The Selfies Shortlist: Spotlight on The Ring Breaker by Jean Gill
An epic medieval saga of the last Vikings
Shortlisted for the Selfies Book Awards 2023 and the 2022 Chaucer Award. In the twilight of the old gods, when the last Vikings rule the seas, two cursed orphans meet on an Orkney beach… As thrilled as I am to be shortlisted for a third time for The Selfies Book Awards, I am all too…
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Virtual Book Club: GD Harper introduces The Maids of Biddenden
The Maids of Biddenden is shortlisted for The Selfies Book Awards 2023
Today I’m delighted to welcome GD Harper to Virtual Book Club, my author interview series in which authors have the opportunity to pitch their book to your book club. GD Harper became a full-time author in 2016. His three previous novels are Love’s Long Road, A Friend in Deed and Silent Money. He was a…
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Today is International Women’s Day. In between paragraphs, I’ve added quotes from inspirational women, both past and present, but let’s start with this one. “Extremists have shown what frightens them most. A girl with a book.” Malala Yousafzai Last week, wearing my professional hat, I attended an event about the representation of women in the…
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Celebrating Ten Years as an Indie Author
Adventures in Self-publishing
Christmas Day 2022 will be a special anniversary for me, marking ten years since I took back control of my writing career and became an indie author. Why did it take me so long? Good question. But bear with me. My first novel was published in 2009 when self-publishing was still in its infancy. Correction…
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Why Mountains Play a Role in Small Eden
The Wild Woman of Carshalton
It may be Robert Cooke’s story I tell in Small Eden, but his mother Hettie undergoes a transformation of her own. Hettie’s parents were mountaineers, who named her after the ridge route in the Scottish highlands where they first met. After her father meets his end traversing that very same route, this proves too much…
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Today I’m delighted to welcome Richard Fulco to Virtual Book Club, my author interview series in which authors have the opportunity to pitch their book to your book club. Richard’s debut novel, There is no End to This Slope (Wampus), was published in March 2014. His new novel, We are all Together, was published by Wampus…
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The Plutonium Jubilee – a shameful anniversary
70 years after Britain's atomic test programme began, the British Nuclear Test Vets are still waiting for justice
This month, it is seventy (70) years since Britain launched its atomic test programme in the Pacific, and yet Britain remains the only nuclear power to have withheld recognition from its nuclear test veterans. The British Nuclear Test Veterans have met opposition at every step of the way. It’s a subject I’ve blogged about before….
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Today I’m delighted to welcome Paul Marriner to my Virtual Book Club, my author interview series in which authors have the opportunity to pitch their book to your book club. Paul grew up in a west London suburb (not unlike the suburbs in which his latest book – Miracle Number Four – is based) and…
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The Bookseller’s Wife
Dorcas Lackington, avid reader of novels
I took a small research trip last week to the ancient church of St Mary’s in Merton. Small, because it’s only a ten-minute walk from my mother’s house. As a child, I took ballet lessons in the parish hall, but I rarely ventured inside the church, which dates from the tenth century. My intention was…
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Here in the UK, we had the driest July since 1935, and the draught has continued into the first two weeks of August. And we Brits do not do hot weather well. But as I type I can hear a scattering of rain on the glass of the conservatory roof. The last time we had…
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