I don’t usually go in for extensive Christmas present buying (a combination of thinking it an exploitative commercial con and not having any money), but I do try and make something modest for my family and close friends each year. What my gran would call “a wee minding”. This year, knowing that I wasn’t going [...]
2020 – Not Drowning but Waving
A Window on the (Covid) World
Like many writers, I’ve always been an avid people-watcher. I idly speculate about fellow passengers on buses and trains, giving them personalities, life histories and even names. )You’d be surprised how many axe murderers use public transport.) I inspect the trolley ahead of me in the supermarket queue and wonder what is going to be [...]
There’s No Place Like Home Improvement
It’s odd, speaking as a writer who is well used to working from home, to say that I felt cabined, cribbed and confined (to steal Mr Shakespeare’s patter) by lockdown. But during the pandemic, as the restrictions have tightened, eased, and then tightened again, there have been times when I’d give a great deal for [...]
Catching Up on New Releases
Eat In to Stay Thin (I Wish!)
Living In a Material World
When we went into lockdown here in Scotland back in March, I rather naively believed it wouldn’t impact on me unduly (apart from securing adequate supplies of food – and wine of course!). As a writer I’m used to working at home, and I don’t do a lot of socialising, so I assumed at first [...]
What I’ve Been Reading – Non-Fiction
I have had much more success with my non-fiction lockdown reading than my fiction. Immersing myself in history, whether it’s for research or just pleasure, I’ve relished being able to temporarily escape these dark times, though of course, one thing you can’t help but see is that history does have a habit of repeating itself. [...]
