Monthly Archives: Aug 2018

The Joy of Writing Sex (research review)

Posted on Aug 30, 2018 by

View this post on Instagram I read The Joy of Writing Sex: A Guide for Fiction Writers by Elizabeth Benedict (revised edition 2001) on Kindle, which may accounts for the boring cover image. Sorry about that – and apologies also … Continue reading →

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Worthless Men (reading-as-a-writer 10)

Posted on Aug 30, 2018 by

View this post on Instagram Why do I bother writing when the world already contains books like Worthless Men by Andrew Cowan (2013)? Set in an English market town in post-Somme 1916, the action spans no more than a couple … Continue reading →

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A Subaltern’s War (research review)

Posted on Aug 19, 2018 by

View this post on Instagram A Subaltern’s War by Charles Edmonds (CE Carrington) is one of my favourite soldiers’ accounts of the #GreatWar. As the author explains in the preface to my 1984 edition, he wrote the book (based contemporary … Continue reading →

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Becoming a writer

Posted on Aug 15, 2018 by

I believe I have mentioned my bruising editorial review of The White Lady? It took me nearly three weeks to pluck up courage to read the review properly (my initial reading was a watching-from-behind-the-sofa sort of affair in which I … Continue reading →

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Testament of Mary (reading-as-a-writer 9)

Posted on Aug 15, 2018 by

View this post on Instagram I had to read Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin (2012) twice; the first time to get to the end of a gripping story, the second time to read the words. In between sittings, I … Continue reading →

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Babes in the Wood

Posted on Aug 7, 2018 by

View this post on Instagram My writer’s mind is very weird and wonderful. I’ve been struggling to define a key relationship in my book between two young and very frightened people in the midst of war and the phrase “babes … Continue reading →

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Great War pilots (research review)

Posted on Aug 7, 2018 by

View this post on Instagram One of the characters in my WIP is a pilot. He’s very young, unrealistically romantic and rather unstable – and his relationship with my heroine is pivotal to the plot. In my book I devote … Continue reading →

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The Roses of No Man’s Land (research review)

Posted on Aug 7, 2018 by

View this post on Instagram Out of all the books I’ve read about the #GreatWar Lyn MacDonald’s histories stand out; readable, warm and packed with the minutiae of human experience set against solid historical background. I know some historians have … Continue reading →

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Six Weeks (research review)

Posted on Aug 7, 2018 by

View this post on Instagram If I needed a book to reassure me that I’m doing the right thing writing #historicalfiction set in the #GreatWar then this is that book. Six weeks was how long a junior officer on the … Continue reading →

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A Whole Life (reading-as-a-writer 8)

Posted on Aug 7, 2018 by

View this post on Instagram I really don’t want to write about A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler (trans. Charlotte Collins 2015). I’m afraid I won’t do justice to it – or that thinking too hard about this exquisite book … Continue reading →

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