My thoughts about books, writing, life and so many other things….Judy Leigh/ Elena Collins.
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, …
When I moved house, I took my three cats, each in a basket, in my car. On the way, I told them they were going to a lovely place where they could run amok and have fun to their hearts' content. Colin and Pushkin settled quietly. But Majick was not a happy cat. Majick is …
On a recent Radio 4 programme, Marlon James was asked if he'd listened to reggae as he wrote A Brief History of Seven Killings. He suggested that reggae was the last music he'd have listened to: the novel was set mostly in Jamaica around the 'Bob Marley era' and of course he didn't listen to reggae: …
I've been busy writing. My third novel is finished and I'm editing it, making a lot of changes, before I step away for a while, go back, later and decide if it still feels fresh and readable. Then I'll edit some more. I'm becoming better at editing. I have an incredible two-book deal and a …
Today we remember. April 8th is a day designated to think about the largest ethnic minority- some ten million Roma live in Europe and six million within the EU- and we should remember that Romani people are still subject to discrimination and social exclusion. I've heard the same argument all my life, words which come from …
After the EU vote went the way of the Leave Campaign, many people have said, 'The country has made a choice and we must stick with it.' Others suggest, 'You can't keep having another vote until you get the result you want.' The British people are, essentially, stoics, especially the English with our stiff upper …
Continue reading If the EU vote had been a second hand bike…
That quintessence of dust 