What’s that noise? Ah, its my dyed-in-the-wool (pun not intended) Yorkshire ancestors (workers all in mills and mines) turning in their graves in Dewsbury as they learn of the local lad who left the streets where they once lived to pursue his job of choice in blowing himself and other people to smithereens.This is not…
Coincidental, but nice timing all the same. On the day when yet another unthinking, insensitive young Brit upsets local sensitivities by baring her boobs atop a sacred mountain, it’s good to see a plea to replace the nonsense of gap year jaunts with something more commonplace and meaningful. Sandie Okoro, global lead lawyer for HSBC Global Asset…
At a time when commemorations and celebrations of the end of the Second World War are at their height, it seems timely to record the publication of a book dedicated to the many women who made it possible for men to enlist and “do their bit”. Melbourne writer Jacqueline Dinan has painstakingly tracked down more than…
It’s a numbers game. How quickly a writer’s emotions can change. There I was, a couple of weeks back, with a novel stuck for months at slightly less than 40,000 words and struggling to find time or inclination to press on. Today, with a smile on my face, I note the tally has now passed…
It seems that the long-standing two-letter preposition at has been dismissed as irrelevant by these two superstars and thousands of lesser lights throughout the English-speaking world. No longer does Beyoncé play at the Rose Bowl; she merely plays the Rose Bowl, a phrase that suggests an uneven contest in the extreme. Similarly Maestro Pavarotti has ceased to…
There are days when this already enjoyable job provides additional pleasure. Such as today with my ongoing mentoring of a writer’s work in progress and the arrival of another two chapters. It is such a joy to read. The writer combines lovely descriptive passages with taut and cliché-free dialogue to paint a seductive picture of…
I have long been a fan of Louise Welsh and her slightly offbeat tales – always intriguing, striding across genres and never less than enthralling and entertaining. It is, of course, all to do with the writing – economical, concise, never a wasted word and yet having maximum impact. But she really excels in the latest…
Let’s have three cheers and a quick spin of the Zimmer frame for Ms Justice Simler. The High Court judge has decreed that age alone is not a reason to remove a person’s driving licence. It is a decision for that rare quality known as commonsense. There has never been any understandable logic behind the…
Welcome note in today from a writer whose book(s) I am editing. He writes: “I’m loving what I am seeing. I think finally I’ve found an editor who understands what I’m aiming for in style and tone and who knows just how to make it shine and breathe that extra level of life into it.”…
It seems fame and fortune – like money – cannot buy happiness. Not even for an A-lister as well-heeled as Jack Nicholson. Regardless of his big bucks, big house and even bigger ego he is now just one of the lads. The ageing lads. The guys who, as the saying goes, may have snow on the…