It’s the night before Christmas and all through the land, Parents are pacing, the wine close to hand. Have we bought enough presents? Have we got the right ones? Is Rupert too little to play with Nerf guns? When’s your mother arriving? How long is she staying? She always drinks more when she’s not the one […]
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How to spot a Smug Mother this Christmas
Christmas is coming and the Waitrose goose is getting fat. Across the Cotswolds Smug Mothers are glowing with festive pride as they prepare for family celebrations Kirstie Allsop would be proud of, while the rest of us are drowning under never-ending lists of presents to buy, food to order, and work to finish before the kids break up. […]
Judging a book by its cover: an interview with Toby Clarke
Next week I’ll be revealing the brand new paperback cover for I Let You Go, which is very different to the trade paperback version, yet still manages to completely reflect the story. Not having an artistic bone in my body, I’m fascinated by the process of book design. To find out more about it, I […]
Eight years
It was a day like today; the day he died. Crisp underfoot, and dragon’s breath left trailing in one’s wake. We drove to the hospital in silence – there was nothing left to say – to hold a christening amid the tubes and the wires and the perspex cribs. Holy water administered from a bottle; a […]
What not to ask an author
Since becoming a published author, the same questions have come up again and again. There are some lovely questions (will you sign this? how does it feel to be published? how did you come up with the idea?) but there are also some absolute howlers. Here is what not to ask an author: 1. Can I […]
What's the cost of a bad review?
A couple from Cumbria have been ‘fined’ £100 after leaving a one-star review on Tripadvisor for a hotel they stayed in during the summer. Their review doesn’t sit on the fence: entitled ‘FILTHY, DIRTY ROTTEN STINKING HOVEL RUN BY MUPPETS’, it contains such choice critiques as ‘weak tea and coffee. YUMMY!!’ and advises prospective guests, […]