Authors Electric

It’s always fascinating perusing other people’s bookshelves and there is none better than a bookshelf in a holiday cottage – well I say cottage, this holiday let is actually a barn conversation complete with mezzanine reading nook! The reading matter is various, 1970s blockbusters by Jilly Cooper and Jeffrey Archer, more up to date novels by Victoria Hislop and Jacqueline Wilson. Books on British butterflies and birds. A book about the medicinal properties of honey and one about wind, thankfully not the flatulence variety, but a children’s book with picture of wind making mummy’s washing blow on the line - maybe daddy uses the tumble dryer! There is a book called No Dogs on the Bed – a cartoon book for adults and dog owners – a subtle reference to the rules on the property perhaps. The History of Stilton Cheese is wedged between a book discussing the divisions of Brexit and a book about female spirituality written by a man!!!! What can be deduced by such an eclectic collection? A...

Image Credits:- Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Photos of The Hayes, Swanwick were taken by me, Allison Symes.   I will still be at the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School when this goes live. This event is my big writing event of the year. It is a joy to get together with other writers, enjoy a range of workshops, and convivial company. I come back inspired, refreshed, and tired! All that creative energy takes it out of me  but in a good way.  That made me wonder about holiday reading and writing. Do you read and/or write more or less during the summer? That answer may depend I suspect on whether you have school age children or other commitments. For me, the writing dips as I take much needed time off but the blessings of being a flash fiction writer is if I only write a couple of hundred words a day, I’ve probably completed a story in that word count. I also prepare and schedule blogs in advance including this one. I love scheduling! It means I can take ...

Ginger Torch Lily - totally tropical I’m lucky to be just back from a Caribbean holiday where we were greeted more than once with the words ‘welcome to paradise!’ and it was easy to see the comparison: exotic plants, colourful birds, and the kind of warmth I always associate with the big greenhouses we visited as kids in our local park – except this was everywhere and 24/7 - a joy after a cold December. Add fresh pineapple, melon, papaya and spiced rum punch more or less on tap and you can guess we were happy. Our friend the 'breakfast bird' But paradise? I began to get picky. As we were deposited from our courtesy bus on to a pretty but rather busy beach, I muttered to my companion that I had imagined paradise to be a lot less populated. Then there was the night-time noise. I expect I would eventually have got used to the chirruping crickets and squeaky tree-frogs but   when these were joined by the crash of rain on our homely tin roof I was reaching fo...

From time immemorial (well at least since the coming of the railways) a British holiday has meant the seaside, and for me even a mountain retreat in Wales and Scotland is all the better if there’s a golden beach to run down to at the end of the day. Our coast has been celebrated in all kinds of ways in print and on TV because in our hearts it’s where we like to be.  In my case even reading Paul Theroux’s A Kingdom by the Sea   which pulls no punches,   didn’t rid me of my beach love, and Tenby – the only place he had a good word for– is still on my bucket list. Southwold is respectable but Something Might Happen  But we don’t need Theroux to remind us that away from the waters edge, our seaside towns are a mixed bunch and very many of them are in decline. Of all those I’ve visited in the last couple of years, I can see how those that have remained quaint have added a chic and gentrified air that sometimes feels odd. I can think of several that have si...