Research and writing

I have been struggling for several weeks to describe how I researched A Time for Peace. As I explained in a previous blog the novel wasn’t written in one long sitting followed by careful reworking to ensure I told the story in the most effective way. Sadly, I...

Warwick Words History Festival

  There is more to being published than I realised. Initially I thought it was a ‘good thing’ that Helen Meeke agreed to offer me a part in Warwick’s new look history festival at the Lord Leycester hospital. Having been Warwick’s Poet...

Scottish Women’s Hospitals

In 1914 working men and all women were not entitled to vote. Nonetheless, men responded to the call to volunteer to join the army and patriotically fight for their country. Prior to the declaration of war, women suffragettes and suffragists had been engaged in a...

A writer writes…

When I woke up during last night, from the window I could see the silhouette of the oak at the bottom of our neighbour’s garden. It loomed as a maze of branches, grey shadows between them. That image describes where I am this morning with my writing. Generally...

This writer is reading…

Several years ago I began writing a novel in which a woman driving her daughter to a party crashed the car. Her daughter was killed and she disabled. A friend recommended that I read *Louise Doughty’s Whatever You Love. It was an emotional read, beautifully...