I’ve just finished mentoring with the Writers’ Centre Norwich Escalator scheme, which in spite of all my reservations about teaching creative writing, has been a highly enjoyable experience, and I hope also useful for the mentees. But I was horrified … Continue reading →

On Saturday I am going to Hungerford to the wonderful bookshop there which is hosting the Hungerford Literary Festival. I’m sharing a slot with Sarah Fraser, whose terrific biography of Simon Lovat, The Last Highlander, was published this summer. Hungerford … Continue reading →

To the Corinthia hotel yesterday lunchtime, a champagne lunch in their very grand Massimo dining room. Not my usual Monday lunch, but a very jolly interlude.  The occasion was the Spear’s Book Awards. Amateurs had been shortlisted in the Family … Continue reading →

Looking through an old journal just now for some notes I took on a book about memory (and I found them!) I also found a couple of entries written in May 1994, when Penelope and I visited Kalami with our … Continue reading →

I’ve always thought I hated crowds. Sales, demos, anything that involves waving flags, I’ve avoided them whenever I could. Then on Saturday evening I went to the final session of the paralympics in the stadium and had a kind of … Continue reading →