The Magician’s Assistant review

This book was a lucky charity shop find. I'd never read anything by Ann Patchett before, but I fell in love with the rabbit on the cover, and liked the sound of the blurb. I very nearly gave up on it after the first few pages (the idea of someone being allowed in to hold...

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How I got published, and other useful stuff

A little while ago, writing and marketing guru Damien Seaman was kind enough to interview me for a guest post on his excellent blog. The questions he asked were surprisingly tough, but in a good way because they really made me think about being a writer - what motivates me, what excites me, how I...

Friday Five: Lakeland Gardens

For such a northern county, Cumbria has some amazing gardens to visit. Perhaps because of all the rain they seem to be lush green oases in a sea of, well, lush green scenery! I love wandering round them whatever the weather; here's a handful of my favourites. Acorn Bank Technically just outside the Lake District...

A rain-check on the storm cloud

Abbot Hall art gallery in Kendal has a brand new exhibition featuring the works of J M Turner and John Ruskin, focussing on landscape paintings, the weather, and Ruskin's work in flagging up climate change. It sounds fascinating, and we had a spare morning on Friday so we hurried over to Kendal to see it....

Classic cars, classic backdrop

We always enjoy poking round classic car shows - it's such fun to see all the old favourites our parents or grandparents used to drive, plus there are always surprises and new models we've never heard of before. Today was the turn of the 20th annual classic car rally at Leighton Hall, a spectacular stately...

Hanging out with a hippo

Not a real one, obviously. This is the wonderful Haphazardous Hippo, who runs a book blog and has rather foolishly given me free run of the place this weekend! In other words, she interviewed me recently and has posted the results on her blog today. The questions were great fun, so head on over to...

Two have a summer stroll in Coniston

Yesterday we took a break from endless chores and gardening and drove over to Coniston, which we hadn't visited for nearly a year. The forecast was for warm sunshine. In the event it clouded over and the light was a bit flat for decent photography, but we still enjoyed a lovely walk down to the...

Birthday treat

Not my birthday, but my publisher Fox Spirit Books are celebrating their anniversary with a grand birthday sale. And the great news is that Got Ghosts? is included. So if you haven't got around to buying yourself a copy, now's your chance, because there's a whopping 25% off it for the rest of the month....

Faces in the floor

...or, saying hello to some very old friends. When I was a kid my parents gave me a wonderful book. Actually they gave me lots of wonderful books, but this one has stuck in my mind more than most. It was a huge Readers Digest volume with a name that went something like 'Strange Stories,...