A False Start

A False Start

A False Start When I was in Sri Lanka recently, I started writing what would have been my seventeenth novel. At that stage, I hadn’t even had my structural edits back on number sixteen, which I’d only submitted to my publisher the day before I left. (Happily, my...
My visit to Colour Revolution at the Ashmolean, Oxford

My visit to Colour Revolution at the Ashmolean, Oxford

My visit to Colour Revolution at the Ashmolean, Oxford When I think of the Victorians I get visions of Dickensian smoke-clogged cities, widows’ weeds, funeral coaches with black-plumed horses, lots of gloomy tartan and blackened grates. The fabulous Colour Revolution...
A Day out in Ditchling

A Day out in Ditchling

A Day out in Ditchling I can’t believe I’ve never been to Ditchling before. Less than twenty miles from me, it used to be home to artist Frank Brangwyn, and notorious sculptor Eric Gill, as well as several brilliant weavers. The pretty Downland village hosts the...
Penang – How a Location Spoke to me

Penang – How a Location Spoke to me

Penang – How a Location Spoke to me I’d had a writing drought for three months. Not what I’d expected when I set off to sail around the world in one hundred and thirty days. With all that time and having finished my previous book I was certain I would have the...