historical-fiction
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Tigers in Blue – Closing the Trilogy

On my laptop, the 27th of June, 2013, shows as the last edited date on the original draft of the first chapter of the Shire’s Union trilogy. Putting pen to paper (or more likely pencil to notebook) will have preceded typing the words into Word, so the effort will have started long before then. I couldn’t Continue reading
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Bletchley Park

Aunty Pip started work at Bletchley Park in 1943. By then it was already a big operation. She would have been eighteen or nineteen. I’d long wanted to take my family there. Pip was the connection, the blood tie to the past, but even without that deeper link, there’s something very special about Bletchley. The Continue reading
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The Story Harvest

People have been sending me stories lately; lots and lots of them. I’m a story magnet. This isn’t some random cosmic aberration, it’s because I’m helping to run a short story competition on behalf of the Steyning Festival and the West Sussex Writers. As the final day for entries approached, I received more and more Continue reading
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My Whirligig

‘What’s a Whirligig?’ It’s the most common question I’m asked when discussing my novel, right up there with ‘What’s it about?’ and ‘How many have you sold?’ I often feel I make hard work of the answer, giving a longwinded and rather literary answer. I usually start with my ‘eureka’ moment in the Chicago Institute Continue reading