Driving home after marking the 90-year milestone of my dad’s well-lived life which, tragically, is now sunk into the horrors of Alzheimer's, I made a sudden – but also not-so-sudden – decision to return to the beautiful southern French town of Castillon-la-Bataille on the banks of the Dordogne to reprise last year’s energizing, restful, magical writing retreat at Chez Castillion with the inimitable Jo Thomas, hosted by Janie Millman and Mickey Wilson.  On Twitter or their website you can find more photos of their historic sandstone townhouse and the azure swimming pool in their court ..read more

This month's blog was originally published in 2021, but there could be some out there who never saw it then who might enjoy reading it now.  And even if you did read it first time round, you might enjoy reading it again.  I hope so, anyway. While wondering what to write about, I came across a thin book, almost hidden among fatter volumes on my bookshelf, called The Observer Book of Books.  Published in 2008, some of the gems inside are somewhat out of date – but others are still fascinating and totally relevant today.  Although some articles are more concerned with books fo ..read more

I'm one of those people -- I suspect many writers are -- for whom whether to read isn't a choice. The only choice is what to read.   I read every day, and can't think of a single day when I haven't. But of course there are times when life gets in the way, and there are only certain things you fancy.  I remember once talking to a friend's elderly mother, who had been widowed and understandably lost her reading mojo, which bothered her. She explained that she didn't want to read anything new as she didn't think she could get into it and it might be upsetting. So why not try an ..read more

The lilac blooms in a patch of polluted ground. The land had been used as a battery dump during the Second World War so flagstones were laid. My neighbour first planted the lilac in a raised bed but it did not thrive so she lifted up one of the flagstones replanted it in the ground. It thrives there. The magpies have been squabbling over the small twigs they have tugged from the lower branches to weave into their nests. Mixing memory and desire, Stirring dull roots with spring rain. (T.S Eliot, The Wasteland) The Great God Pan made his first pipe from lilac wood and whoever hears his music is ..read more

 There has been some debate this week (as so often) among the members of the SAS who bring you this blog about why authors earn so little, and what can be done about it. I can answer the first bit, but not the second. It has to do with how little people pay for books, and the small proportion of that little that gets to authors and illustrators.  Imagine you have written a picture book that sells for £10 at full price. You will receive 5% of the money the publisher gets for the book, and the illustrator will also receive 5%. This is called a royalty. The publisher will very rarely ge ..read more

I've always been happy to abandon a book after 50 pages (or less) if I'm not enjoying it.  Occasionally the first page is enough. Then, in March 2020, just before the first lockdown, I decided to read all the Carnegie winners in order, and write about the experience here. I don't think I realised how long it was going to take (maths was never my strongest subject) and here I am, starting on my fifth year of reading.  There have been 84 winners of the Carnegie Medal so far and it was too much to hope that I would like all of them. When I haven't enjoyed a book I've found myself quite ..read more

                                                                A HISTORY OF MYSTERY Selecting appropriate examples of middle grade mystery was difficult - there are hundreds of good books to choose from. In the end I just picked a random handful and went with them. 'The View from the Cherry Tree' by Willo Davis Roberts: Davis Roberts has written plenty of good mysteries but one of her early ones remains a favourite. This book ..read more

  After my blog last month musing about obscure uses of language, (including their possible use in literature) further thoughts have occurred to me. I hope you find them interesting. For reasons I won’t go into, I’ve recently viewed a little more of daytime TV than I would like, or is good for me, the programmes interspersed with bland advertisements that seem to be the same for every single commercial break. This slightly enforced repetition has resulted in me noticing a few key points. A loan company or two seem to note the fact that they charge 99.9% APR as some kind of a positive endo ..read more

When you're starting a new book, where do you start? I ask because I recorded a podcast interview with a young reader on Saturday. We were discussing my latest book, Tapper Watson and the Quest for the Nemo Machine, and nine-year-old Jan said he found the book slow at the start but the story picked up when Tapper's space submarine arrived at Earth. This really made me think, because in my many and varied drafts I'd spend a long time bouncing the first chapter from Earth to outer space and back again. In the end, I decide if I was going have a space river filled with memories, I should lea ..read more

 This is just a very quick post, but I thought I'd share in case any other self employed writer gets in a similar situation. As writers, our income can be very sporadic. I know I should have a special savings account put aside for tax as I go along, and I want to do this from now on, but life gets in the way, cars need to be fixed etc, and so over the years I have often tended to rely on tax top-ups from eg PLR payments or my next scheduled advance.  Two days ago I received a letter from HMRC, and hopefully thought it might be a rebate. I was so shocked to find that it was the opposi ..read more