misc.
Christmas
My lovely friend Becca Wyatt died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage three days before Christmas. She was my age exactly, 54, tall and straight-backed, with thick dark hair, a long stride, a fierce intelligence and a big smile. Our first meeting was in my kitchen. She was meant to be interviewing me for PR about the [...]
Chocolate Cake in a Mug
I don’t know what we did before the blogosphere existed. No siree, I do not. We probably all sat at home on a Saturday night and whittled obscene historical dioramas. Or something. But here’s what we certainly didn’t do. We certainly didn’t go to one of our usual blogs in a moment of boredom, then [...]
My Alarm Clock is an Agent of Evil
Does anyone actually like getting out of bed at 7am on a winter morning? In London, in December, it’s dark and cold and I went to bed too late. Again. At 7am my head is thick, I struggle to focus, the bed is warm, and there are too many things to do once I wake [...]
The Luckiest Kids in the World….
…are at this moment thinking about their week at Ted Hughes’ house in Lumb Bank, or maybe that should be on Lumb Bank. It’s in Yorkshire, a very beautiful part of Yorkshire (is there any other sort?) about a five minute drive from the Hebden Bridge train station. And then a ten minute walk down [...]
The Tortoise and The Hare
This is a post about a publishing miracle. Not the sort that starts with a million pound advance, a big name and a huge PR campaign. The other sort, the sort that involves a wonderful book. In this case, it involves a book called The Hare With Amber Eyes. About six months ago, I asked [...]
Poetry and Chocolate
HAD I the heavens’ embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half light… I’m turning over this post to poets. The first is WB Yeats, and my daughter loves the way the line ‘the blue and the dim and [...]
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