With Good Me Bad Me, Ali Land has given us the perfect psychological thriller. Annie’s mother is a serial killer. For years, she’s been killing little children and getting away with it. But one day, aged 15, Annie can’t take the horror of her mother’s actions any more and turns her into the police. Annie […]
Trip to Thailand – Part Two, Khao Sok National Park
After the joy of drinking and reading in Khao Lak, we headed to Khao Sok national park to stay in Elephant Hills, an adventure tour outfit who offer elephant experiences, jungle tours and luxury jungle accommodation. Our first night, we stayed in the jungle camp, in a tent – but with a bed and en […]
Trip to Thailand – Part 1, Khao Lak
I’ve just come back from my very delayed honeymoon! Did you miss me? Why do you mean, you didn’t notice I’d gone because I’m a wildly inconsistent blogger? Rude. Like almost everyone I know who got married this year, we did two weeks in Thailand as our honeymoon and it was so so blissful. Neither […]
Book Review – Christmas At The Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan
This charming page-turner is a true delight. The third in the Little Beach Street Bakery series, this book follows feisty baker Polly, her fiancé Huckle and their pet puffin Neil through a sweet and amusing account of the run up to Christmas, dealing with the pressures of work, the problems of their friends and the […]
The Death of Hope, or Mary Berry’s Tarte Au Citron
I was talking to a colleague the other day and he said he hated the idea of hope. It was always harking to the future, he said. It drew attention away from what was happening in the present, and set you up for perpetual disappointment. “I hope it doesn’t rain today” – so what if […]
Omnivore No More
When I was nine years old, and going through what my atheist parents fondly called my “God bothering phase”, I decided to give up meat for lent. No more meat for me, I thought piously. I will be kind to all the little animals and stop eating them. God will like that. Three hours later […]
Honey and Walnut Bread
It’s bake off week 3 and its bread week. And. I mean. Bread? Really, what is bread but rubbish cake? Consider this less a recipe post and more a hugely heartfelt book recommendation – if you are interested at all in learning to make your own bread, buy this book – Written by Bake-Off […]
Then and Now
Summer 2007. I am 21. I am waiting to start an MA in Creative Writing, which I still can’t believe I got on to. In the meantime, I have gone to the Edinburgh festival to work as a venue tech. Mum said I should get out of the house – I was just moping about […]
Back-to-Work Butter Biscuits
Summer is over, the world is grey, I am back from holiday and have to go to work tomorrow. BUT At least it is biscuit week on bake off! We will always have sugary treats. In fact, now all major news outlets have stopped quacking on about how to get a “perfect beach body” we […]
Anxiety and Me, Summer 2016
Warning Signs Crying at your desk Identifying with the word “hunted” Repetitive thoughts, repetitive thoughts, repetitive thoughts Catastrophizing A sudden, searing conviction that someone you love hates you Suddenly feeling either very hungry, or sick Not being able to sleep without the radio on Not being able to sleep Being unreasonably upset when an inconsequential […]