I used to imagine that finishing a book meant typing the final full stop, leaning back in the chair with a sigh of satisfaction, walking to the post box with a large envelope and a spring in your step, pouring oneself a congratulatory drink then nipping out to buy something tasty to wear for the launch party. Hmmm, not quite. Well, not continue reading »
There’s good timing and there’s bad timing. Recently back from the ten day marathon that is the Southampton Boat Show, good timing is when you walk onto a stand just as champagne is being popped and all the people you need to meet are there and free to talk. Bad timing is when, after a continue reading »
Artistic people have the knack of making ordinary things beautiful. Last week I went to a concert in Goodwick, at a church overlooking the bay. It was an overcast evening, grey light on a grey sea and the breakwater cutting across the centre of the bay. There was half an hour before the concert started and continue reading »
It’s hard not to take weather personally. I know it’s pure coincidence that June’s hot spell lasted long enough to get ‘Torhilda’ painted, varnished and slipped gently back into the wet stuff at Llanion boatyard. She had just settled prettily on her new mooring when the first low pressure system of the summer revved up continue reading »
My studio table and floor is disappearing under pieces of paper and chapter five is well under way. Writing and illustrating a book has its own pace and momentum; you have to keep a part of your brain connected to it or it’s hard to pick up the threads again. On the other hand, twelve continue reading »