Author Archives: susan

I am a member of a Council of Adult Education book group, which means that we get  boxed sets of books – with reading notes and list of suggested questions – delivered, therefore none of us have to scamper around … Continue reading →

                                    Late in life  – we, her children, don’t quite know when – my mother wrote several mysterious, beautiful poems. This one was … Continue reading →

I’ve been reading nothing but crime novels all April. It’s no coincidence that this crime wave is happening alongside an intense period of work on my new children’s novel. It’s not a Verity Sparks mystery and I’m loving making the … Continue reading →

  I Seeing these toadstools bursting out of the ground along the side of our neighbour’s fence, I remembered this poem by Margaret Atwood. Very sinister!  (This is only part of it.) MUSHROOMS i In this moist season mist on … Continue reading →

We’ve just had three nights away  – at a little cottage in Dean’s Marsh, in the Otways. There was really nothing to do, which was wonderful. I read detective novels, drank tea in the daytime and wine at night, watched … Continue reading →

A few weeks ago, I helped a friend called Michael Uniacke to launch his book, Deafness Down. Here’s the short speech I gave. Many years ago, I had a phone call from a total stranger called Michael Uniacke. He’d heard … Continue reading →

I’ve been having a few sleepless nights lately. Change of season? Change of life? Who knows. It’s all right as long as I am lying comfortably, resting, but as soon as I start becoming cross (with myself, the world, or … Continue reading →

The other day I found this poem, on a scrap of paper, in a novel. It was my handwriting, but I can’t remember copying it out. I Googled for the poet – it is Ernest Dowson. They are not long, … Continue reading →

I needed a novel for another train trip, so this time I picked something I’d read long ago. As is often the case, re-reading was even better.  And as Fifth Business is the first of a trilogy, I have a … Continue reading →

How good to find a new author! I bought The Sea in the Op Shop last year and put it on my ‘to read’ shelf where it’s sat for months. This is the first of Banville’s novels I’ve read and … Continue reading →