Reading to Remember
The 10th of November 2024 will mark Remembrance Sunday, a day to commemorate those who have lost their lives to war. During remembrance ceremonies, you’ll likely hear this striking verse from Laurence Binyon’s For the Fallen: They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the […]
Pockets by Ann Wooby
I used to belong to a writing group that met once a week at Chipping Norton Theatre. The group contained some unbelievably talented writers. Ann Wooby, for instance. Every week she would bring a poem, always the highlight of the week. While tidying my desk, I found this one, and she has given her permission […]
Banned Books Week: Why We Should Read the Obscene
by Charlotte Harris The last week of September marks Banned Books Week, an event first launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in challenges to books in libraries, shops, and schools. To mark the occasion, let’s take a look at the use and censorship of so-called ‘obscenity’ in novels – and remember why […]
Meet Deirdre Pippins, Bookaholic Book Influencer and Podcaster Extraordinaire
I had the privilege of being interviewed by Deirdre for her fantastic YouTube channel, Bookaholic. Check out https://www.youtube.com/@TrueBookaholic. As soon as my interview is posted, I’ll send a link to it via our newsletter. Deirdre is a self-confessed bookworm who posts about everything book-related, including book news, reviews and author interviews. She has over 90 […]
What Would You Have Done?
The central story in Richard Vaughan-Davies’s book Fireweed concerns Adam, a young British military lawyer posted to Hamburg in 1947, who falls in love with a German girl during a time when the strictest of anti-fraternisation laws existed between Brits and the vanquished Germans. It’s an unconventional love story and an adventure, but the book […]
Real History vs Historical Fiction
May I indulge in a moment of shameless namedropping? I am a friend of Dominic Sandbrook, the historian and commentator, who, together with Tom Holland, has created the unbelievably successful podcast series, The Rest Is History. Of course, over the past couple of years I’ve been quietly aware of the growth of their following, and […]
Squeaky the Spiky Survivor
The French have a delightful expression: ‘Il pleut comme une vache qui pisse,’ which perfectly describes the conditions of a July day earlier this year, when our dog was in the garden barking dementedly at a small pile of leaves. He’s not very keen on heavy rain and was oblivious to all calls to come […]
Untold Stories: Marginalised Christians in Pakistan
by Mus Coombs Decades ago, during my childhood, I vividly recall seeing weathered women, their skin deeply tanned by the sun, carrying heavy woven baskets filled with faeces from village toilets. In these parts, the absence of flushing toilets was commonplace due to limited access to irrigation, with households relying on hand pumps for water. […]
Creepy (True!) Story
Seven years before my mother was born, my grandfather, Robert Deans, took a job in the Transvaal on a farm which belonged to a doctor’s wife, Mrs. D, who had inherited it from her family. Her husband, Dr. D, worked in Joburg, and came to the farm only on weekends. Grandpa Deans took the job […]
My Brother, the Record Setter
Many siblings have a long-established rivalry, but my brother and I get along famously, probably because we balance each other out. He’s competitive; I couldn’t care less. I’m an academic, and he’s an athlete: I write books, and he’s a marathon runner and mountain climber. Nikolas ran his first marathon at nine. At eleven, became […]
Letter to My Teenage Self
Dear Teenage Me, Why, oh why won’t you keep a diary? Your memory never gets any better, you know. Who cares if anyone reads it? At the very least you could keep a record of all the books you’ve ever read, but you’re just too plumb lazy. Well done for never getting into drugs. But put that […]
Books on Location
The setting of a book is sometimes so powerful that it assumes a persona, becoming a character in its own right. Think of Dickens’s London or the Afghanistan of Khaled Hosseini. The location of a book roots it; when a setting feels real, the story becomes more tangible. This is why world-building is so critical […]
Fictional Ideas vs Execution
Many writers are terribly worried, to the point of paranoia, that their ideas will be stolen. My eldest stepdaughter, Kitty, is also a writer, and whenever we’re both in the hearing of someone who tells us an interesting story, we ‘dibs’ it from each other, squabbling over who has more ‘right’ to incorporate it into our writing. We’ve […]
Hello from Inkspot
Welcome to the Inkspot blog. My name is Thea, and I’m the Inkspot Publishing Assistant Intern. I’ve been with Inkspot for about two months, and it’s been an adventure so far. This is great as there’s nothing I like better, and I’ve come all the way across the pond to find it. I’m from the […]
