Blog Posts

  • Fancy Meeting You here!

    Welcome to my new, super-duper, all singing and dancing, fabulous new site. Looking good, eh? Since I have spent many hours in prettifying this, I plan on updating the blog more often. Book reviews and snippets of conversations with my mum will appear as they occur, but there should be a new post at least…

  • I’m Moving!

    Lovely, lovely readers, I am on the move. My Blog address isn’t changing, but I am moving to a self-hosted site so I can take advantage of the flexibility of wordpress.org. This means that until such times as I finish building my new web-site, this one may disappear. I hope to be up and running…

  • No Such Thing As A Free Book

    I have over a hundred books in my Kindle cloud. Probably more than two hundred. I don’t know the exact number but trust me when I say there are lots. And I’ve paid for only a fraction of these. Before you go getting your knickers in a twist, I came by each and every one…

  • K is for Kelvinhall

    When I was wee the Kelvinhall was home to the circus and carnival each Christmas. I remember the sweet smell of cotton candy, pink and fluffy as only cotton candy could be. The noise was deafening: a million kids (what do you mean there wasn’t that many?) screaming, on a sugar high, being twirled around…

  • Iain Banks

    I’ll never forget how I felt when I turned the last page of The Wasp Factory. I was stunned. Stunned by the talent, the story telling, the words I had just read. Iain had take me to a strange, troubled and disturbing world from where I didn’t want to leave. And I still don’t. Although I’m not…

  • A to Z Challenge

    Against my better judgement, I’ve decided to have a bash at the A to Z Challenge again this year. Last year I chose a movies theme and got as far as G for “George of The Jungle.” This year I’m going to blog about growing up in Glasgow in the 60s and 70s. Expect dialect…

  • It’s not the winning, is it?

    Several years ago, a writing group colleague and I held a writing competition for children. It was a huge success and we were able to offer wonderful prizes for the kids who won. But my goodness, it was hard work. We made loads of mistakes but we learned loads too. And when we ran it…

  • Super Dooper Bestest Ever Blog Post™

    It doesn’t seem a year since the rubbish poem I wrote to celebrate my 50th birthday, but here we are, March 15th and I’m 51. Fifty-one. Good Gawd Almighty! How did that happen? I know they say time passes quickly when you’re having fun, but I haven’t laughed that much, even if the increase in…

  • The Witchburn

    Earlier today, one of my Twitter chums mentioned how much she hated bonfires. I had to admit that I loved the smell of a good bonfire – although, I joked, it was always better with a witch thrown on top… And instantly I was taken back to my childhood holidays in Campbeltown, Argyleshire. Perhaps I…

  • The Wisdom of Poodles

    Just before Christmas, we got a new puppy, a little black girl we called Isla. My husband got her as a surprise gift for me – he knew I was broody and love to look after things/people, but mainly he bought her because she had been booked by a prospective owner who had then changed…