A couple of weeks ago I spoke at the Greenbelt Festival on whether a mature and confident society should encourage people to opt-out; if we have a successful and attractive way of living (capitalism and consumerism) then the number of people wanting something different would be insignificant and we should go out of our way to accommodate them, rather than bully them into our way of thinking.
Exploring this idea led me down a number of paths you might find interesting: Continue reading
Fluence was published just over a month ago and after a fortnight of interviews and reviews the official launch took place on 21 July in a packed Primrose Hill Community Library.
I was really pleased that people took the time to come along on a sunny evening and I certainly enjoyed meeting them, reading extracts and talking about the inspiration behind the novel. The most enjoyable part for me (apart from the pub afterwards) was the Q&A at the end.
All the questions were thoughtful and wide-ranging, including Continue reading
I’ve just returned from contributing to the Penzance Literary Festival, walking beside the sea and visiting Land’s End. I’d recommend the festival and the sea but not Land’s End unless you like car parks and corporate themed shops.
At the LitFest it was great to see the room brimming with keen and focussed folk – quite an achievement as a lot of them had been in the same stuffy room all day.
I really enjoyed the session; hearing intelligent and perceptive questions and the authors’ responses, including mine, helped me take stock of my own journey. And talking about journeys – the rail strike forced me to drive, which irritated me at first because I’d planned to do quite a bit of writing, but time away from a computer proved therapeutic and gave me the space to make some fundamental decisions about the next novel. So all in all a fruitful few days.
In the photo – Helen Hart from SilverWood, Lucienne Boyce, Wendy Percival, me and Jill Treseder with an audience of about forty people (only the front row had the luxury of sofas and comfy chairs).