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 to releasing work that narrates a contemplated resistance to obedience and trend. As part of their work, they take […]
There is a great deal documented about the process of writing a novel: crafting a plot and characterisation and the story arc or the editing process, for example. There has also been much written about the finished product of a book: working with an agent who then finds a publisher before cranking into life the […]
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.
I decided towards the end of 2020 that in 2021 I would read books only by authors of colour / BAME authors. I made this decision after realising that only a tiny proportion of my shortlisted favourite books from 2020 fell into the BAME category. I was pretty shocked to discover that and considered that […]
I am delighted to welcome on to the blog today Mphilo Mauncho, a twenty-year old student who lives in Nairobi, Kenya. In the following piece – Big Girls Do Cry – A Lot – Mphilo writes courageously about identity, belonging and the creative tools she has used to work with anxiety. It couldn’t be more […]
I recently had the opportunity to teach a series of creative writing workshops to students at Herning Gymnasium in Denmark. I feel so fortunate to have been encouraged creatively as a child at primary school (doubtless helping to shape me into the writer I am today), and for me, there are few more satisfying things […]
Here in the UK, we are in our third lockdown in the past year. Physically, we are more removed from one another than we have been as a species since the Spanish Flu over one hundred years ago. I find myself thinking of another time of great collective trauma that much of the globe was […]
Last year, I spied a book in the window of my local bookshop, How to Grown your own Poem by Kate Clanchy. I loved the cover and the title and often use poetry to help my students with creative literacy, so decided to treat myself to the book. I haven’t looked back. This is a […]
I was delighted to discover last week that I had come second in a writing competition which 400 people from 35 countries entered. The remit was to write a piece of fiction or non-fiction under 3000 words that had a strong sense of place. I decided to dig out old diaries and photo albums and […]
I read quite a lot of books, so it wasn’t at all easy to narrow this list down to ten. I have also discovered the joys of audiobooks this year which has significantly bumped up my book intake. I spent some time writing out my long list, crossing several off, adding a few back on […]