Summer is festival season – not just for music, for the literary world too! After two years of restrictions, book fairs are back with a vengeance, and I’m attending a packed programme of events throughout the summer along with other … Read More
Last month Whitby in north Yorkshire set a new world record for the number of vampires gathered in one place. The event – planned for the 125th anniversary of Bram Stoker’s Dracula being published – saw 1,369 caped, fanged, ghoulish … Read More
A visit to the place where I was born led me to make comparisons with the urban village where I now live and ask the question – are cities the new villages? Travel has, for obvious reasons, been limited this … Read More
And why Youlgreave is the perfect spot to do it! I haven’t blogged for a while but there’s a good reason for this – I’ve been writing. And I took myself off on my very own writer’s retreat to do … Read More
People have been taking Blue Tide Rising on holiday and sending me photos so I thought I’d post a few. It’s nice to know that Amy Blue is travelling… On a beach somewhere in Crete. From a park bench bench … Read More
‘There’s a right way, a wrong way, and a Whitby way,’ says the man. He’s silhouetted against the skyline wearing a long black coat, a bowler hat, and carrying a staff. This is Dr Crank, who’s here to lead us … Read More
I feel quite emotional seeing them again,’ says the man from Murphy’s. Stretched out before us is a line of five-foot fibreglass painted bird sculptures, illuminated along the garden paths. These are the Hoodwinked robins, inspired by Nottingham legend … Read More
When Nottingham won Unesco City of Literature status in 2015 I was gobsmacked, and delighted, especially having played a teeny part in supporting the bid by joining in a literary flashmob – which involved sitting in the market square with … Read More
‘if you don’t mind my asking, why are you staked out on funeral street?’ we were asked as we sat outside a cafe near Père Lachaise Cemetery. The speaker, an Englishman in his early 70s, was on his way to … Read More
I am sitting in a former tram depot and I #amwriting I sit near the balcony which gives me a view of the bar below. This place is designed a bit like a Victorian music hall, in which case I … Read More