Have you ever read a book that felt like it was looking directly into your soul? A book that gave you the exact push you needed to return to a long-lost passion or project? I've just finished reading Virginia Evans’ masterpiece, The Correspondent, and I am still reeling. It's a spectacular novel – elegantly paced, [...]
What do all these have in common? - Marriage was better when women couldn’t leave. - Sending children to school is a form of abuse. - Nobody over seventy should be allowed to drive. They’re all quirky, sensationalist, intended to shock or intrigue you - and, above all, to HOOK you. That’s the key word [...]
It all started the day my mother received a letter from the Town Council, denying her application for an extension to our living room. She was gutted. All her dreams of that longed-for extension, which would have added a good eight feet to our poky back living room, had gone to dust. My heart cried [...]
The lovely piece of artwork that I chose for this post is something I unexpectedly received from a reader of "Infinite Stranger". She messaged me to say that this is how she visualised the seaview bedroom of my protagonist, Leah Cavanagh, who lives with her single mother in Lyneham-on-Sea, on the western coast of Lancashire. [...]
Coming to the end of a good novel is rather like coming to the end of a good relationship. I suppose the main difference is that a good novel remains good right until the end, whereas a good relationship ...? Hmm. Logic says that it can’t be ‘good’ anymore by that stage, otherwise it wouldn’t [...]
As it’s technically still summer, with the flowers in my garden still healthy shades of red and yellow and pink (those that escaped the hungry jaws of my mad Belgian Malinois dog), and the cobalt-blue sky hanging covetously over our high garden wall as though protecting this secret paradise from the autumn winds that lie [...]
I once had a boyfriend who had a very simplistic philosophy on life. According to him (let’s call him Joe Bloggs), what could anyone want more in life than good food, good wine and good sex? Our relationship did not last long. But although it’s true that Joe was a rather simple sort, he was [...]
