Books read and enjoyed in 2024

As in previous years, reading books has given me enormous pleasure. Let’s be honest, I’ve been a voracious reader since I was five. This year, I published a new historical novel, EXSILIUM, the sequel to JULIA PRIMA in the late 4th century plus spent a lot of the year participating in events and drafting […]

Helen Hollick and Harold the King's Big 25

Celebrating any anniversary is an excuse for joy, bubbly and dancing. Celebrating a special anniversary for a book warms the heart of the author to sun-like temperature. I experienced this for INCEPTIO’s 10th in March 2023 and published a special edition hardback.

So imagine how Helen Hollick is feeling celebrating the 25th silver anniversary […]

The evolving writer

When I started this scribbling business in 2009, I sat down one morning in front of my computer and typed for ninety days.

As a professional translator, I knew I would have to edit anything I produced. I joined a writers’ group and survived the terror of reading my offering aloud for the first time […]

Rosemary Hayes – Spying in the early 19th century

I’m delighted to welcome Rosemary Hayes to my writing blog today as part of her book tour organised by the Coffee Pot Book Club. She’s written over fifty books for children and young adults. She writes in different genres from edgy teenage fiction, historical fiction, middle grade fantasy to chapter books for early readers and […]

That Bloomin' Apostrophe!

Cartoon, apostrophes

Source: The Apostrophe Protection Society

Briefly, possession and omission. Yep, it’s that easy.

People get very hot under the collar about apostrophes, me included. First my mother, then my wonderful English teachers – Mrs Campbell and Miss Robson – eradicated any nonsense about misuse out of me at an early age. Like other […]