Newsletter

Hi Everyone, Over twenty years ago, I adapted the Estonian novel The Czar’s Madman for the screen. That particular adaptation, sadly, has never been produced, despite my being told by the author’s then agent that it was his favourite adaptation. As I see the tragic events continue to unfold in Ukraine, I am even more convinced of […]

Hi Everyone Some authors say that all work should be kept quiet until you have finished the last draft. I imagine that to possibly be true. However, as a few of you have asked for more of WIP The Fair Incognito, I find it impossible to say no, just as I once found it impossible

Hi Everyone,   When I began writing again after a break of at least a decade, I turned to Jane Friedman’s How to Publish Your Book, produced by The Great Courses. In time, I subscribed to Jane’s blog. This past week she quoted a filmmaker who emphasised that when climbing a mountain don’t look at

Hi Everyone, For me, there was no clear line drawn between the passing of 2023 into 2024 on New Year’s Eve, no high spirits, complete with ball drop, glitter, music, dancing to an exquisitely orchestrated fireworks display. There was simply a delicious family meal with a brief look back at the past year, a tiny

Hi Everyone, Since you asked, here’s the opening (Chapter 1, page 1) of The Fair Incognito, my new novel now in progress. I hope you enjoy. ❤ “Maman, where are we?”     “In the pages of a rich and splendid book.”     “I’m hungry.”     “Of course you are.”     “There’s only bread.”     “And cheese?”     “I could shoot something.”     “You

Hi Everyone, Gun control. Having recently returned from the USA after an absence of almost ten years, there is one image that remains etched in my mind: a handgun. In the USA for my 50th high school reunion, I was delighted to find my classmates all happy, content and as agreeable as they had been

Someone recently asked if libraries were still a “thing.” For me, yes!  Of course there is the amazing digital interface, accessible from anywhere on the planet, which has increased library usage exponentially, and makes me marvel when I’m electronically thumbing through hundred-year-old illustrations or listening to an audio, albeit a robotic one, of a journal

Hi Everyone, With school on the horizon here in the UK – a September 25th start for Uni – I have been reflecting on my son’s summer travels. From inter-railing through Europe, crossing the Atlantic to Boston, eventually travelling on to Vermont and Niagara Falls, then back to London for the Notting Hill Carnival, and

Hi Everyone Literally, no one has ever asked me why I have a rocker in my bedroom, but they have done doubletakes, begging the question – Why? Why do you have a large, white rocking chair in your bedroom? Clearly, I have no small children around – no one to rock, especially with my son

Hi Everyone, Funny old day today in Oxford, with the temperature at 20C (68F) but with little sun, or maybe I should say a strobing one, clouds opening and closing like theatre curtains unsure if the show is meant to go on or not.  Saying that, this is the play today: cloudy, 47% humidity and