Category: General Blog

At the beginning of April, I spent five days attempting to learn Greek. Or rather, I spent a week trying to begin to be ready to start learning Greek. I think, truly, that was my goal:  to break down the sense of total panic and sheer, inhibiting frustration that rose up every time I tried...

Of course, everyone says there’s no need.  Why bother?  people say.  Surely everyone in Crete speaks English.  And yes, most people have either an impressive, very fluent command of English or can at least get by.  Only the very elderly have little or no grasp.  Walk into any shop in any small town, city or...

I am currently re-reading Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett.  I first read this when I was a student studying  for an English Literature degree and Bennett was required reading and the starting point for our Modern Fiction course – we didn’t call them modules in those days!  I loved his writing then and read everything he...

For the past couple of months, I have put my third novel aside and returned to my first novel that I finished some years ago, but only ever published as an eBook – with minimal publicity so that, no doubt, approximately 11 people read it….! Partly, my cautious approach to releasing this novel was sheer...

Worthing was the setting for the UK Southern Book Show on Sunday October 28th – and it was a good day for making contacts with a lot of other writers and readers. For me, the highlight was delivering a talk on aspects of writing. I managed to cover: sources of creativity, exploiting memory for writing,...

There I was, at the alarmingly young age of 19, holding my first acceptance letter from a Conde Nast publication: the editor of BRIDES magazine had accepted my very first piece of writing submitted in the hopes of being published, a humorous article entitled SISTER OF THE BRIDE, and was paying me £15 for the...

Nine days or so in Crete back at our house, Blue Heaven, in Gavalohori, and there’s time to return to my new novel and actually make some progress.  Writing whilst looking out at the White Mountains in one direction, over the village and across to the coast in the other, somehow makes it far easier...

Sunday October 28th – UK Southern Book Show at Field Place Barns,  Worthing,  looks as if it is going to be a dynamic and inspirational day for readers and writers alike – what better way, after all, to start the first of the long dark days of winter (clocks go back in the early hours...

Flash Fiction is a type of writing that I have only recently begun to try. I am not sure how long it has been around, but there certainly seems to be an epidemic of it – competitions, flash fiction websites, festivals, articles about how to write the best, what it truly involves etc etc –...

My third novel, my ?work-in-progress,? does not yet have a name. There are several working titles, but nothing yet that feels quite right although hopefully, inspiration will strike before I finish ? But it does have a very definite setting ? London. London features constantly in the novel as most of the characters live there...