As a writer with no teenagers of my own whose experiences I can draw on, I am an eavesdropper on public transport, in parks and cafes. I keep notebooks with transcripts of actual conversations. This example was overheard on the  Epsom train. ‘You know that guy? He was so scary’ ‘Definitely’ ‘Literally (laughs)’ ‘If someone else goes, “don’t…
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For every author who has struggled in torment over the first line of a novel, take heed: Maggie O’Farrell had me hooked with a single word. I had just battled my way through another Rachel Cusk, a writer who I feel I ought to read, but whose characters are, almost without exception, thoroughly unlikeable, and who…
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At last, an answer to the question of ‘what is a novel?’ as provided by author, Tom McCarthy, interviewed for The Birth of the British Novel (BBC4): “A novel is something that contains its own negation. A novel isn’t a novel unless it has an anti-novel lodged in it. It’s like an oyster isn’t interesting…
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I have just secured tickets, not only for the Foo Fighters, but also for my favourite live performer, Peter Gabriel.

I am delighted about the return of TV Book Club. It is wonderful that time has been found in the programming schedule for a series dedicated to the love of reading. And I would watch it – I really would – if it weren’t such a chore. What a pity that, with such a seemingly impressive panel,…
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Of all of the stories that I have heard told about Pete Postlethwaite over the last couple of weeks, my favourite has to be one shared by Julie Walters, who first encountered him in the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool wearing a window cleaner’s jacket and pink bell-bottoms:  love at first sight. For someone who is constantly dismayed by…
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The start of the new year appears to have been overshadowed by reminders that we are merely mortal. I was extremely sorry to learn of the passing of Pete Postlethwaite and Gerry Rafferty, but it is the death of Mick Karn, Japan’s bassist at the age of 52 that has moved me the most. Gentlemen Take…
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For those jaded by piles of rejection letters, be inspired by Jason Wallace, recipient of this year’s Costa Children’s Book Award for his book, Out of Shadows. Combining writing with a full-time job as a web designer, Jason’s writing is influenced by his personal experiences. Following his parent’s divorce, at the age of 12 his life was further…
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A new decade: a new chapter waiting to be written.

I must apologise for the technical difficulties that prevent me from publishing my photographs of frozen Carshalton and its resident snowmen but, as this is my last day at the desk before the Christmas dilemma – do we attempt the long drive North? – I thought I would  send you my Christmas message: Believe. No, not…
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