30 Thursday Jun 2022
I was going to say that I don’t quite remember when I read my first Cragg and Fidelis mystery… But of course, thanks to the archives of the Historical Novel Society I can tell precisely: it happened when I reviewed the fourth installment, Skin and Bones, back in 2016. Continue reading
23 Thursday Jun 2022
Posted in Scribbling
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The world being what it is, I’ve found in a drawer 26 tiny paper disks – well, 27 if you count the debatable one… Less than an inch wide, not all of them perfect circles, each bearing a tiny – and often rather cryptic – note in orange or blue ink. Continue reading
17 Friday Jun 2022
Ah, but I do love the Soane Museum!
They are doing works in Sir John’s drawing office, and they find a hollow space at the base of a column, containing three small objects that, judging by their combination, and the way they are arranged, look like a time capsule… Continue reading
09 Thursday Jun 2022
Posted in History, Books, Lostintranslation
Tags
Adelbert von Chamisso, German language, Karl Stählin, research, Sir Francis Walsingham, studying languages
Do you speak German, o Readers?
Now, Italian is my native language – and I find it beautiful. Also, as you can probably guess, I love English very much. I also like French and Spanish.
German… not so much. Continue reading
02 Thursday Jun 2022
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Last Sunday we had the second – and last – performance of the school play for the Third – and last – Course. It went really well, and I’m truly happy and proud of ‘my’ pupils and the work we’ve done together. The’re a fine group. I’ll miss them.
That said, of the whole hectic, glittering week, there is one moment that I want to remember, the sort of thing that, when it happens, makes you stop and think that “Oh, how book-like!” Continue reading
26 Thursday May 2022
Posted in Scribbling
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I don’t know about you – but with me it’s like this: the closer I get to finishing a project, the more I slow down. Continue reading
20 Friday May 2022
Posted in Books, Scribbling, Stories
Rejoice with me!
The Road to Murder is out. Continue reading
12 Thursday May 2022
Posted in Books, Scribbling
A week and a day to publication!
Eight more days, and the Road to Murder will be out there… It’s an exciting time – full of last-minute dds and ends together with the people at Sapere Books – and also a slightly terrifying one… Continue reading
06 Friday May 2022
Posted in Things
It mostly comes in two flavours.
Flavour the first: now and then, when I hyperventilate over some (more or less) minute detail gone wrong in a play, a story, a talk, or whatnot, some sympathetic soul will try to convince me that it was a negligible hitch in the form – but the substance was there, and substance is what truly matters…
08 Friday Apr 2022
Posted in Scribbling
Because I’m busy tweaking things, and filling gaps, and this sort of things in TW2*, yesterday I up and asked my mother’s physiotherapist what the best entry point would be for a stab wound in the back.
“I want it to quickly give the victim breathing trouble,” I explained – and, having spent half the morning poring over medical journals, even spouted that I probably wanted a bad case of tension pneumothorax… Continue reading
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