I love acers – or maple trees. We have quite a number in our garden, including until this year a whopper at the front of the house. So it was troubling when this one started to show signs of unhappiness about three years ago. It energetically sprouted lovely fresh growth in the spring, but then [...]
Phew. What a week! We might have seen history in the making but I for one will be devoutly thankful when the dust settles from this jolly old general election. And rest assured, I have absolutely no intention of extending the agony here. But I do want to talk about one particular politician, Independent MSP [...]
With my own book about Alzheimer’s safely published, and my mind more to grips with the fact that I’m now living with dementia in my private life, I’ve had space to go back to reading about the subject. Facts this time, more than the fiction I’ve warbled on about before. And it’s rainbow time. But [...]
I promised to keep it short this time. So I will. Two quotes appealed to the writer in me during the week, and might just exercise your smile muscles too: 1. DH Lawrence when Heinemann rejected ‘Sons and Lovers‘, citing as their reason ‘want of reticence’: ‘Curse the blasted, jelly-boned swines, the slimy, the belly-wriggling [...]
It’s exactly a year ago since I started writing this weekly blog, and I have to admit I’ve enjoyed doing so far more than I anticipated. And I love getting your responses – emails, phonecalls, blog comments, snail mail, carrier pigeon – so please keep them coming. It’s so encouraging to know real live human [...]
When I was little I had an irritating habit of starting things and then getting bored and moving on to something else, leaving a scattering of unfinished projects in my wake. Then as I grew up I swung the other way and became quite obsessionally Mastermind-ish (‘I’ve started so I’ll finish’). Witness my compulsion to [...]
I’ve just this evening returned home after a rather horrible couple of weeks, so forgive me if this time my blog is more serious than you have come to expect. In my novel, Right to Die, Adam O’Neill is a young journalist with a bright future when he is diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. He’s [...]
Hazel is away at her mother’s hospital bedside, and unable to write a blog this week.
Well, it’s been a weird experience bringing out Remember Remember. After missing publication day because I was with my mother in hospital in Devon, I returned home for a few days to a pile of copies of the book. I felt strangely disconnected from it. And there was no space to just savour the moment. [...]