I’m delighted to invite the multi-hyphenate American novelist-screenwriter-producer Shelley Katz to provide this week’s guest blog. When I read this post on her own blog this week, I knew I had to have it. Shelley…
I can finally reveal Jeremy Clarkson has contracted the virus CO2-19. He had it before and it was thought that he’d recovered, but last week it became obvious that he had succumbed to a second…
So now we are visited by the plague, it seems. Plague is an archetype that goes back deep into our histories. Perhaps the most famous plague quote comes from Romeo and Juliet – when Mercutio,…
I went into my study this morning, bouncing, full of ideas for a new short story and turned on my computer. It had a message for me. COMPUTER: I NEED TO SCAN FOR TROJANS (OR…
Just the other day a truck drove past me advertising potato crisps – gluten-free. Very commendable. There was only one problem. In my universe potatoes are automatically gluten-free. That’s how they grow. There was only…
The panto season has started early this year. Everyone loves live entertainment. (I’m even doing a live appearance myself on December 6th – more on this to the right and below). Here in the UK…
Do you ever find yourself lost for words? Or outmanoeuvred by a verbal attacker? Perhaps someone gets the better of you and you’re not even sure how they did it. You need the marvellous Luke…
The Harris Institute for Social and Self-Improvement For Individuals and Teams (HISSIFIT) has been working overtime on solving one of the major techno-problems of our age. You buy your highly specified Kindle, Nook or other…
Lies are big news at the moment. Lies by politicians, lies by social media bots, lies by journalists… Most of the focus is on stopping the lies – less about helping us see the truth.…
On February 9th 1982, a man grabbed a Chicago policeman’s gun in the street and shot him and his partner dead. A city-wide investigation led to the arrest of two brothers – Andrew and Jackie…
Like all writers, I get invited to festivals, book clubs and bookshops to talk about the stories I’ve written, stories that have taken me to Hollywood and back. It was one such story that unexpectedly…
Just this week I heard from my neighbourhood network about yet another death from stabbing, close by in Islington. Knife crime in London reached an all-time high last year and 2019 seems to be going…
It began in a kitchen. Two men talking over a roast chicken. But one off-beat comment would lead to a decades-long scientific detective story. And a new view of what it means to be human.…
Last week, I watched a preview of the new movie Vice – a riveting and at times shocking dramatisation of the life of one of the most powerful men most of us have hardly noticed…
We all make them, but how many of last year’s resolutions are you still keeping today? Any? Here are nine tricks that I use to make keeping a New Year’s resolution much, much easier. 1.…
For the next two weeks, the Christmas religion of consumerism tells us everyone is supposed to achieve peak happiness. If we don’t, there’s surely something wrong with us. Time, perhaps, for an UnChristmas message instead……
How often do you find yourself taking risks? Recently, my wife and I visited a farmers’ market along with our younger son and his family. I don’t know about you, but I find these places…
Do you want to overcome procrastination? We’re all good at putting things off. Of course, if we were that good at procrastination, you’d think we’d simply put off doing it. But somehow it doesn’t seem…