My thoughts about books, writing, life and so many other things….Judy Leigh/ Elena Collins.
A friend of mine sent me a lovely piece of writing this week and asked my opinion on its worth. By coincidence, I'd just read a bestselling novel by someone I worked with a few years ago. I was pulled in by the intrigue and the characters of both stories straight away. Although the styles and …
In 1878, in the area where I now live, a house was being demolished and a secret room was found. Inside, a witch's ladder was discovered, an armchair and six broomsticks. The ladder was made of knotted cord, with feathers woven in to it. It was used to cast a death spell. The local area is …
There's something heart-rendingly sad about my statement, that novels are like good friends. It begs the question: but what about real friends, real people, not ones who are imagined and made up? The life of a writer is essentially solitary, so the idea has developed that we are a lonely bunch of individuals who have …
I love theatre. I love all different types and styles of theatre: Shakespeare, Brecht, Stanislavsky, Artaud, Grotowsky, Meyerhold, Lecoq, agitprop, avant garde, physical theatre, mime, puppetry, theatre of the absurd, naturalism, modernism, post-modernism. I can go on. I love the moment when the lights dim and then it's often a journey of the mind and …
Continue reading How theatre tells us to fear the inadequate life
I recently read an interchange on social media, a discussion by writers about who they believe they write their novels for. A gifted writer who I've met, for whom I have much respect, said he always wrote for the reader. That's another reason why I respect him. Someone else disagreed strongly. This person wrote for …
People who love the taste of meat and then become vegetarians or vegans are admirable. The idea that you give up something you find delicious because of ethical beliefs or the idea that it is beneficial to your health is commendable. It's much easier for me. I've never liked eating meat. Some of my earliest …
I haven't given him up. He's special. He's my Majick cat. And since I moved to the wilds of Somerset, he's been the Wanderlust King. I haven't seen him for four weeks but, since he took off that Thursday morning with a gleam in his eye, I knew he had his sights set on a …
A new season, a new person to love, to hate. Change manifests itself in football as the wind blows in the autumn leaves. Last season Ronald Koeman was doing well; this season, without Lukaku, he is floundering and many fans are booing during Everton games, blaming him for the low league position after he has …
From our first day at school – maybe even before that – we are told that bullying is wrong. It's not difficult to work out morally. When a person is marginalised, abused, made to feel isolated, hurt, it can't be right. Schools and institutions do their best to eradicate it yet, headteachers admit, it is …
It is autumn now. There is something new, something sharp, a scent of change in the air every morning and the fields are damp. A soft mist rises and leaves are already falling from trees. Autumn is a time when, if it's not raining, it's good to go for a walk and breathe cool air, …
That quintessence of dust 