The general consensus around here was that an image re-think was in order. The brand needed to be refreshed. And because a website can sometimes seem like a visible, external version of your professional life, the best place to start was here, online. I have a new website and with it (the master-plan) a new… Continue reading Clean, lean, terrifically digital – welcome to the new me
Read moreHer song lasted less than three minutes – by the epic standards of most folk songs, hardly worth tuning up for. We regulars understood the reason for its brevity. She only really knew two chords, and struggled with the third. It was a song called Life is Beautiful. But this girl, this Sally Thompson, had… Continue reading Young girl with a ukulele
Read moreI’m smoking an agreeably mild cigar. The sun is dipping over the dark blue ocean, but the air is still warm. The sound of a tropical stringed instrument, a man singing along to it, echoes down a narrow street nearby. Before me on the table is a long iced glass of Injaba Slammer, the local… Continue reading Operation Bird of paradise
Read moreLast year Martha Dillon was chosen as the subject for a profile in a local magazine. It was on a page called ‘Retail Ramblings’ and was an irritating piece, placing rather too much emphasis on the amount of time (22 years) the salon had been on the High Street, and describing Martha in the opening… Continue reading And what we can do for you today?
Read moreSometimes I can hear the bird late at night. At least I think I can. Out here, I don’t sleep as well I used to. There’s something about the warm nights, the silence. It’s odd but, back home, there was always a hum of life, day and night – traffic on the main road, I… Continue reading Jacko
Read moreHe was taking his morning walk with the dog. It would be the river walk: through the orchard, into the wood, along the riverside path, then back up the lane, into the field and home. It was early June, a time when the fields and the hedgerows were bursting with renewal. Every year, he would… Continue reading The walk
Read moreThe BBC bigwig was shouting at me. Every time I started to speak in the debate, he came barrelling in, objecting and refuting. The audience of writers gathered in the lecture hall seemed, rather to my surprise, to be on his side. After repeated interruptions, I said with mild exasperation that I was very glad… Continue reading An ill-fated journey into the world of TV writers (contains sex and violence)
Read moreAt a reading given by Ian McEwan and Richard Ford, the question-and-answer session with the audience took an unexpected turn. One of the two novelists was asked about marriage and writing. There followed a strangely intense discussion about love and work, commitment and children – about life, in other words.. A hush descended on the… Continue reading Sex, children, friendship, health – by the experts (Tolstoy, Amis, Dickens, Mantel, Larkin and a few others)
Read moreA writers’ organization recently conducted an online survey. Is there anyone out there, it asked, who still writes by hand rather than on a computer? A few people confessed, shame-facedly, that, in spite of the many wonderful opportunities offered by the new technology, they still worked in the old-fashioned, inky way. As one of those… Continue reading From InstaNovel to NervousBreakdown: the next generation of apps for the busy modern writer
Read moreIt was the usual highly-charged last day at a creative writing course. Some students wanted to ask one of the tutors a few last-minute questions (Have I got it? Can I send you my stuff to read? Could you mention my name to an agent?). Others were triumphant – or a touch muted – about… Continue reading On being a careerist or a purist
Read more
