We're often told that writing can be a lonely business and it is: I can spend hours sitting in front of my computer in the tiny space I call a study, plotting, scribbling or typing on my latest work. Sometimes the only contact I have all day is chatting to people online, so it made [...]
These days the good old fashioned ghost story seems a bit overlooked, so it's always nice to find new examples, especially by well-thought of authors. And The Shadows Call is a great example of the genre. Penned by Matt Hilton, who's better known for his Lee-Child-style thrillers but who loves a good paranormal yarn, it's [...]
Saturday found me in Derby, at my first ever EdgeLit sci-fi/fantasy book convention. This is an annual event, staged at The Quad in Derby city centre by the talented Alex Davies and his crew. I'd heard lots about it in previous years, but had always been double-booked somewhere else. This year, with my publisher Fox [...]
We're in the middle of a long-lasting and unusual heatwave here. There's been no rain at all for over three weeks now, and temperatures have been around 26c for at least 15 consecutive days. That might not sound like much but believe me, it's almost unheard of for Cumbria, where the weather often changes every [...]
It's taken me longer to read this book than I'd hoped. At first it all sounded fantastic, with an elderly bookseller hero and a plot involving spies, ciphers, hidden libraries and a missing (and extremely valuable) book. And at first, it bowled along with great vigour as Isaac Inchbold was asked to track down the [...]
The local rugby lions run a charity classic car rally at Grasmere every year. Every year since we've been here, we've managed to miss it. But yesterday, in spite of grey clouds and spitting rain, we made it. We arrived in the village far too early so had a mooch round first, followed by coffee [...]
Well, march might be pushing it, but we certainly took part in a protest on Saturday against the current state of Northern trains. When we first moved to Windermere, one reason for choosing the town was the fact that it had a rail station, with reasonable links to the outside world. Trains ran roughly every [...]
