Books & Memories: How a book is not just about the story but where it's read

I started thinking about the title of this blog recently when I was looking through my bookshelf and pulling books out and I realised something: as I held the book in my hand, not only was I reading the title of the book and the author but…
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How to set up a virtual book club for young people

Several weeks ago, I did something I said I'd never do: I joined my first book club. Why was I so against it? I imagine it has something to do with the piles of un-read books lying around my house that I really want to get to. If I desperately…

Finding my way in the #BlackLivesMatter movement

The below is taken from my June 2020 newsletter. I send out a newsletter once a month to subscribers in which I talk about what I'm up to with my writing and discuss topics I feel are important. If you'd like to be included in my newsletter,…

Support Indie Bookshop Week 📚

The idea behind Independent Bookshop Week (running this year from 20-27 June 2020) is simple: If you're not sure where your nearest independent bookshop is, search here, get in touch with them and check how they're taking orders, buy a book…
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Dipping into Novel #4, The River Days of Rosie Crow

Despite lockdown-kids-at-home-all-day-slow-progress (!), I've been working really hard on my novel, The River Days of Rosie Crow, and I'm over half way through the first draft. I thought it was about time I gave you a small peek into the…
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Sanctuary

Self-isolate! It seems to be all the radio and news reports scream out at us right now. And alright, I’ll do that. I’ll stay at home to give the stretched hospital staff the best chance possible to contain this. To survive. But I will…
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A Letter to my Future Grandchildren

Dear Ones, You will ask me stories about what it was like during the time of the virus, just as I asked my own grandparents about the war. I will tell you how at first I didn’t take it too seriously; none of us did. We listened, baffled,…
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Human Writes: A Guest Blog with disabled writer Ann Young

I am really delighted to welcome on to my blog Poet & Disability Arts Advocate Ann Young. I heard her read one of her poems at the Dead (Women) Poet's Society in Norwich. A couple of working poets shared with the audience two forgotten…
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Ripples of Kindness, Starting at the Library

The other day, a friend asked me if I'd had my 'moment' yet; that is, of truly feeling the weight and enormity of what we collectively are living through with the global pandemic. I think there have been plenty of 'moments' for me of ever-shifting…
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Norwich: What's in a place?

Since meeting my husband in 2004, I have lived in: Brighton, Cambridge, rural Suffolk, Godmanchester, Bangalore (India), Twickenham, St Margarets, Nairobi (Kenya), a different home in Nairobi, backpacked around India for 6 months with the…