20 Thursday Jan 2022
Posted in Scribbling
I’m not sure whether it truly qualifies as stepping out of my comfort zone – but I’m definitely trying something different with what we’ll call, for now, Tom Book 2 – or, even shorter, TB2. Something I’ve never done before. At least not the way I’m doing it now… Continue reading
13 Thursday Jan 2022
Oh, I don’t know…
This is in part because, after two years, I’m very much missing London. And besides, I’m working on Book 2 of the Tom Walsingham Mysteries, so I’m up to my ears in research…
Do you mind if I share a few lovely things I’ve found? Continue reading
06 Thursday Jan 2022
Posted in Scribbling, Things
So here we go – New Year and all… and let me say that I’m slightly surprised at myself. And I’m slightly surprised because, for once and for a wonder, I don’t seem to be suffering from January Blues – or at least not much.
More than slightly, perhaps, especially when you consider the times we are living in… but still. Continue reading
30 Thursday Dec 2021
Another year very nearly gone, you see? Another year in this strange, unsettled era of ours. Another plague year…
Did you do what you had set out to do this year, o Readers? I find that I hadn’t set out to do too much. Well yes, I hazily meant to write more, to step into my new director’s shoes, to move a little – oh yes: and to write one cheerful thing. I suppose that, at some level, I found it safer to play it by ear? Continue reading
24 Friday Dec 2021
02 Thursday Dec 2021
Posted in Scribbling, Theatre
Once upon a time, December used to be a rather non-writing month, all given to Christmas preparations. Crafting ornaments and decorations, trimming trees, baking Lebkuchen, making the pudding, searching for presents, listening to carols… this sort of things.
I just believed – in all naive honesty – that there was no time to write in December… Continue reading
25 Thursday Nov 2021
Posted in Theatre
Tags
dress rehearsal, Noises Off, Opening Night, Philip Henslowe, Shakespeare in Love, stage superstitions, theatre
Us – after dress. Or tech. Or whatever it was.
So the play opens tomorrow night.
We had dress rehearsals, last night – or perhaps not quite… I mean it in that Noises-Offish way, you know: if this is tech, when do we do dress? And if this is dress, when do we do tech?
Yes, well… Continue reading
11 Thursday Nov 2021
Posted in Books
Do you remember my hunt for George Soane’s The Eve of San Marco?
Well, it took some tenacity – but in the end I found it, in its whole dubious three-volume glory, published by Gale as, for some reason, anonymous work. Continue reading
05 Friday Nov 2021
Posted in Theatre
The real-life Bea
Oh dear. Oh goodness me. Oh Spirit of the Bard…
I’m going to play again.
As in, on the stage. On the Tiny Theatre’s stage. Before an audience.
I’m going to play Bea. Continue reading
28 Thursday Oct 2021
Posted in Lostintranslation
My favourite way of learning languages is by reading – and no, you are not surprised.
And of course it may take some time before one is proficient enough to really read – but I find that, once I have the hang of basic grammar, one great way to reach that level of proficiency is what I like to call the Rosetta Method: reading the same text in a language I know, and then in the language I’m learning. I love the way it makes me see the language in action, while at the same time forcing me to work out the different cogs-and-wheels of different languages… Continue reading
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