The End and the Beginning

Tomorrow is the end of the financial year. For the rest of this week, I’m abandoning my writing for the chance to slave over a red hot spreadsheet, as I calculate how much money my company has earned (or not) in the past year. 

A Broad Abroad: Long Sleeves and Infidelity

It’s more than twenty years since my first, and only, visit to Pakistan. It was just a short visit to the capital, Karachi, so hardly a true taste of the whole country - I was like a tourist who thinks London is representative of the whole of Britain. But I was fascinated at the opportunity to visit a country that was very different from anywhere I’d been so far. This was long before I started working the the Middle East and so far my travel had been pretty much European-based.

Spring Give-Away

It’s two years next month since I published Parcels in the Rain and Other Writing. I’ve had a busy time since then, bringing out three ebooks in the Business of Writing series and, most importantly, launching my debut novel, Gorgito’s Ice Rink. Somewhere along the way, my short stories have been sidelined a little, although I’ve had some success with competitions in recent months.

Elizabeth Chats With...Jackie Juno

My guest this month is a writer, painter, performer, singer, radio presenter, comedian and celebrant who runs workshops in Devon and beyond, including writing and creative workshops and A Course in Goddesses. She is also Grand Bard of Exeter, a member of Chudleigh Writers' Circle, a fellow Brummie - and a very funny woman. I am delighted to be chatting to Jackie Juno.

Memories of Football and Dialectical Materialism

Forty years ago this week, Aston Villa won the League Cup and everyone in our family celebrated. I grew up within a couple of miles of Villa Park and used to listen to the roar of the crowd from our back garden as we waited for Dad to come home and tell us about the match.