My thoughts about books, writing, life and so many other things….Judy Leigh/ Elena Collins.
The summer’s almost here, and hopefully we all feel a little more energised, thanks to the great outdoors, the longer daylight hours and warmer temperatures, which positively influence sleep patterns and circadian rhythms. I love the summer. Every drop of it. And I love the feeling of lightness, brightness, the energy. Being awake and alive. …
Abraham Lincoln said, ‘Think of strangers as friends you haven’t met yet.’ The other day, Keir Starmer said that the UK risks becoming ‘island of strangers’ without more immigration curbs. Some politicians claimed that his words had echoed Enoch Powell’s notorious rivers of blood speech, which imagined a future multicultural Britain where the white population …
I spent a long weekend in the Highlands a week ago, so that I could research another book. I don’t want to give anything away at this stage, but part of the research involved standing at the top of a long winding hill and shuddering at the thought of what happened there many years ago. …
I researched The Cornish Witch in Mullion, a wild village on the coast of Cornwall, and the location was perfect. From the tops of the craggy cliffs the witch could watch the villagers unseen. There was a misty cove with whispering waves at nightfall, and a chill breeze. Tiny, old fishermen’s cottages, full of atmosphere. …
Continue reading The Real Story Behind the Ghosts in my novel The Cornish Witch
Can you keep a secret? For the last few weeks, I’ve been sitting on this one, not saying anything to anyone. But now it’s ok to speak about it – the silence was up on April the eighth. So I had an email that I’ve been shortlisted for the Historical Romantic Novel Award category with …
There are various things I don’t really do if I can help it, in terms of feeling certain emotions. One is regret. I don’t see the point of it, unless we learn from it and then put it away. You can’t go back and change things. Yes, it might be nice if life had taken …
I was sitting with friends, discussing that old favourite topic, what the world was like when we were kids. It was the usual smug stuff about how we made our own fun and life was tough but we were happy, we had no central heating and there was ice inside the windows in January, blah, …
Continue reading Remember the games we played in the old school yard?
Back at the end of February, I went to Poole for the LLPP launch event in Poole, Dorset. It’s a project promoting the sale and use and availability of large print books, making reading accessible to everyone. I’m a great lover of libraries. I visit them all the time. I’m so lucky to be the …
You remember a few weeks ago when I was deliberating the question of which famous personality I’d choose to go on a Valentine’s date with, and I couldn’t think of anyone at all? I ended up spending my hypothetical romantic evening with Pikachu, or someone completely inappropriate, because I couldn’t think of a suitable partner. …
Continue reading Remember the search for a Valentine’s Date? I’ve Changed my Mind.
I was seventeen, and a woman in our little Oxfordshire village, Sue Monks, (*) asked me to babysit her two children one Saturday night while she and her husband went out. She promised me a few pounds for it. So naturally I said yes. Her two brown haired kids were called Lucy and Sarah. They …
Continue reading A True Story. Not for those who have bad dreams…
That quintessence of dust 