Authors Electric

  Most people would say that the objects we own and the things that surround us are inanimate. They have no life of their own and have no sensitivity to atmosphere or emotion. Why is it, then that when you’re in a hurry things start to play up? Last week my husband had an appointment at the doctor’s. We were ready to leave when he discovered that the buckle of his Swatch watch wouldn’t fasten. This occasionally happens even when everything is the right way round when you take the watch off at night, the following morning the spoke that slips into the groove to hold the strap has turned itself round. Putting this right is not easy and much cursing and fury followed. The ability of a chain to knot itself into an almost impossible tangle is another example. You put it away neatly coiled to find it has wound itself up with all the other chains into a serpent nest of frustration. The simple explanation is human error or clumsiness but this does not explain the vagaries of the co...

  Ignoring Alva is a wonderful new novel by Emilie Khair.  While recovering from a mild stroke, Alva’s vivid dreams of daring exploits spark a restless desire to break free from the predictability of her quiet life. Her sister Millie—a practical yet spirited counterpart—is skeptical of Alva’s newfound boldness. But when Alva suggests an impulsive road trip, not even Millie can resist the call of adventure. What starts as a lighthearted escapade quickly spirals into a whirlwind of mischief, suspense, and unexpected heroics. As the journey unfolds, the siblings face long-buried secrets, stand up for the underdog, and confront dangerous foes with a fierceness they never knew they possessed. Through it all, Alva and Millie prove that courage, resilience, and the drive to rewrite your story aren’t confined by age—they’re only sharpened by experience. Witty, heartfelt, and brimming with surprises, Ignoring Alva is an unforgettable tale of sisterhood and reinvention. It proves that ...

Suffolk journalist Catherine Larner is planning a feature about Stars to Steer By  (to be published May 8 th 2025) and suggests the question ‘what have you taken away from the experience of writing it?’ I’m assuming that she doesn’t really want to hear what a slog the endnotes were or how frustrating it is to try to get permissions from publishing houses that were active 50 years ago but have since been taken over, amalgamated, gobbled up by the big multinationals who scarcely seem to know what companies they own, let alone what books might once have been on their list. She might like to know what a privilege it has been to receive help from absolute heroines of the sailing world -- Tracy Edwards, Naomi James, Nicolette Milnes-Walker, -- and generally from everyone, female or male, who I asked about the project. In my acknowledgements I say truthfully that I have never written such a collaborative book. Even some of the yacht clubs who have historically been thoroughly stuffy (i...

  I’m not long back from a few days’ break. Nothing too exciting, just a wee trip from Scotland to Yorkshire to spend a few days with my parents. The original idea was to take one of the kids with me and use up some of my annual leave before the end of the leave year. Due to various factors beyond my control, I ended up going on my own, and for five days did very little apart from eat, drink, and generally relax. No laptop, or anything like that – the plan was not to write for a few days and spend quality time with my folks. But a couple of things happened whilst I was down there – firstly, I met their cleaner, and it turns out she’s a writer, too. We had a very engaging chat about writing, and the wider process of publishing including book design, illustrations – she writes for small children – and so on. What occurred to me was, despite the fact we write in completely opposite genres, a lot of the considerations we had were the same, albeit sometimes arriving there ...

 At the moment I have a novel project well under way, so naturally I am prey to various other distractions, such as watching a tv series I like to think of as 'Climbing Amazingly Colossal Buildings', writing up the minutes for a meeting from a couple of weeks ago in time for the next meeting which has arrived more quickly than I expected, and setting up a new youth page on my local community centre website. So of course I've also volunteered to take part in a local event for International Women's Day. I didn't really intend to do this, but I talked myself into it because my suffragette great-aunt has been on my mind lately, which in turn is because her name has somehow got on to the shortlist to have a new school named after her. I had better not mention where the school is or what the exact circumstances have been, as her shortlisting has turned out to be somewhat contentious for various reasons.  When I volunteered, I suppose I had imagined giving a presentation...

As the new Bridget Jones film is currently showing in cinemas I thought I'd share an old blog post I wrote when the book first came out. Amazingly it has taken 11 years for this book to make it to the screen, but this is a much more grown up Bridget dealing with something a young woman shouldn't have to deal with - the death of a spouse when you have young children to raise. This is something I know much about and to my mind both the book and film are very good and have a lot to say about relationships and grieving. Diary15th January 2014 v. late night finishing off Bridget Jones’ latest diary. I laughed loud and cried buckets, even had to put on reading glasses for last few pages to make blurry words big and bold enough to read properly - v.g. book! I remember reading the first two books and watching the films but I’ve always had mixed views about Miss Jones. I’m not sure if we’d ever have been friends back then although I love her easy to read chatty style her shenanigans oft...

Read Any Good Books Lately?   Well, yes, is the answer. I’ve been working through the books I got for Xmas. There was good, there was disappointing and there was in between; and there was one which was not a present, but which was retrieved from a second-hand shop and was considerably enhanced by an excellent reading on audiobooks given by the actor, Juliet Stevenson.   I’ll start with the first one,  Small Bomb at Dimperley , by Lissa Evans. I did enjoy this book, possibly because I had a slight connection with the author: a couple of years ago I had taken a small part in a Radio 4, Bookclub broadcast on her excellent novel,  Old Baggage . For this I had to send some questions to the producer, Dymphna Flynn and was able to put one to Lissa on live radio.   Anyway, before I get carried away with my five-minute radio stardom, let’s get back to the book that I got for Xmas:  Small Bomb at Dimperley  is set in 1945 after a Labour landslide victory at the ...

Julia Jones’s moving post of 9th January  about discovering long lost letters between her mother and grandmother came into my mind recently as I, too, sat down to look through some family memorabilia.  Wonderfully silly visual joke from Kate Corner's scrapbook. Opening an enormous, scruffy, leather-bound scrapbook dating from 1855, I was stunned. I can’t even remember what I expected: some dull, holy verses extolling faith and humility, a few cut-outs depicting blowsy roses, nature walks described in spidery handwriting, that sort of thing… Caricature from Kate Corner's scrapbook. Instead, a wealth of well-drawn caricatures greeted my eyes, some wonderfully silly visual jokes... ... and two beautifully and comically illustrated invitations, framed as the planned outings of an exclusive club called the Fraternitye of Noviomagians.  Noviomagus Anniversary Meeting 1st July 1856. By George Godwin. Soberer items appeared in between: many carefully scrawled poems I haven’...