The Cloistered Soul – BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Drama, Monday 19 May

May 13, 2014

Next week my first drama for radio, ‘The Cloistered Soul’ airs on BBC Radio 4 (Monday 19 May at 2.15pm).  It’s part of a two-week series of ‘Original British Dramatists’ – fresh voices, new to radio.  You can find out more about the play, and how I came to write it, here. Each of the […]

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Cultivating a garden together

March 22, 2014

This month I co-wrote a post for Something Rhymed with my friend and writing buddy, Antonia Honeywell.  Dedicated to literary friendships, ‘Something Rhymed’ is the brainchild of Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney, who are themselves friends and writing collaborators.  Mine and Antonia’s post is in part a testament to our shared experience of writing, […]

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The (thin) line between story and reality

February 17, 2014

Last week my first radio drama, ‘The Cloistered Soul’ was recorded at the BBC in Salford. * Without question, the experience was one of the highlights of my writing career to date. 

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Reflections on the writing process

January 27, 2014

I was asked by my friend and writing colleague Laura Wilkinson to take part in a blog tour, where writers talk about their processes, and their work in progress.  I’m fascinated by process, and could blether on about it all day so it didn’t take much to persuade me to say yes.  Here are my […]

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January: Objective-setting for busy writers

January 10, 2014

I’m an inveterate deviser of schedules.   At school and university, I’d spend ages devising revision plans, colour coding and decorating them.  They were the answer to my prayers.  I’d have an optimistic surge, each time I did one, that a carefully crafted plan would see me through and be the answer to my success.  Mostly, […]

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Why 2 + 2 should never equal 5

December 29, 2013

To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone – to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone: From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big […]

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Radio drama, redrafting and unpeeling the layers of your ideas

September 6, 2013

I’ve had the melodic tones of plainsong drifting through my writing space this week.  It has set the tone for the redraft of my new radio drama, The Cloistered Soul.  More than that, it has transported me back to the enclosed order I visited earlier this year to get an insight into the life lived […]

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Sisterwives: the latest review

July 22, 2013

I’m delighted to receive another review of Sisterwives, over on The Puffin Review.  The last paragraph in particular makes me blush with pride, so please indulge my shameless self-promotion while I quote it in full: ‘The novel is tightly plotted, carefully written and scattered with brilliant imagery. I get the sense of Rachel Connor agonising at […]

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Literary Sisters: Alice Munro

June 23, 2013

This week, Alice Munro announced that, at 81, it’s probably time she retired from writing.  It’s a good opportunity to celebrate the work of this extraordinary and prolific writer, whose work – though focusing on small towns and seemingly small lives – tackles complex and weighty issues.

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Lifting the barriers to writing: the writers’ log

June 17, 2013

On and off, over the years, I’ve thought about keeping a journal to reflect on my writing process.  I think the motivation for this lay partly in the excuse to buy another notebook: something with a pretty cover or smooth, cream paper which would contain all my brilliant insights into creativity.  

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