Last night, I looked into Mick Jagger’s eyes and saw fire. No, I wasn’t dreaming (although I have dreamt about most members of the Rolling Stones, and even all at once, but I digress). In the real world, I was privileged to see the Stones play the London Stadium and it was quite a homecoming. […]
Her Secret is Kelly Florentia’s second novel featuring the life and times of Louboutin-loving 40-something girl about town, Audrey Fox. Having enormously enjoyed my first encounter with Audrey in No Way Back, I was excited to hear of the sequel and it did not disappoint. We return to North London to find Audrey newly married […]
Fiction writing is a funny pastime. You invent a load of imaginary friends, living pretend lives in made up circumstances. That alone is counter intuitive because all our lives we’re told to TELL THE TRUTH. “Did you break your brother’s toy, hmm? Mummy won’t be cross, because it’s more important to be honest”, is a […]
Maria in the Moon is like one of those magic eye pictures popular in the 90s: It takes a while to see what you are looking at, but once you do, you’ll never see just a row of dots again. It’s a clumsy analogy and I’m certain that Louise Beech, the eminently gifted author of […]
If you’re reading this in January, Happy New Year to you – I hope 2018 is the year your wishes come true. If you’re reading this retrospectively, you’ve probably already broken most of your resolutions and have slipped seamlessly back into normality. In our house, on January 1st, no sooner had we vacuumed up the […]
For Christians Advent is a significant time of anticipation and preparation as we draw close to the birthday of Jesus Christ. For the rest of us, it can mean panic stations as we realise just how close Christmas (and all the madness it entails) really is. I wish I could say I was one of […]
Like it or loath it, you can’t miss Halloween. From early September, the supermarkets are full of creepy snacks and itchy kids’ costumes. I live in a community which is very child centric and families go to incredible lengths to decorate their homes. I’m not talking Jack O’Lanterns in the window, or spray cobwebs on […]
Lucca, Italy, 23rd September 2017: The Struts, fronted by Luke Spillers who is surely the love child of Freddie Mercury and Ian Astbury, have done an excellent job of keeping us entertained for thirty minutes and have just left the stage. And then it begins; Woo-woo…woo-woo…woo-woo…woo-woo. A whisper that soon becomes a roar. Like 55,000 owls, […]
I’ve just read and thoroughly enjoyed ‘The Girlfriend’ by Michelle Frances, published by Pan Macmillan. It’s a psychological thriller with the ‘thriller’ aspect ramping right up in the last third of this uncomfortable yarn. The premise is simple. Ambitious working class gold digger sets out to ensnare a wealthy husband. This seems eminently possible when […]
Extract from Seeking Eden Chapter 8 : Regrets After breakfasting on eggs Benedict in the hotel’s elegant atrium, Kate and Neil pulled on walking boots and set out for the forest. ‘I think autumn will come early this year, don’t you?’ Kate said. ‘Maybe it just feels that way because we don’t want summer to […]