It’s always a joy when Red Herrings, the CWA bulletin, flops through the letterbox. There are two articles which drew my attention in this issue. Liz Mistry tells us how writing can be a form of exorcism, exploring our mental demons, and purging them. Certainly I...

What is this revolutionary global drug? I wrote recently about our visit to Oxford and the botanic garden. We also enjoyed a coffee in the Queen’s Lane Coffee House, which is reputed to be the longest established coffee house in Europe. Established in 1654 is written...

We visited Oxford yesterday, for a Floreat Aula Legacy Society dinner at my old college, St Edmund Hall. Because we couldn’t check into our room until the afternoon, we visited the botanic garden. I’d never visited the botanical garden before. I suppose, as a student,...

I’m enjoying Julia Pardoe’s biography of Marie de Medici very much. Please don’t think that I’ve found any writing blunders in her work, it seems remarkably well researched. Readers of the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures may be interested to know who officiated at...

Sir Isaac Newton wrote, in a letter to Robert Hooke, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Creative people constantly strive to produce something original, but we are inevitably influenced by what has gone before us. I have posted...

I said in my last post that I would read my character sketches, tracing the connections and conflicts. It struck me this morning, that a key conflict is that between mother and son, Marie de Medici and Louis XIII. The conflict between Marie and Richelieu demands...

I have just completed all the character sketches for the historical actors in Book 5 of the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. Scrivener is an excellent tool for assembling research, as well as plotting and writing. I discovered something interesting about Sully, Henri...

I’ve posted recently about my EV range experience, and I used the public charging network for the first time yesterday. We were going to a family funeral in Wellingborough, Northampton. I calculated the round trip as 243 miles. Because my range at 80% charge is around...

It’s always a joy when Red Herrings, the CWA bulletin, flops through the letterbox. There are two articles which drew my attention in this issue. Liz Mistry tells us how writing can be a form of exorcism, exploring our mental demons, and purging them. Certainly I...

What is this revolutionary global drug? I wrote recently about our visit to Oxford and the botanic garden. We also enjoyed a coffee in the Queen’s Lane Coffee House, which is reputed to be the longest established coffee house in Europe. Established in 1654 is written...

We visited Oxford yesterday, for a Floreat Aula Legacy Society dinner at my old college, St Edmund Hall. Because we couldn’t check into our room until the afternoon, we visited the botanic garden. I’d never visited the botanical garden before. I suppose, as a student,...

I’m enjoying Julia Pardoe’s biography of Marie de Medici very much. Please don’t think that I’ve found any writing blunders in her work, it seems remarkably well researched. Readers of the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures may be interested to know who officiated at...

Sir Isaac Newton wrote, in a letter to Robert Hooke, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Creative people constantly strive to produce something original, but we are inevitably influenced by what has gone before us. I have posted...

I said in my last post that I would read my character sketches, tracing the connections and conflicts. It struck me this morning, that a key conflict is that between mother and son, Marie de Medici and Louis XIII. The conflict between Marie and Richelieu demands...

I have just completed all the character sketches for the historical actors in Book 5 of the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. Scrivener is an excellent tool for assembling research, as well as plotting and writing. I discovered something interesting about Sully, Henri...

I’ve posted recently about my EV range experience, and I used the public charging network for the first time yesterday. We were going to a family funeral in Wellingborough, Northampton. I calculated the round trip as 243 miles. Because my range at 80% charge is around...