Carole Blake on ‘Does a writer still need an agent?'

Photo: Jack Ladenburg

I’m delighted to welcome my friend Carole Blake to my blog today to give an insight into one of the hottest questions in the publishing today. Carole has just celebrated 50 years in the publishing business, so she probably knows a thing or two. In 1977, after 14 years in […]

Casualty and being ecumenical

Yesterday I had a health scare and spent a significant part of the day in Casualty/ER/Urgences (take your pick), so I don’t have a prepared post. Lying hooked up and waiting for blood test results, the next ECG, whatever, I had time to think. And this morning in the shower, my random thoughts solidified.

No, […]

Women’s history?

Wikipedia defines women’s history as follows, ‘Women’s history is the study of the role that women have played in history, together with the methods needed to study women. It includes the study of the history of the growth of woman’s rights throughout recorded history, the examination of individual women of historical significance, and the effect […]

Who owns your story?

At book club yesterday, we discussed many things. Books, obviously, but the conversation wandered on to reader expectations and I threw out the question about who owns the story in the book – the author, the reader, both or none of the above?

My stories start in my head, but they are the result of […]

Revamps and updates - do we like them?

Are an American high school or the subcontinent an appropriate place for Jane Austen’s stories? Do we want to imagine what Penelope thought about Odysseus? And should Sherlock Holmes use a smart phone?

I love Pride and Prejudice and have read it so many times I know exactly what line or comic twist is coming […]