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A recent visit to Cloud Hill, the tiny dilapidated cottage that T E Lawrence first rented, and then purchased, as a writing retreat (and where he received visitors such as Thomas Hardy, Bernard and Charlotte Shaw and E M Forster), I am developing a fascination with the man. So far this fascination has resulted in a revisiting of Lawrence of…
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I was delighted to see that the 60 second interview in yesterday’s Metro was with P J O’Rourke. His book Modern Manners (‘The world is going to hell. All we can do is behave in a way that makes us look good on the trip.’) contains so many laugh-out-loud sentences, I am surprised that reading it on…
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Controversially omitted from the Booker shortlist (64% of those who voted said ‘he’s been robbed’), Alan Hollinghurst fought off stiff competition to win Book of the Year prize at last Friday’s Galaxy Awards for his novel The Stranger’s Child, which tells the story of a war-slain Georgian poet while mapping the changes to befall England and English subjects across the past hundred…
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It is Sunday morning, which means that, as I start work, Jen Campbell is already over half way through her frenzied/ambitious/foolhardy challenge of writing 100 poems in a single weekend. She is posting the poems on her blog http://100poemweekend.blogspot.com/as she writes them, plus providing videos updates on her progress. Money raised will go to research centres looking for…
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All writers have the occasional unproductive day. I don’t know if Tim Finn (of Crowded House fame) was mis-quoting Orson Wells, when he compared his song-writing technique to the screen-writers’ writing day: “This morning I added a comma. This afternoon I took it out again.” But I did have the privilege of hearing John Irving speak a couple…
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“Light thickens. Where did that come from?” As Brian Blessed reddens with delight, enthusing to Stephen Fry, I fret about his blood pressure.”The Blue Planet has it’s author and it is Shakespeare: WILLIAM Shakespeare!!!” (The debate on how many apostrophes words spoken by Brain Blessed demand has yet to be settled, so I have erred on the…
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Yesterday, Timothy McKenzie became the latest victim of the hyphen dilemma, described in the Metro as ‘the only non-talent show act signed to Simon Cowell’s label, Syco.’ That’s a bit harsh for an opener, I said to my partner. How did he manage to get signed?  The fact that my eye saw the pairing of ‘non’ and talent,’ and my…
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…there are no interviews for ages, then two come along together. I was delighted to be interviewed by Jen Campbell, whose website is one of my favourites, always with something original and wonderful to discover. http://jen-campbell.blogspot.com/2011/10/author-visit-jane-davis.html

Click here to read my recent interview with Morgen Bailey http://wp.me/p18Ztn-168

A great idea, but I’m not sure how the local trick or treaters of Sutton are going to react. And they’re not having my Edgar Allan Poe… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tYtLeWN5NQ