Novel #2 is set in upstate New York, in a fictional town based on a place where we have spent many summers working in the local summer stock theatre. While I have many memories, journal notes and photographs of the place, I never reckoned on setting a whole novel there, so didn’t note the background . . . → Read More

After two heads-down weeks, the final manuscript is scrawled on in purple pen, tippexed until it is stiff, photocopied at vast expense and put in the post to my publisher.

I am in awe at the copy-editor’s art. Such skill and knowledge. There are very few suggestions that I disagree with.

It is an eye-opener. For one thing, . . . → Read More

I went to an old school reunion in Cambridge, where I met people I haven’t seen for thirty years, including someone I shared a flat with for a year and the first boy I ever kissed. Although boy would be pushing it a bit nowadays, as he is father of two teenagers and an eminent . . . → Read More

Since my self-edited third draft was submitted to my agent, CUCKOO has now gone through two edits at his hands, two more with Leah my lovely Headline editor, and this, here, is the final copy-edit. It is a hand-edited hard copy, which was delivered to me by the royal mail, and I am to mark . . . → Read More