What a lot of rain today. I suspect we may have had our summer, or perhaps there’ll be a late one? You never know your luck. Anyway, our loo remains in the state of unrest it reached just before we went on holiday. Sadly. The bad news is it won’t flush but the good news is we’re using buckets of water instead – which is better for the environment. Ah, there’s always a silver lining, you know. Must be the happy pills – I’m feeling a darn sight better today, I must say. The only problem is that if I’m not concentrating, then most of the bucket of water ends up on the floor, so I have to mop it all up and try again. Goodness only knows how the menfolk manage at all ...

Read Full Post

I was interested to discover that, like Mozart, Vaughan Williams' instrument was the viola. The viola? The instrument that has as many jokes made about it as Skoda cars do? Even though Amadeus may have been an exercise in fascinating historical fiction, no one could accuse Mozart of being uninterested in high-visibility showmanship. Anyone who's heard the Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis would be forgiven for assuming that RVW was a string player. And yet, though it does make a beautiful sound, it's possibly the most invisible in the orchestra, because its timbre blends with the violins and the cellos, and by definition it's almost always playing the inner parts. Rarely does the viola get a tune you could sing, nor is it the underpinning bass that defines the harmonies: the joke about what you call a violist at the bottom of the sea ('a start') is only one which other musicians tell about how dispensible it is.

So why did it appeal to at least two great composers?

Read Full Post

… Sigh. And what a big sigh it is. Was quite tearful last night and this morning at the thought of going back to work. It’s still weighing on my shoulders now really. That’s always the minus side of going on holiday: you have to damn well come back. Groan. Though Lord H did lift the existential gloom a little by making my breakfast napkin into a candle shape, courtesy of our new napkin folding skills. What a hero. I wonder what tomorrow’s shape will be. Still, here at the office coalface first thing this morning, I was so depressed I could barely talk to anyone and only managed a few words beyond a passing grunt at eleven o’clock. I think that’s probably my quota for the day then ...

Read Full Post

Mrs A, Mrs B and Mr C, you won’t remember me, and you’re probably dead by now anyway, but I must inform you that you were in the wrong business; there was no love of children in the ranting and terrifying tirades that you poured over our little primary heads. Somewhere in your lives you all took a wrong turn or were following a path that you should never have been on. I see you raising your hand with a ‘but’, but the fact is you are three out of perhaps six or seven teachers. You are the only stars of this show – none of the others left a mark either physical or mental on me; they are invisible. Almost fifty years ago, Mrs A, you made me stand in the corner of a cold cloakroom, alone, for swapping my blue pencil with the red one given to the boy behind me. I was four years old and you were my first experience of the education establishment; you certainly left an impression on me.

Read Full Post

This flash of mine, Mug's game, went live over at Every Day Fiction a couple of days ago. Please do pop along and read, and leave a comment if you do. Thanks.

Read Full Post

Now that college work is out of the way (well, mostly) I thought it was time to clear my mind and search for some inspiration, something to fire up a creative mind. A camping trip! ...

Read Full Post

It seems the ‘expressing the block’ thing worked. I managed to finish a tricky chapter this weekend and plunge a fair way into another, barely looking up from the keyboard. I think it’s a good thing to sometimes find yourself daunted by your work, otherwise it becomes too easy, you grow lazy, and you’re probably not doing your best. Some of the greatest advice I ever received in regard to my writing was: ‘Enjoy it. If you’re not enjoying it, it will show on the page’...


Read Full Post

Just back from wonderful Portugal and have started the no-doubt week-long traul through the washing. I am convinced that we are actually doing the washing of the whole boat (sorry, ship) and they will sneak in the flat when we've done it and send it back to its original owners.

Anyway, Portugal is wonderful and the river life and people are so much nicer than in Lisbon. It's very relaxing just staring at the countryside go by, and having smiling servants provide you with wonderful meals and historical tid-bits. Fabulous. Particular highlights for me included the different birdlife ...

Read Full Post

Oh dear, oh dear, time does slip by during half term. What with having family to stay, and an editorial report to write, and a PhD chapter to finish, and vast quanties of reading for that and the new novel, and a big update for my website about A Secret Alchemy - temporary cover, extract, reading-group-questions, how-I-came-to-write-it and all - the poor blog's been going hungry.

A truly superb production of Pygmalion at the Old Vic is one of my better excuses. I know the play pretty well, and it never fails to be good value, but here was a subtlety of thinking and acting I've never seen used on such an old warhorse of a play.

Read Full Post

Dear Kitty,

Since my ex left me at the altar, I’ve become addicted to horoscopes. I have a few trusted suppliers: Shelley Von Strunckel; Jonathan Cainer; Russell Grant…ah Russell, I have warmed to your cuddly charms.

Is it wrong to wait up until 12.01am to get my horoscope for the next day? Wait, don’t answer that.

Okay, do.

Because I’m afraid it’s getting out of hand. I refer to the Mercury retrograde in polite conversation. I’m tempted to ring a premium rate phone line for my annual report. And last week I called up my ex because Jonathan Cainer told me to. Well, he said: “You are due to make a breakthrough in your personal life” which amounts to the same thing, right?

Wait, don’t answer that.

Okay, do.

Starstruck, Brighton



Read Full Post