A historically festive weekend in Harrogate - Part One

Conferences can be stimulating, fun or exhausting, or possibly all three. It’s wise to prepare beforehand, not just your travel tickets and hotel bookings, but which sessions you want to go to. Then you find out you want to go to all of them. Then you discover the conference clashes with a promised speaking engagement.

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Meet Ruth Downie - historical truth and donkey poo

Ruth Downie read too much Jane Austen at university, emerged with an English degree and a plan to get married and live happily ever after. As a backup she learned typing and shorthand, in the mistaken beliefs that people would always need secretaries and that she might be quite good at it. Finally escaping into […]

You don’t want to be alone!

Sitting by yourself in a spare bedroom, study, or even at the dining room table, and tapping away on a keyboard can be a lonely business. People wonder why you don’t go outdoors on a sunny day or wander into the village for a leisurely drink at the local bar or browse around the market. […]

Licensed to thrill!

I am absolutely delighted to have become an author member of the International Thriller Writers. *Happy dance around the office*

The presidents are M J Rose and Lee Child and their membership list includes James Patterson, Clive Cussler, Karin Slaughter, Peter James, Kathy Reichs, Ken Follett and many many other wonderful adrenaline-bursters like Adrian Magson […]

2014 Historical Novel Society conference (1)

Hot, tired and stressed out after flight delay and snail-slow taxi ride from Liverpool Street Station, I arrived at Marylebone Hall, the accommodation block at the University of Westminster, fit to drop. I flung on a clean shirt, combed my hair and abandoning unpacking, I hurried down to the lobby. The sound of chatter and […]