Stung

Originally posted on Quintin Jardine's blog:
I admit to being slightly underwhelmed by reports in recent days of Parliamentarians and their ‘availability’ to lobbyists. This is old news, and not worth the fuss that’s being made. While it’s all a bit seedy, nobody died, and nobody appears to be lying. Apart from . .…

Working Again

I was chatting to Paul Johnston, the author of several excellent books (I recommend them), and he demanded to know whether I ever actually wrote anything. Well, Paul, yes I do, actually. I don’t spend all my time Morris dancing. Writing is a tough job. No, seriously – the worst part is, that you’re never … Continue reading

Back to Work!

This has been, without a doubt, the busiest Easter I’ve had since about 1976. When I was a kid, Easter was a big deal. We would all pile into the old man’s car, mother in front, the four brothers behind, and drive off to Devon (we lived in Surrey back then). At Northay Farm, near … Continue reading

What a week!

I have never tried to keep a diary before. It’s one of those tasks that has passed me by. Generally, I’ve always thought that they are journals for people with too much time on their hands. Time … How to organise it, how to make best use of it. These are questions which are always … Continue reading

A Weekly Update

This year has been a bit of a whirlwind (as usual), but I’m gradually getting things together. So, what’s happening? First, I am working on a new literary festival. No, I don’t mean I’m just attending – I’m working on the idea of a festival to help writers and readers. We had a meeting about … Continue reading

Templar’s Acre

Just a short taster, folks. The next book in the Templar series is the prequel, Templar’s Acre, a story all about the early years of Baldwin de Furnshill and his time as a pilgrim in the Holy Land. It’s not a crime story, but an adventure story of his time out in the wildest, most … Continue reading

Modern Books, ebooks and Writing

Writing books is a funny way to try to earn a crust. Authors are expected to be slightly odd characters (and most of us can live up – or down – to that), with peculiar insights which can be gained only by using illegal drugs or by excessive quantities of legal ones. I tend to … Continue reading

Review: The Queen’s Vow – C.W.Gortner

One of the odd things through the year for me is receiving books, unannounced, from publishers who hope for kind words about a book. They’ll often be from a publisher I don’t have any involvement with (like this: Hodder), from people I’ve never met, and with books from people I don’t know, haven’t met, and … Continue reading

Glocks, Brownings and Delays

I was listening to the radio this morning and thinking what a joy it was to hear something sensible on guns. For a bit. Well, it made a change. The trouble is, journalists really do have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. The piece began by saying that the British Army has at … Continue reading

The Next Big Thing …

  And now: the Next Big Thing – ten questions in ten minutes. Not such an easy concept for an author who spends his time thinking carefully about what he should be writing, revising, editing, and then throwing it away and starting again. Which is actually what happened here, because I carefully wrote what I … Continue reading