Newsletter

This Monday morning, despite having had a relatively busy weekend at the Oxford Literary Festival, I found myself at the Bodleian Library doing research for the next novel. After arriving a bit late, I found someone sitting in “my” chair, but no worries, no disruption, he was just leaving. I sat down and got to […]

Hi Everyone, Snowing in Oxford this morning and Classic FM is playing Prokofiev’s Sleigh Ride while I stare in disbelief out the kitchen windows. Yes, snow is falling heavily and the Bengal refuses to go out. Spring on the way? So they say. Daffodils and snowdrops all up and at the ready. I do hope

Hi Everyone, Coming soon: Mine. My third novel—yes, a story of love, loss and unexpected endings—is being released by The Book Guild on May 28, 2023. Please enjoy a small excerpt from Chapter One, which I have shared in part before, but deserves a second reading, especially as Valentine’s Day is approaching, and if nothing

Hi Everyone New Year. New ideas, people, places, things? Nope. Not for me. Not entirely anyway because I am hugely grateful for the existing ones, especially the old ones like the town where I live. Literally old, founded in AD 912, Oxford was never on my radar, but we all know what they say about

Hi Everyone, Collections? Who has a collection? I do, but mine is not of Rembrandts or Fabergé eggs. It is of horses, mostly small-ish figurines that I have picked up here and there over the years. The first one was more painting than statue and was actually a set that went from pride of place

Hi Everyone, Depending on where you are in the world the weather is most probably warming up or most undoubtedly cooling down! Here in Oxford, it is, thankfully, gently turning colder and more autumnal. We just had our first single digit overnight temperature with a bit of frost in the morning. What is heating up,

Hi Everyone, Inspiration. It’s everywhere. As they say, “just look!” Some readers often ask a writer where she finds her vision, and the more fact-like a work appears, the more a reader assumes the work to be “true.” Perhaps that is when a work is most successful. The reader slips into another reality, suspends disbelief

Hi Everyone, As anyone who listens to the news almost anywhere in the world knows, H. M. Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully on the afternoon of September 8th. Earlier in the day, there had been a public announcement regarding her health, something to attract any listener’s attention as this sort of statement is not broadcast

Hi Everyone, My third novel Mine is hotting up, with interest growing. I thought I’d choose one of my favorite parts to share with those of you who have asked. Sophie listened, while catching the tiniest sliver of a rainbow out past the pines and over the sea.“Without warning I was taken off the world-touring

Ah! The Beach. This summer, I have been fortunate enough to escape the cooler climes of Oxford, England for the sunny weather of the Mediterranean