There are few people who don’t admit to doing a spot of people-watching from time to time, and for a writer such an activity is positively compulsory. It might seem a luxury to relax in a cafe or on a park bench watching the world go by, but I can assure you it’s serious business, […]
Should fiction be accurate?
Novels come from an author’s imagination. They are the printed (or digital) product of days and weeks and sometimes years of glorious day-dreaming, created so that readers, too, can disappear into this make-believe story for a few hours or days. But should fiction be accurate? In the last few weeks I’ve been fortunate to receive […]
I Let You Go and the Richard & Judy book club
I’ve always loved the Richard & Judy book club. Their choices have so often mirrored mine, and when they picked something I’d never heard of it was always worth reading. The club champions reading, books, and authors, and has a fantastic reach, thanks to its partnership with WHSmith. Richard & Judy book club and I Let […]
I Let You Go sells to Denmark
It’s less than a week until the UK paperback of I Let You Go comes out, and I’m finding it hard to focus on anything else. Fortunately I’m spending the week in my favourite place: Chez Castillon writing retreat, in the South of France, where the weather is sadly wet, but the welcome warm enough […]
How books are made
Last week I went to Clays in Suffolk to find out how books are made, and to watch the paperback of I Let You Go being printed. It was a fascinating and incredibly emotional day, and if you are an author and ever have the chance to see your book being made, I’d wholeheartedly recommend […]
Women in comedy
This is my son Josh, in his first appearance as a stand-up comic. I don’t know if there will be a second: I didn’t even know he liked the idea of stand-up, but when I showed him the list of school holiday workshops running at our local theatre, this was the one he chose. The kids […]