One of the great things about the writing that I do is that I am free to follow leads as they turn up. Earlier this week my work was all planned out. I knew what I was going to do. I fought off the attractions of a lost village in Carmarthen Bay and turned to…
Category: Blog – Archive
Additional information on Henry Tremble
Henry Tremble – 20 April 2009 I was always concerned that when the book finally went on to the shelves I would find out that I had written something wildly inaccurate, That I was guilty of perpetrating a significant inaccuracy. I have constructed all the stories carefully to maintain interest and extract the drama. But…
Bedside Manners
I spend a lot of my time snuffling around the damp undergrowth of the internet, like a pig looking for truffles. Sometimes you find them and sometimes you don’t. And sometimes you can pick up a faint scent. Often it is fascinating stuff but it doesn’t lead anywhere. You know there is a story there,…
Blogs from March 2009
Being Gobby – 31 March 2009 What’s wrong with people? Don’t they understand the idea of shopping early for Christmas? What about phrases like “avoid disappointment” or “whilst stocks last”? Have they no meaning anymore? There was hail beating its way down Oxford Street. There were Incas playing pan pipes. But people wouldn’t…
Visiting Anglesey
We arrived at the church, small and neat as country churches often are, and there was a church warden standing just outside the door watching us. We were in the churchyard of St. Gallgo’s in Llanallgo on Anglesey. We had done our research thoroughly before we left home, so we knew our targets and could…
How to Write for Newspapers
Some of the writing I come across in my researches is quite outstanding. It is so different from the sort of writing you see today in newspapers. In the 19th century there was more a sense of narrative and this lay at the very heart of what they wrote. When you read something like this…
Hanging a picture?
We went up to Chester to stay with our daughter Laura and her family last weekend. It was lovely to see them all and of course to be looked after so well. It was time to re-acquaint myself with our two grandsons. Mr Will is 3 and has a long-standing obsession with Disney’s Cars. Lightning…
A Visit to Cathays Cemetery
A large Victorian Cemetery can be so daunting when you are looking for a specific headstone and the cemetery stretches out before you. It can be difficult enough in an overgrown country churchyard where the words upon the stones have melted in the rain. In a municipal cemetery it can appear to be an impossible…
Disgraceful scene at Swansea
I went to the new Reference Library in Swansea to do a bit of research. It is situated in the Civic Centre and it is very smart indeed. Comfortable and bright. But it wasn’t the modern developments that drew me there, smart as they are. Rather it was the past, as always. The contemporary newspapers…
The Earliest Entries
A morbid interest? 08 January 2009 So here we are back in school. The cold icy weather still doesn’t stop some kids turning up in school without a coat and they huddle together for warmth like penguins. They are of course pleased to be back in school. Like most of the teachers they are…