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 […]
Books
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 […]
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 […]
My Query Letter
Dear Ms agent I have been following on social media for so long I know the names of all your pets, I am writing seeking representation for my first novel, First Novel. First Novel is a work which both transcends the notion of genre, and confirms to it absolutely. In it we follow the story […]
Don’t Drown Your Sorrows
When I was 23, I had over 20 interviews with the Oxford University Press. Every time, for Assistant Marketing Manager. Every time, a different department. Every time, I got down to the last two candidates. And it never, ever got that job. When I was last single, I tried online dating. The first guy I […]
Times of Trouble – Poetry Can Help
I have this one poem that took me three whole years to write. I started it as a note on my phone, when I was waiting, drunk and maudlin, for the last train to take me back to Didcot. For the next few years, every time I felt especially low, I’d open up the file […]
Writing Update – March 2016
It seems I have not been doing my weekly updates for you. Oh dear. Isn’t that shit. For the most part though – I don’t care. You don’t really need to know my opinions of films that are so old they’re already on Netflix (though Wolf of Wall Street is vg, if you’re interested) or […]
My Blog Crushes 2016
OH MY GOD it’s been two weeks, I said I wouldn’t do that, I m a Bad Blogger. It’s because I had flu, but don’t worry, I’ll bitch about that in tomorrow’s catch up. I thought I would furnish you with a list of my favourite blogs. I find it a bit tricky to find […]
7 Bloody Brilliant Facts About Brian Blessed
All taken from the early chapters of Absolute Pandemonium by Brian Blessed, which I have been listening to as a wholesome soundtrack to making my bunting. Brian Blessed’s first word was “bugger”, during an altercation with another baby over a rattle. Brian Blessed is a “fully trained cosmonaut”. When he was a little boy, Brian […]
Blogmas Day 15 – First Dates Watchalong
So the idea is, this is like a liveblog, except obviously this episode aired on Thursday and no one watches live TV anymore. But if you like, watch along with me! Or just read this at your desk with a cheeky hangover while pretending to “do a spreadsheet” – your call. First Dates is a […]