I can't deny that starting a second crowdfunding campaign is daunting. But it's also exciting. I am really happy with Salt Lick and hope it may appeal to a range of readers. I thought I might share with you where it came from, some of what made me write it. The first inkling of the... Continue Reading →
Feral Cows – and a shout out to Gainsborough
As I have been writing and researching Salt Lick, I have been learning a little about cows. (I am very grateful to Mary Monro, a fellow Unbound author, for her patience and help pointing me in the right direction.) It was difficult to find images that showed cows as they would look if feral as... Continue Reading →
Short Story Giveaway
I have two short stories that I am giving away to anyone who signs up for my newsletter. The first is called Love Birds, and is about a gentleman who collects shoes. The second, Different Corner, is about finding refuge and new worlds in the library. The newsletter is fairly sporadic, and comes with great... Continue Reading →
All For Nothing by Walter Kempowski
As I read this, now and then I thought of the strange insular world of Gormenghast, as though it had been dialled down into faded, if odd, normality. This isn't a very accurate description of the book, but the eccentricity of an insular, aristocratic existence, built on strange ritual and isolation is in both. All... Continue Reading →
Thoughts on the election, part two.
It didn't take long for disappointment to turn to bitterness, certainty of blame, recrimination. That's understandable. But I see equal measures, equally certain about what went wrong and who is to blame coming from opposite directions. MPs blaming Labour's leadership and Momentum for the party failure when surely they should know that some of them... Continue Reading →
This is Not A Funeral and You Are Not Alone
In 1992 I had been living abroad for several years and was in New Zealand before going back to the UK. Then, I heard the news. Inexplicably, in spite of the damage they had already done, the Tories had won another election. That win felt devastating, even from the other side of the world. The... Continue Reading →
No Ghosts
I was on a long drive last weekend. It was tedious and came on the end of a busy few days. I pulled into a motorway services, parked, turned off the engine and draped a large dark blue scarf over my head and upper body to take a reviving nap. I wondered what this... Continue Reading →
Four Questions on Reading and Writing
My daughter Lilian is a dancer. She’s curious about the human soul, insightful and intelligent. But she doesn’t read books. It’s a bit heartbreaking, and believe me, is not for want of me being encouraging/nagging/moderately unhinged about it. She is mildly dyslexic, primarily affecting the way she is able to deal with large blocks of... Continue Reading →
Ducks, Drones and Doctor Faustus
(That time I invited Sleep, Thomas Mann, Lucy Ellmann and John Milton to the same blog post and we all hung out. Heaven.) When starting my current book Salt Lick, the inclusion of a chorus was one of the first decisions I made, though it took a while to learn that it would come from... Continue Reading →
