The above title refers to advice I was given constantly by established writers at the Swanwick Summer School in Derbyshire: an annual event, usually held in the second week of August – that I attended for 32 consecutive years. I heartily recommend this focused week on writing to any writer who wishes to make their…

Is Reading just one major area of learning in dire need of government attention? I think it is. For too long we have seen standards fall, as children have turned to screens instead of books. For too long, we have observed children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) being made to wait for a…

I found myself asking this fascinating question after I had written a scene in the third novel of my trilogy, ‘Legacy of Deceit’. My previous blog, ‘A Novel Idea’ outlined my experiences in a cotton mill that had become a handbag factory after it had, like most mills in the fifties and sixties, ceased traditional…

A recent article in the Times (James Marriott) questions if our love of books is more fragile than we realise? Marriott quotes recent statistics, suggesting that about a third of British adults have given up reading for pleasure, and that the OECD reports that literacy is either ‘declining or stagnating’ in most developed countries. How…

As many of you are aware, my fictional trilogy, ‘Legacy of Deceit’, (third book progressing), takes my characters through the time when cotton mills were a distinct feature of many northern towns. Manchester was even nicknamed, ‘Cottonopolis’ because of its many mills. The lives of people existing amongst these dark, urban landscapes have been captured…