Last week I visited HRH the Prince of Wales’ garden at Highgrove for the third time. Each time I’ve visited – the first time in pouring rain in August 2015, the second time near the end of the wildflower season in June 2016, and now in October 2016, we’ve been led by a different guide and each hasContinue reading “Fun, Tranquility and Happiness on My Third Visit to Highgrove Garden”
Category Archives: thoughts
Beatles Shine with Passion and Energy in New Documentary “8 Days a Week: the Touring Years”
How young, innocent, and naive they were, aged in their early twenties: cheeky and endearing. As Paul McCartney puts it, “At the beginning it was all very simple. By the end it had become very complicated.” And in the Beatles new documentary “8 Days a Week: The Touring Years” we saw a transformation rather similarContinue reading “Beatles Shine with Passion and Energy in New Documentary “8 Days a Week: the Touring Years””
Writing Stories That Grow Legs and Run Away From You
In my creative writing class at Lancaster University years ago, our tutor said to us: Once written and completed, your work is A Thing on the Table. The world can make what it likes of it. It doesn’t belong to you any more.” More recently, novelist Susan Hill, speaking at a local author event,Continue reading “Writing Stories That Grow Legs and Run Away From You”
Reflections on Australia: Binna Burra, Rainforest Resort in the Gold Coast Hinterland
As my daughter Abigail and her friend Gaby have just flown out to Australia to stay with my sister in Brisbane for the next few weeks, I’m thinking of Australia – and of the times I’ve visited that continent, and of the four and a half years I spent living and working there. I’veContinue reading “Reflections on Australia: Binna Burra, Rainforest Resort in the Gold Coast Hinterland”
Wildflower Inspiration from Highgrove
One of the loveliest things about England is the sight of our native wildflowers. For some it may be possible to take these things for granted, but to me, cow-parsley growing in the hedgerows, and bluebells appearing in unexpected places, is something miraculous – along with the oxeye daisy, the meadow buttercup, viper’s bugloss, redContinue reading “Wildflower Inspiration from Highgrove”
“Inner Child” Faces Down “the Perpetrators” at Constellations Therapy Workshop at Hayes Conference Centre
The most powerful workshop I took part in at the conference “Continuing the Journey: Rummaging for Reality” last week was a constellations therapy group run by a therapist who specialises in working with people who have suffered spiritual, satanic and sexual abuse. Approximately 12 of us took the part of various ‘voices’ in the client’sContinue reading ““Inner Child” Faces Down “the Perpetrators” at Constellations Therapy Workshop at Hayes Conference Centre”
Rummaging For Reality at the Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick
Here I am, a psychological suspense writer, at a conference for psychotherapists, healers, counsellors and creative people – and together with them I am rummaging for reality. This is very brief post in a spare hour before I go off to a workshop this afternoon. But already I feel I am working my way towardsContinue reading “Rummaging For Reality at the Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick”
Reflections on Crime, Wickedness, and Redemption from the Crime Museum Uncovered, Museum of London
On Thursday 31st March 2016 I read many stories at the Crime Museum Uncovered, an enthralling exhibition currently showing at the Museum of London, London Wall. Crime cases from Victorian times to 1975, solved by the Metropolitan Police. Most of the criminals were hanged; some were miscarriages of justice; vulnerable people, who today would haveContinue reading “Reflections on Crime, Wickedness, and Redemption from the Crime Museum Uncovered, Museum of London”
Writing, Reading and Reviewing Books For Love
Compassion, respect and kindness are human qualities common to all regardless of any faith position. In this post, I’m making a plea for these three things in the online world of books. Recently I learned from my fellow authors of something very sad which is happening on Goodreads – which I had previously been totally unawareContinue reading “Writing, Reading and Reviewing Books For Love”
Echoes of “A Passionate Spirit” in Mystical Tales from British Folklore
Book Review: “Faeries, Elves and Goblins: The Old Stories” by Rosalind Kerven, published by the National Trust I bought this book recently in a National Trust gift shop, and found it captivating. Rosalind Kerven explores the raw material from which many of our great fantasy novelists have derived their archetypes. She includes “mystical tales ofContinue reading “Echoes of “A Passionate Spirit” in Mystical Tales from British Folklore”
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