Books

The phrase I would like to put in Room 101 after ‘You’re on mute’, is ‘Shall we go for a walk?’ It is like a red rag to a bull ...

The obvious answer is: well, we’re not exactly getting our thrills anywhere else. Not to reek of middle-class ennui, but I have literally never been so consistently bored in my ...

1) I had a bantam chicken that called Hag Dowsabel after the witch in my favourite children’s novels by Lorna Wood. My bantam loved cuddles, marmite sandwiches and cups of ...

-  – The doctor who attended my dying mother. – My actor friends who pour their heart and souls into our projects. ...

In August of 2018, with a toddler and a six-week-old baby in tow, my partner and I moved from London to a decrepit house in Northumberland. In early January 2020 ...

In a world where it seems as if every other person is a Coach, whether that be a Relationship Coach, a Mindset Coach, a Career Coach - what exactly is ...

I’m thinking about resilience today and what that might mean for children going back to school on March 8th. I know from those I’ve talked to that whilst they so ...

I wrote ‘How to be A Boss at Ageing’ because I’d just reached my mid-forties and was feeling a range of emotions, many of them pretty crap. I struggled to ...

1. My characters can have really poignant moments with their dogs. Dogs are a real comfort and people open up and talk to dogs in a way that they don’t ...

1) I chose to do my Master’s degree in children’s literature because I was a high school teacher and thought that I would find my writing niche producing books for ...

Readers are always interested in how ideas for stories come to be and THE EVIDENCE started to develop when I had the idea of incorporating podcast extracts within a story. ...

Whether you have been bereaved by Covid-19, or from another cause during lockdown, the isolation and stress will not have helped. Even if you haven’t been bereaved, you will be ...

I spend way too much time on the sofa. I have a desk and a nice little office, but for some reason I tend to be curled up on the ...

Recent figures from NHS Digital revealed that one in six children has experienced a mental health difficulty in 2020 and there are record numbers of calls to Children and Adolescent ...

-  I’m a dog person. I’ve had cats in the past but find my failure to live up to their expectations demoralising, whereas dogs are pathetically grateful for anything you give ...

My mother always claims I knew how to read before I went to school. Basically, I knew the words on the flash cards she showed me. It wasn’t long though ...

I should confess immediately to always having had an interest in erotic fiction, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised to watch its migration to the mainstream. But migration is probably too ...

I’m obsessed with comic books. Quite often my characters reflect attributes found in the Marvel and DC Universes, especially my villains. I like my characters to have complex backgrounds, and ...

-  All they had left was each other. Until the Nazis tore them apart.1944, Germany: After years of hiding from the Nazis, Rachel Epstein and her little sister Mindel are captured by the Gestapo and ...

I’m probably a shopping addict: I had great fun creating the character of Anna who uses shopping as a coping mechanism. In the process I discovered I’m truly a mall-rat! ...

Tales of toxic families are as old as storytelling itself. What is the fascination with the subject? Maybe it is because we can all relate to it, even if only ...

I start my working day with my third cup of tea (yes, really – I chain-drink it!) at 9am. I have two precious days a week writing when my eldest ...

On the outside looking in, younger women in 1960’s Romania had an existential and exciting life. They went to school and got college degrees, spoke different languages, and enjoyed listening ...