In writing about war it's all too easy to focus on the trauma. The men and women involved, whether military or civilians, have moments of happiness. A letter from home, a sunset, making friends with a cat or a dog, going into a local shop. Small things in themselves...

A Time for Peace was published by Cinnamon Press in 2016. Over ten years before that I'd been made redundant by the probation service and began to write - not formal reports, but fiction and poetry. What began as disappointment at losing a career and way of life I...

  Yesterday I finished the first draft of my novel, Kaleidoscope. Instead of being elated as I expected, I felt shattered. Years ago as a college student, I ran 440 yard race for our women's team. We were pitted against York university. St John's college had only...

We had a wet September, but last Saturday the sun came out. Along with many others I and a friend strolled through muddy paths we'd avoided during the rain. We didn't rush. Simply enjoyed what we'd been deprived of for several weeks. The rain had stopped and we could...

Earlier this month, we spend six nights in Willerby, an East Riding village. Travelling by bus and train, an experience in itself, we visited two seaside resorts, Brid(lington) and Filey. There, and in Hull bus and rail hub, we came across stories of the past told in...

Marina 2024 1. Reasons for research. During one of the hottest weeks this summer, I visited Hull to research my current novel. It's set in Hull during one day in 1920. Because I was born in Hull, I'm familiar with the layout of the city. What I was looking for was...