October is a month I enjoy every year, especially as Hallowe’en is just around the corner – a date in the calendar that it’s impossible for me to forget. It’s my birthday. Hallowe’en has certainly become more an event in the UK than it did when I was growing up. The influence from across […]
Now, I’m a bit late to this, but I notice that September is sometimes promoted as “Read A New Book Month”. Obviously, this is an initiative I can get behind… But it did get me thinking about who I would recommend, (other than yours truly, natch), for someone who wanted to pick up a […]
I sat down to watch LEAVE NO TRACE the other night. I’d read some positive reports and enjoyed director Debra Granik’s last film, WINTER’S BONE. I’m so glad I did. It’s one of the most affecting and touching films I can remember seeing for a long time. It is deliberately vague in terms of back story, […]
Amongst the flurry of books released in September, I note with interest a new book from Susanna Clarke. Released with a relatively short build-up (I only found out that a book was due maybe six or seven weeks ago), it has come as a wonderful surprise, and a book I will certainly look forward to […]
I was fortunate to be able to visit family in my hometown last week. The old family home is in the midst of a big spring clean, with cupboards being cleared out and drawers being emptied, and things being brought out into the light for the first time in years, or in some cases, decades. […]
It’s been a while since I’ve written about any televisual distractions, but I’ve just spent a good few hours immersing myself in GANGS OF LONDON, and found myself thinking about the challenges of writing good action as opposed to the differences in choreographing action for a visual medium like television or film. GANGS OF […]
I talked about one aspect of online culture the other day (hi Dad!) but, sat here in the office, I’m taken to ponder another aspect of the internet that has become indispensable to me and my stories. My tales take my protagonists all over the world, with location being an absolutely vital part of […]
There have been tiny steps made towards some kind of a return to normality, and I took the opportunity to take the family away for a few days, back to the coast in my old hometown. Naturally, life managed to find a way to throw a couple of spanners into the works, but somehow, by […]
A few months ago, I posted about how much I was missing the simple pleasure of taking time to enjoy a coffee in a quiet corner of a café during the lockdown period here in the UK. Things are easing here slightly, and whilst it still feels like there is a good way to go […]
Lockdown has presented me with all manner of unusual and surprising opportunities to try new things. When your routine has been shelved because of the limitations placed on you – for the most sensible of reasons – then it does force you to look at new ways at making the best of the situation, especially […]