My thoughts about books, writing, life and so many other things….Judy Leigh/ Elena Collins.
In the winter, I have a fairly organised regime to write every week day. I am at my desk by nine o'clock; I have a break for exercise at eleven and I run or cycle and do a few weights, a bit of yoga or meditation, and then I work through until about three, when …
Continue reading Kwai-Chang Caine and the daily life of a writer…
I am fascinated by etymology and I enjoy juggling with words but, as a writer, I try not to create blatant stereotypes in my characters. The word stereotype comes from the 1798 French adjective, stéréotype, which is a "method of printing from a plate." It has come to mean a set idea that people have about what someone or something …
Continue reading Three authors, three ‘Russians’ and my own novel
To follow my previous blog on fox hunting, firstly, I'd like to thank all the people who sent me lovely responses. Hope and compassion are alive and people are active against the ban, and that is very reassuring. I have tried over the years to calm my passionate nature over this issue and I now …
Continue reading #KeepTheBan on fox-hunting, for foxes’ sake!
For those whom we remember and those we will never know. Spring prayer after winter These months have been brick cold and here Threadbare blankets hold ice, soft from our mouths’ sucking Two were taken out this morning, stiff As dawn frost and blue white Their coughing clogged in the night with their breath. …
I need to review my habit of going to the cinema and buying tickets in Row A. I choose to sit at the front, partly because I am a bit myopic and partly because if I don't sit there, someone with a big head will come and sit directly in front of me. However, Row A and the pre-film …
Tony Blair said in 1999 that Conservatives were 'the party of fox hunting, Pinochet and hereditary peers: the uneatable, the unspeakable and the unelectable.' I can go back a little before that when, as an adolescent, I was in a pop-punk band and wrote a song which made me a bit notorious. Plugs were pulled …
I decided to test the hype for myself: I went to see 'The Revenant' at the cinema last night, sitting on the front row, right in front of the Big Screen. I wasn't put off by the preamble warning about blood and gore and detailed injuries: I knew this was a film about some guys enduring …
As the plaudits and praise rightly pile up about the late and impressive actor, Alan Rickman, people will ponder his best films. Of course, the blockbusting and memorable films such as 'Die Hard', 'Harry Potter', 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' and 'Truly, Madly, Deeply' will be high on most people's ratings. But I have seen …
"I, that did never weep, now melt with woe That winter should cut off our spring-time so." Henry VI The last few weeks have seen the passing of several people I have greatly admired; all of them have left us too early; all of them will leave a huge gap in so many people's lives. …
Most writers read a lot. I remember one of my brilliant tutors on my Master's course telling me I have an 'ear' for writing and I replied that I read all the time. She suggested the two weren't always connected, but I believe that good writers inspire good writers. To that end, I have just finished …
Continue reading Iain Banks, Petina Gappah, Saul Bellow and me: a writing lesson
That quintessence of dust 