Preparations for Dartmouth Book Festival
I’m looking forward to the Dartmouth Book Festival in September, and making preparations for it. Browser Books have invited me to be on the historical fiction panel at the Flavel. I was asked to come up with a name for my talk. I came up with “Falling into Historical...
D-Day +1
I have posted before about my father’s service in WWII. Yesterday was, of course, D-Day, perhaps the most critical day of the war. My father had fought in North Africa and Italy before landing at Arromanches on D-Day +1. Dad’s battle honours include the Normandy...
C.J. Sansom
I always open the envelope with great excitement when I know that the latest edition of Red Herrings (the CWA newsletter) drops though the letterbox. Excitement turned to sadness when the cover revealed that the great C.J. Sansom had died. He was my model author. He...
Fate
On 29th May 1648 King Charles I of England was caught trying to saw through the bars of his prison cell in Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight. How might events have changed if he had not been caught? Fate decreed that he was. In the timeline of The Favourite...
Shaken not Stirred
How does James Bond like his martini? My recollection is that his preference is a vodka martini, shaken not stirred. But how much of that recollection is from the books, from the films, or from the popular conceptions surrounding both? I’ve recently reread Casino...
Occam’s Razor
It’s a while since I did an “on this day” style post, so here goes. On the 26th of May 1328 William of Ockham was forced to flee Avignon by Pope John XXII. William of Ockham, or Occam, is probably best known for his philosophical principle, Occam’s Razor. Entia non...
Dementia
It’s a terrible shock to discover someone you love has dementia. It doesn’t arrive with a herald of trumpets, it sneaks up unannounced. Not long after my father died in 1999, I took my mother to a hospital appointment for her eyes. I was shocked that she couldn’t read...
Barbecue
As I write I’m watching the Hairy Bikers Route 66 road trip. There’s a barbecue competition taking place between two teams of firemen. Naturally, as a writer I’m interested in words, so I looked up barbecue. It comes from barbacoa the Arawak for a raised wooden...
Historical Fiction
I mentioned in my post Practice Makes Progress that I will be on a panel at the Dartmouth Book Festival. I will be on the historical fiction panel with Tim Pears, an award winning writer, who has had an amazingly diverse career. I’m one chapter into his book The...
Preparations for Dartmouth Book Festival
I’m looking forward to the Dartmouth Book Festival in September, and making preparations for it. Browser Books have invited me to be on the historical fiction panel at the Flavel. I was asked to come up with a name for my talk. I came up with “Falling into Historical...
D-Day +1
I have posted before about my father’s service in WWII. Yesterday was, of course, D-Day, perhaps the most critical day of the war. My father had fought in North Africa and Italy before landing at Arromanches on D-Day +1. Dad’s battle honours include the Normandy...
C.J. Sansom
I always open the envelope with great excitement when I know that the latest edition of Red Herrings (the CWA newsletter) drops though the letterbox. Excitement turned to sadness when the cover revealed that the great C.J. Sansom had died. He was my model author. He...
Fate
On 29th May 1648 King Charles I of England was caught trying to saw through the bars of his prison cell in Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight. How might events have changed if he had not been caught? Fate decreed that he was. In the timeline of The Favourite...
Shaken not Stirred
How does James Bond like his martini? My recollection is that his preference is a vodka martini, shaken not stirred. But how much of that recollection is from the books, from the films, or from the popular conceptions surrounding both? I’ve recently reread Casino...
Occam’s Razor
It’s a while since I did an “on this day” style post, so here goes. On the 26th of May 1328 William of Ockham was forced to flee Avignon by Pope John XXII. William of Ockham, or Occam, is probably best known for his philosophical principle, Occam’s Razor. Entia non...
Dementia
It’s a terrible shock to discover someone you love has dementia. It doesn’t arrive with a herald of trumpets, it sneaks up unannounced. Not long after my father died in 1999, I took my mother to a hospital appointment for her eyes. I was shocked that she couldn’t read...
Barbecue
As I write I’m watching the Hairy Bikers Route 66 road trip. There’s a barbecue competition taking place between two teams of firemen. Naturally, as a writer I’m interested in words, so I looked up barbecue. It comes from barbacoa the Arawak for a raised wooden...
Historical Fiction
I mentioned in my post Practice Makes Progress that I will be on a panel at the Dartmouth Book Festival. I will be on the historical fiction panel with Tim Pears, an award winning writer, who has had an amazingly diverse career. I’m one chapter into his book The...