So, you’re all going away on your Summer breaks. Does this mean that you skip a book club meeting? Try this for an alternative idea: rather than to discuss a book that you have all read, each person brings along an old (or current) favourite read. The group then dissects the opening paragraph, asking these questions: 1) Does it…
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My favourite television programme of the moment (shunting Luther and The Good Wife from joint top position) is the BBC1 series, Imagine presented by Alan Yentob. Where it wins is that, without interrupting the flow, Yentob allows his interviewees to speak for themselves. He has brought us many wonderful stories of artists, photographers and sculptors, but this week’s…
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For aspiring writers in need of inspiration, look no further. I was thrilled to read about the story of grandmother, Myrrha Stanford-Smith, who has just signed a deal with publishers, Honno, at the age of 82. Scanning down the page, it was not surprising to learn that Myrrha’s credentials are not limited to matriarch: she is an actress…
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Yesterday, I made my first return to the Winchester Writers Conference since winning the Daily Mail First Novel Award. The conference provides a fantastic opportunity for networking with fellow authors, and those in search of agents, editors and publishers have the opportunity to make their pitches. A full day of lectures had been carefully prepared and rehearsed. And then…
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This week, attending a book club meeting, I was asked the question, ‘Where are tomorrow’s writers going to come from?’ It was spoken with frustration by a primary school teacher who told me that parents don’t read to their children any more, that children don’t grow up seeing their parents reading at home, that living rooms are no longer lined…
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Attending local book club meetings has really driven home how the reader brings their background and life-experiences and emotions to a book, finding meaning that the writer may have never intended. Last week, on speaking to a club comprised of local mothers, I realised that in writing Half-truths and White Lies I had touched on a subject that would divide and might…
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It was with great excitement that I received my copy of the audio cassette version of Half-truth and White Lies. I rushed into the living room, anxious to hear Karen Cass and Graham Seed bring the voices of Andrea and her Godfather, Peter, to life. Only to realize that we longer own an audio cassette…
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Today’s recording of BBC’s Bookclub was revealing. Firstly we learned that novelists are usually shorter than we expect them to be. Jeanette Winterson told us how, when she found her microphone set at the lowest possible level, she is often ‘accused’ of being short as if this is conscious decision she has made purely to inconvenience…
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I am very excited that Half-Truths and White Lies has now been translated into German and will be released under the title ‘Wo Das Gluck wohnt’ (Where Happiness Lives) early in 2011.

Having left school at the age of 16 with a handful of O Levels and a swimming certificate, I am very excited to have been accepted as a student of Kingston University on their Creative Writing and Publishing MA starting next September. Mine must have been one of the least detailed application forms they have…
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