My partner and I booked a holiday in Yorkshire for April 2018, so I decided to read “Dracula” as visiting Whitby was part of the itinerary for this package holiday. While he ate fish and chips I walked up to the Abbey, then sat in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church below, imagining what it…

I enjoy reading many types of books these days, but I tend to only read them once as time is limited and I want to spend it reading other books. but, as a child, I would read Enid Blyton books, in particular the Malory Towers series over and over. I used to get told that…

What if you lived in a perfect world where life ran smoothly all the time? It would certainly remove stress and you could guarantee a good night’s sleep every night. But where’s the excitement or the motivation? Life without chaos would be very bland because organisation means that there is no need to think, or…

Many years ago, just after I left college, I went through a period of unemployment, which meant I spent a lot of time at home with my parents. My dad was a keen sailor and had ordered a new sail for his boat. He had originally asked them to deliver it at home, but then…

As a child I enjoyed the TV adaptations of various classic novels, some of which I went on to read, and make up my own stories from them. Noel Streatfield was a favourite, and her book “When the Siren Wailed” sparked an interest in the second world war as did Nina Bawden’s “Carrie’s War” the…

with my writing experience. I am closer to self-publishing my first novel than ever before and as it is a totally new experience, and a steep learning curve from which I hope will benefit future novels. I feel my writing has grown through learning, and I am trying new ideas and new genres like murder-mystery.…

Although I may have been shown something, and was able to do it that moment, I have always found that I need to keep practising in order to feel totally happy about carrying it out alone. This may take months of self-doubt about my ability, or even years. I started a new job nearly four…

The recent series “Believe Me” the harrowing adaptation about the crimes of John Warboys, a perverted black cab driver was gripping the whole way through, but the way victim evidence previously ignored turned on him at the time of his potential parole provided a perfect series finale for me. It was made all the more…

Brief Encounter with its dark, wartime stations. The steam train flying through at speed covering silhouetted buildings with smoke, and the roar of wheels on metal and the way the station shakes as it passes. Then there is the station itself with its quirky personnel, and the tearoom where the “sugar is in the spoon”…

…and that was most things. Whether it was a gang of girls who played by a harbour inspired by the places we visited whilst on a family sailing trip on my dad’s yacht, or a school in my grandmother’s flat, or on holiday at Pontins, I always had to make up a story about it,…