
A Christmas Carousel
“Write a Christmas story? Never! Humbug!” This was the cynical and grumpy voice of my ‘Storyteller of Christmas Past’. And now, a few...

Do authors visit the places they describe?
Yes, my books are always about real places. Whether it’s a building, a mountain, or a city, I have to let the experience and vision of...

Is Twitter like a huge kennel?
Let’s be insensitively honest, Twitter is like a huge kennel on a bleak and isolated Yorkshire moor. Every dog (or user) barks louder and...

The other gender’s most tantalising secret revealed
Sssssh! Only dare to whisper it . . . The other gender’s most tantalising secret revealed. What really happens when a group of men go...

Adam and Eva – continuing my yarn for a sluggish train (Part Six: ‘The Marriage Guidance Counsellor’
Ms Joyce Freeman was a morose, grey-haired lady, whose wiry body was draped in straggly black wool. She had the kind of face that even a...

Adam and Eva - continuing my yarn for a sluggish train
(Part Five: ‘A Far More Cunning Plan’)
In a desperate effort to try and unhinge his wife and instigate divorce proceedings, Adam decided to feign a midlife crisis. He had...

Are writers insane?
On a dreary November evening in 2014, I put on a curly orange wig, a hideous 1970’s shirt, matching medallion and I strangled a Dutch...

Writing and music - is there a connection?
In principle, there is an eerie silence to the medium of writing, but when I’m working on a specific chapter of a book, I like to...

Adam and Eva - continuing my yarn for a sluggish train (Part Four: ‘The Pendle Witch Test’)
When his wife, Mandy, proposed that Adam should take her to the notorious Pendle Hill in Lancashire, a crafty idea popped into Adam’s...

An author's shame
The author’s head might be stuck inside a bubble of creative riches, yet the harsh fact is that very few of us make anywhere near the...