Archives

St Neots, a small town straddling the River Great Ouse a few locks down from Bedford, holds a market every Thursday in the town square. It was the site, in July 1648, of a pitched battle between [...]

I was paging idly through an old notebook this morning and came across a passage in my handwriting that will serve as the hinge of today’s piece. Yes, I frequently write in longhand – especially [...]

I found myself embroiled in a conversation the other day about that most intractable of writers’ problems: getting published. It’s a fraught subject. Behind the question of publication, though, [...]

We’ve all become aware – or at least, we should have – that we move around the world shedding our DNA wherever we go, like plane leaves in autumn. Most of the DNA-trail we leave behind us, as a [...]

However grand your story idea, however vivacious your characters, the success of any writing project always boils down to the sentences you write, and the words you use to do so. This is, of [...]

Let’s have a little fun today considering the fate of the universe and all who sail in her. Let’s begin by reminding ourselves of what we understand the universe to be. Latest estimates suggest [...]

We met at La Piazza in St Paul’s Square, just a stone’s throw from the river, for coffee. The sun was shining. The crowds of people browsing for vegetables at the Saturday market, were dressed [...]

The first sign we were given that a torrid spring lay ahead of us was Brenda’s cry of dismay. “Get away,” we heard, “go on, let me through!” Which was followed by a squeak and a muted but [...]

What’s the greatest barrier to good writing? Well, I suppose you could think of a great number of candidates. But how about complacency as one that should figure near the top of any list? [...]

What happened isn’t the story. Events don’t make stories. So the memoirist who protests that all she wants to write is “what actually happened” is missing the point. Indeed, the novelist who [...]

Hilary Mantel was memorialised at a gathering in Southwark Cathedral last week. The great and the good were in attendance. Zadie Smith read an extract from one of her books; Mark Rylance, who [...]

Writing, we all agree, is a lonely business. We toil away in solitude, dreaming up our characters, and plotting our stories. We gnaw at our thumbnails waiting for inspiration to strike. As [...]