Speaking at conferences - the truth

Alison speaking at the International Writers’ Festival, Dublin

Whether you’re invited or have submitted a pitch to speak at a conference it’s the same on the day. You have a mass of faces in front of you. You re alone in the arena and the lions are pacing back and forth, tongues salivating. The be-tunicked and be-toga-ed are watching, a smile on their […]

Enfin française!

Receiving my certificates and livret de famille from the Préfète des Deux-Sèvres, Emmanuelle Dubée

In November 2019, I applied for French nationality.

On 14 April 2022, I had an official email informing me I had achieved it.

Last week, on 1 February 2023, I participated in an official ceremony and handed a sheaf […]

How to get through the fog of 2022 into 2023

Let’s face it – 2022 has been a weird year.

Coming out of the strict Covid regulations and try to recover a ‘normal’ (ha-ha!) book life, I planned a busy year. And so it turned out:

On 3 January, I published my husband’s fantastic book File of Facts about using personal organisers. (He is […]

Embarrassed of Roma Nova catch-up

When I checked when I’d written my last post, I was horrified out of my socks. May! And it was a feature about my esteemed writing friend Jane Davis’s beautiful new book, Small Eden. It’s achingly well written – I will never be able to write such clever and evocative prose.

Since then, radio silence […]

London Book Fair 2022

Like many events during the Covid pandemic, the London Book Fair was cancelled for 2020 and 2021. But in line with the general feeling in the UK that the Covid threat was diminishing, the organisers decided to go ahead with the famous publishing-fest.

Although I whipped it off for the photos, my FFP2 mask […]