Authors Electric

Andrew Fardell conducting Archie Inns and the Waltham Singers in St Nicolas I was privately glad when the car CD malfunctioned, meaning that we couldn’t listen again to Benjamin Britten’s St Nicolas performed by the choir of King’s College and Stephen Cleobury, as we set out on another lengthy car journey. We’d already listened up and down the A1 to Yorkshire and it was leaving me cold. Parts of it worked well – the beautiful opening for the first violin, for instance – but the long reflective tenor arias just sounded a bit blah blah. No reflection on the performers, or indeed the composer. St Nicolas was never meant to be listened to whilst keeping an eye on speed limits and looking for the next left hand turning. Some music can cope with this treatment but not St Nicolas . I couldn’t hear the words and that matters a great deal in this piece, especially when Bishop Nicolas is thinking aloud. Without the central narrative holding the movements together the experience felt disjointed...

I am currently trying to finish writing the 31 st in my main mystery series, the Pitkirtly Mysteries. I no longer have to plot any of these – I have never gone in for detailed plotting in any case, but now I just bring the characters out of their box and set them going again. I do usually have some kind of scenario for them to work with, but sometimes it is very sketchy indeed. I always feel at home writing in this series, and there are indeed many advantages. I know how the main characters will react to events and situations – but nobody is completely predictable! ·          I sometimes play with different locations – in ‘It’s a Long Way from Pitkirtly’ I sent two of the regular characters on holiday to Loch Rannoch, and then created reasons for some of the others to join them there. ·          Very occasionally I use current events as a basis for a plot – ‘Unsafe Distances’ was set during the Covid lockdowns, though...

                                                                              Still Sad Music                                                                     A bench at Dove Cottage, Grasmere I was a bit stuck for an idea for this month’s blog but once I began thinking about books and writing the ideas wouldn’t stop coming. In order the ones that seemed most interesting were: a visit to Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage in Grasmere; attending a self-publishing day in Buckingham; and appearing on BBC Radio Belfast to talk about bibliotherapy. My visit to Grasmere with my wife was also a visit to meet up with her sister, Pen, who lost...

I spent much of last month zipping around all over the place, mainly fulfilling long-planned visits to friends we rarely see because they live so far away. This included a lightning five-day trip to Long Island (nuts, I know, but she is a very GOOD friend and sadly on her own since her husband died a couple of years ago).  Coe Hall, Planting Fields Park, Long Island, USA. Now Long Island, as you probably know, is famous for several massive mansions built in various historical styles by nineteenth and early twentieth century industrialists who had made huge fortunes in America’s growing economy. The period is known as the Gilded Age, and some of these houses and the wealthy people who owned them are said to have inspired Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The families have now long gone and many of these fine houses been demolished, sadly, or (much better fate) turned into museums. Our friend took us to see one, Coe Hall in Planting Fields Historic State Park , a Tudor-style hous...

  Don’t tell me to grow up. It’s never going to happen. Who wants to grow old gracefully when disgracefully is much more appealing?   I don’t mean you should completely neglect all your responsibilities – you should still pay your boring bills and feed your fam – but if growing up means to lose your curiosity about the world, as it so often does, then I’m all out. I believe that if we all managed to retain a little sense of wonder in everything around us, and stopped sneering and complaining, the world might be a better place to live in. Dress the way you want; cut your hair the way you like; have a tattoo; laugh a lot. Trust me, you’ll be happier. Keeping a young outlook will allow you to approach everything with new eyes. And take risks – everything can be an adventure.   I’m childish – I like toys and stupid jokes. I like to dance in the kitchen. I like to sing loudly in my car. I am endlessly curious about anything and everything. I like to keep an open mind. Numerous...

  Writing about them, though?   Hauntings: Nine Haunting Stories   More than happy to write about spooks. I've always loved ghost stories.     Overheard in a Graveyard  "Who weeps on my grave, who keeps me from sleep? Is it you who unearths me to this cold rain, this dark, this wind and all its grief?"   Nightcomers     "I'll tell you a true story -- how my dad met the ghost dog..."   It is a true story .  One my dad often told me.     But 'Cold Silver', one of the other stories, is ghostlier . It's based on old folk-lore, as many of my stories are.       But never mind the quality, feel the width! I can do you book-length occult, ghosts and soul-sucking, as well as short stories...       The Bearwood Witch tells of Brummie witches consulting demons and generally getting up to no good...             While The Ghost Wife is set at the time of the industrial revo...