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Find a book club
Find a Book Club, a club that does what it says on the tin, asked me to recommend 10 books for book clubs (including two of my own).
Category Archives: Things I’d Love to Have Made
Ideas are NOT stories; and the Biblioteca Jardim
It becomes obvious if you write, but perhaps not if you don’t: ideas are not stories. Before I wrote or, at least, before I finished a novel, I didn’t grasp this fundamental fact because ideas, when they come (and I’ve no idea … Continue reading
Posted in Things I'd Love to Have Made, Third Novel, Writers, Writing
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Men and Embroidery, and a belated apology
Inspired by this post about John Craske and his delicate life and delicate embroidery in a new book by Julia Blackburn, at dovegreyreader earlier this week, I’ve begun thinking about men and embroidery. My grandfather sewed: tapestry, I think, for chair … Continue reading
Posted in Artists, Design, Things I'd Love to Have Made
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Electoral Reform in the UK. And Inspiration.
On 5 May 2011 a referendum on electoral reform was held in the UK: 68% of us voted No; 32% (including me) voted Yes; the turnout was 42%. We weren’t collectively brave enough, or we were too frightened of change to vote … Continue reading
Posted in Equality, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Writing
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The Brain in Love; and Jim Burge’s Burgeoning Promotional Videos for writers and artists
Dr Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist at Rutgers University, studies the brain, in love. She gave a glorious TED talk about it, here. I particularly loved Walt Whitman: Oh, I would stake all for you. and Emily Dickinson: Parting is all we need to know of Hell. … Continue reading
Sequels, Literary Festivals and Natasha O’Farrell’s heavenly handbag
There have been some heart-warming reactions to The Dance of Love and several people have suggested I write a sequel, possibly set in the Depression and the lead-up to the Second World War because, they said, it would be fascinating to find … Continue reading
Haworth Parsonage, Richard Flanagan and Anselm Keifer
In September we holidayed in England: we travelled north-west to Stratford (and saw a wonderful production of The Roaring Girl, a play about Mary Frith, an astonishing sixteenth-century woman who lived and dressed as a man, partly in defiance of … Continue reading
The Launch of The Dance of Love, History of the Rain, and Emily Young’s Kew Gardens angel video
The DANCE of LOVE was launched at the wonderful Barnes Bookshop last Thursday: I wrote about on Robert Hale’s blog – the book’s publishers – here. It was a happy family affair: my whole family was there: my two younger sisters smuggled … Continue reading
Posted in Artists, Dance of Love, The, Design, Places, Reviews, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Writers, Writing
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THE DANCE of LOVE published soon; goodreads giveaway; first two reviews and … StuckinaBooks’ letters and Letters to an Unknown Soldier
Happy news, THE DANCE of LOVE will be published on 31 July by Buried River Press. You can pre-order copies here and here and here with free worldwide delivery, and, of course, here. There’s also a Goodreads Giveaway running from … Continue reading
THE DANCE of LOVE : goodreads giveaway. And Bill Viola at St Paul’s, London
In a few days’ time, 17 June to be exact, for a couple of days until midnight on 19 June, two uncorrected paperback pre-publication proofs of THE DANCE of LOVE will be available free in a goodreads giveaway. If you’d … Continue reading
Writing a novel is just like life …
… it’s only in the doing of it that I discover what works and what doesn’t. I can plan and plan and plan and I do, but when I do I tend, at least some of the time, to let … Continue reading
The Titanic: the 102nd anniversary of the tragic sinking, and, on a happier note, the launch of SHINY NEW BOOKS
On this day, 102 years ago, many many people drowned, or froze to death, in the icy waters of the north Atlantic after RMS Titanic collided with an iceberg. My great-grandmother, Noël Rothes, was one of the lucky survivors. I … Continue reading
Failure is the Mother of Success; and Paula Meehan
失败是成功之母 Shībài shì chénggōng zhī mǔ Failure is the Mother of Success (a Chinese Proverb) Last week Anne Enright, Booker Prize-winning wonderful writer, gave one of BBC Radio 4’s The Value of Failure programmes. Sadly they’re no longer available to … Continue reading
Scared to Say I Love You this Valentine’s Day? Fabularium and Random Acts of Kindness Week
If the very idea of saying I love you this Valentine’s Day scares you to death, may I suggest a remedy: ask yourself why you’re with (or want to be with) the one you love and then make a list … Continue reading
The Shock of the Fall : hurray for mental illness in fiction
The subject matter of this year’s Costa first novel winner (and now overall 2013 winner), The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Fileris mental illness. Hurray! (Because publishers so often swerve when they see one of those coming.) And hurray for … Continue reading
The Bookbag’s Top Ten Self-Published Books of 2013, and Visitation, a haunting image by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison
I’ve just heard that the Bookbag has included Speaking of Love in its Top Ten Self-Published Books for 2013. Very exciting. Thank you, Bookbag. And a couple of weeks ago, at ENO‘s miraculous Magic Flute, directed by the ever-inventive Simon McBurney I saw, inside the programme, … Continue reading
Posted in Artists, Speaking of Love, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Third Novel
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Free eBook : SPEAKING of LOVE : Friday 15 & Saturday 16 November
On Friday 15 November and Saturday 16 November the kindle edition of SPEAKING of LOVE will be available free. Go here for the UK and here for the US to download your free copy. And if you felt inspired, after you’ve read it, … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews, Speaking of Love, Things I'd Love to Have Made
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The Dance of Love will be published in 2014; and roses, first world war graves and Gertrude Jekyll
Wonderful news, my second novel, THE DANCE of LOVE, will be published by Robert Hale in July, 2014. It’s very exciting. But, for now, I must get back to work on my third. Just before I do, in a parallel … Continue reading
For the Love of Life in COLLAGES, the Man Booker shortlist and a glorious goat gouda
In my post in July I wrote about the September publication of COLLAGES, a collection of new writing by students on Maggie Hamand’s wonderful CCWC courses. Maggie has kindly included an extract from my third novel, a work in progress … Continue reading
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Voice, and Bill Viola
I have never really been able to explain to myself what voice means for an artist, and particularly for a writer, even though I know it exists. But when I read this: Voice is a set of ideas and concerns … Continue reading