inspiration · life

Beautiful, Bold and Brilliant: Forget Tchaikovsky, Swan Lake is Bourne’s Ballet

I popped my ballet cherry last night. Having never seen any live ballet (except years ago when a student danced beautifully en pointe in an English lesson as part of a presentation), I didn’t really know what to expect. Added to that, I was totally ignorant of the story, too. But, do you know what?… Continue reading Beautiful, Bold and Brilliant: Forget Tchaikovsky, Swan Lake is Bourne’s Ballet

inspiration · Writing

Art Imitating Life…

Anyone who's read The Second Chance Tea Shop will know that I set the novel in very familiar surroundings. The village of Little Somerby might be fictional, but it's very much grounded in reality. The Strawberry Line, part of the railway track that was shut in the 1960s by Dr Beeching, runs alongside Little Somerby in… Continue reading Art Imitating Life…

inspiration · Writing

Throwback Texts: Return to Me (and another reason to love David Duchovny!)

I was looking through one of my Youtube channels last night, and I realised I hadn't thought about some of the texts that consumed me as a vidder for a very long time. To explain, what basically used to happen was that I'd watch something, a film or a TV show, and then, if it… Continue reading Throwback Texts: Return to Me (and another reason to love David Duchovny!)

inspiration · Writing

Far From the Tree – ‘missing’ scenes and DVD extras

One of the joys of having my own characters and universe to play with is that I keep thinking of 'scenes between the scenes' from the novels. Much like DVD extras and missing scenes from films, these are the moments that I haven't actually committed to paper in the novel, but that I visualise now… Continue reading Far From the Tree – ‘missing’ scenes and DVD extras