I remember the Aberfan disaster.    21st October 1966.    240 children in school.   9.15 am. An avalanche of coal waste slid and engulfed Pantglas Junior school, 116 children died. 28 adults,  some occupants of nearby houses. Aberfan Colliery Spoil Tramway, July 1964 ...

Sometimes it seems impossible to write. It is important to analyse why because the answer isn't always going to bed with a good book. Professional and amateur creatives can suffer. Here are a few possible causes and possible solutions. A representation of writer's...

Hull was fortunate to have one of the 1st women GPs in the UK. Dr. Mary Murdoch. At the time my grandparents lived in the city and it would be interesting to know if they had heard of her. They lived in East Hull, so it's unlikely they were patients in her practice on...

The morning after I arrived at our caravan in Talybont, I relaxed. When I stood outside I could hear the sea. A two-minute walk and we were on the beach. The regular and relentless movement of the tide brings a perspective hard to find in the busyness of work and...

Writing a novel is one part of the process of being published. Marketing is something else. Something I didn't consider when I started out. Rowan in Batsford Arboretum knows how to adapt If I had been going to open a coffee shop, I would have invested in a...

I am reading Braiding Sweet Grass by Robin Wall Kimmerer about how the native North Americans lived in harmony with plants and animals in their environment. She begins with a creation story told by indigenous people. Skywoman fell 'like a maple seed, pirouetting on an...