I was recently invited to read and review this book called ‘Paradise Erased’. The title and its beguiling cover might suggest a pacy summer thriller - and it is a compelling read - but it’s a hugely atmospheric boyhood memoir, by Colombian-born Miguel Angel Monzon....

Seizing the moment while the sun shines is always great, and I’m delighted to learn this month that my screenplay - working title 'Ms', developed from my novel 'Felix Unbound'  - has made it onto the Page Turner Awards Finalists list for the Page Turner Screenplay...

Felix Unbound reappears this midsummer, in the form of a second edition in paperback of my tale of feline transmogrification, artworks and human vanity, and I’m looking forward to introducing him to some new readers.  To celebrate, and while under the influence of a...

Book Two of SS O’Connor’s series ‘The Secrets of Life: From Big Bang to Trump’ is another rollercoaster ride through time. How did We get to be so Different (i.e. from other creatures) speeds through millennia of human evolution and society.   From hominins to Homo...

If, like me, you are into history and like a bit of pageantry, with added cake and fizz, this May’s recent Coronation was an intriguing watch.  I felt there’s still a role for this curious system of retaining an unelected head of state, here, as well as an elected...

I’ve enjoyed reading Book One of a four-part series, The Secrets of Life from Big Bang to Trump, by business guru SS O’Connnor. No discussion yet of where Mr Trump fits into the evolutionary scale, but Book One, How did life end up with us?  certainly lands with a...

I think I’m developing a taste for book reviewing from my sofa this winter. Most-recently sent a new murder mystery The Chanteuse from Cape Town by John Constable (published by Ink!), to report on for an online book tour organised by Literally PR, I needed my wits...

It’s 100 years this November since Egyptologist Howard Carter found King Tutankhamun’s c.3,300 year old tomb beneath the sands of the Valley of the Kings. An elderly man I met by chance, in my youth, once told me about his old friend Carter taking him to see the tomb...

Reeling with the news that The Queen has passed away; and we now have a King for the first time in 70 years.  I was at the Braemar Gathering for the highland games there with friends, this September, only a few days before The Queen passed away at nearby Balmoral. Her...

It’s been a long hot summer, and a long cold G&T’s been one of my chill-out favourite tipples. There are so many exciting small distilleries of gin in Britain at the moment. A quick look at the shelf here currently reveals tasty gins from at least three of the...

Who doesn’t like a puzzle, riddle, or a crossword?  Riddles have engaged our minds since ancient Babylonian writings and early Sanskrit poetic riddles, Greek myths, and Biblical stories – all the way through recorded time to modern examples.  In and out of literary...

Most journalists mean to write a novel some day.  Deadline-driven journalism supposedly taught me to write concisely, and fast; yet tackling fiction proved a very different story for me. With no deadline pressures, far more space to play with and the luxury of...

A black-and-white cat likes to sit itself on the wall above our garden storage box, and sometimes sunbathe on the box’s gently-sloping lid, which can drive my two dogs wild. They bark, it stares enigmatically back, unperturbed. A young urban fox also likes to curl up...

Making a morning coffee for a family member getting over Covid, which struck at Easter, reminds me of how often drinking coffee with a group of friends has helped us all to process life’s various challenges, as well as delivering good cheer. It’s probably not...