That is a peach. It is gorgeous. You can’t smell it, but I could and it’s the kind of food that makes you think “if I eat this, it will become part of me, that’s just fantastic.” Bologna is famous for its food. Obviously they invented Bolognese sauce (served here over golden yellow buttery melt-in-the-mouth tagliatelle, …
Yes, I think we shall. I’ve had that feeling creeping over me for a few weeks now. Staring at places I pass by but have never been into, remembering places I’ve been recommended. The other day, driving back home from central London I almost drove straight past Regent’s Park and then I thought “I have …
I start rather more energetically than I mean to go on, because I think I spent only 40 seconds today in a place I’ve been before: the one familiar place was Gare de Lyon Paris, marching through in an attempt to composter mon billet (ma billet? why would a billet have a gender anyway?) and …
Here’s something people don’t know about me: I’m a bit afraid of the dark. Not very afraid, not afraid like I really think there are monsters under the bed or in the wardrobe, not like I freak out if I’m in a tube train and the lights go off for a bit. But just, unsettled. …
So I’ve changed the title of the blog. I picked the previous title “On the life of a new author” on a whim in 2005 when I sold my first novel and my friend Yoz said to me “you should really have a blog”. Keeping it now I’ve published a second novel feels a bit …
So, while I was writing The Lessons, I tormented myself by imagining all the horrible things that reviewers would say about it. Sometimes I even wrote down a line or two, just to get them out of my head. And a couple of days ago my friend Robin sent me this, written by Gretchen Rubin of The …
Over the years since my first novel was published, I’ve had various friends, and friends of friends, and acquaintances of cousins of friends of friends of friends ask me if I would read their work and give them my ‘honest opinion’. It’s flattering to be asked, of course. And I like to try to be …
Today was a migraine day. I’ve had them all my life and yet the pain remains shocking, every time. Shocking how impossible it is to do anything else, terrifying how easily my whole consciousness closes down to a bright white thumbprint of pain. I have a friend who’s only ever had one migraine in her life, …
So, tomorrow a piece of writing of mine is going to go public in a way that I’m not allowed to talk about. I know, mysterious right? But all will be revealed very soon. Anyway, it’s a piece of writing about Hendon. Which makes me anticipate the inevitable reaction that I’ll get from the people …
Cosy day today, despite the horrible blustery weather. Went to a pub I like in Hampstead – arrived about 11.30am when it was fairly deserted, left at 2.30pm when it was getting unpleasantly crowded. I never do this sort of thing without a project but I don’t know why: for the price of a cup …