret Life of Alfred Nightingale was selected by an independent publisher Backlash Press as one of their 'curated indie' titles. Backlash describes itself as a small, independent press publishing house dedicated…
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The Public Library Love Letter

I have had my poem about my long relationship with public libraries published with online literary magazine, Idle Ink. Click here to read this very personal poem. Me around the age I started falling in love with books.