Oxford Connections

Oxford Connections

We were watching Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice last night. She is an incredibly great singer in so many genres. The number of connections she has with other great artists is phenomenal, and suddenly I was connected back to my very first day in Oxford. My...
Words

Words

As an author, words are the tools of my trade. Like most retired people I know, I exercise my brain each morning with a few puzzles. I start with Quad Word, then move on to Wordle, followed by Sudoku. For anyone not familiar with Wordle it involves trying to guess a...
Accuracy in Historical Fiction

Accuracy in Historical Fiction

The article that caught my attention in this month’s Red Herrings, the bulletin of the Crime Writers’ Association, is by Bryan J Mason. He was on a historical fiction panel at CrimeFest this year and was asked about the level of accuracy needed to depict the past. He...
Tutankhamun and Legacy

Tutankhamun and Legacy

Claire has just been watching Coco again. The story revolves around the belief that you don’t finally die until the last person alive forgets you. We visited the Tutankhamun exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London in 2020. I think it was there that I read that the...
Royal Golf

Royal Golf

I have written about golf before. I have played golf, occasionally winning a prize here and there, since I was about five years old. I gave it up soon after leaving university, and took the game up again when I retired. Many golf clubs have royal in their name: Royal...
Screen Writing

Screen Writing

The Open University advanced creative writing course aims to develop the student’s dramatic technique, individual style, and voice. It explores dramatic writing: writing for the stage, screen, and radio, and how the techniques employed can enhance our writing. My big...