The news item about Google and Income Tax, urged me to blog what I have been wondering if I dare write for some time now. Is income tax the last taboo? We were told never to discuss religion or politics. The subject of death has been taboo. Homosexuality was not accepted until recently… Taxation is […]
Bowie – Advisory Content
It’s now exactly a week since the news of David Bowie’s death reached the world, and with seven days to reflect on his life and his work, the event seems to have grown in spirit and grandeur. Artists of all descriptions and practices reach their audiences and fanbases through their work. Bowie seems to have reached […]
All Over By Christmas
…or ‘No Room at the Inn’. It was Christmas and I was seventeen. My father managed a newsagents’ shop which we lived above, and which was tied into the property. There were six of us, Mum and Dad and we four children. The owner sold up and the new owner decided they wanted to live there. We […]
Have a Good Time
The phrases ‘enjoy yourself’ and ‘have a good time’ have always baffled and, on some occasions, actually annoyed me. ‘Having a good time’ is not the same concept for everyone. Not everyone goes out to enjoy themselves in the same way, and we might well be relieved at that fact. There is an assumption, I […]
People Knowing My Personal Business
I was just drifting off the other night, listening to the dulcet tones of Mylene Klass and her inane chatter on ClassicFM, when I had a sudden realisation. She was in that awful band. Then I had another realisation, ‘I can be googled’. Now we can all be googled, social media, gmail accounts and profiles, […]
Only the River
Only the River Sweet Thames run softly, for I sing not loud or long… I am not a scenery girl, or landscapes or country. More an ‘in the head girl’ – poems and stuff, as with the Spenser quotation above. It was while at Twickenham County, the girls’ grammar school (the building in Clifden […]
The Wrong Burrow
My son was born in our house, in Bushy Park Road. His Christian names are Lindsay James. He was born early Saturday morning, and soon after he was delivered, followed shortly by our daily paper – the Surrey Comet. On the back of the Comet that day, on the sports page, was an article entitled ‘BUMPER […]
The Ugly Duckling
The ugly duckling song came into my head this morning. For those who do not remember the old story, it is about a duck who is disliked because he is ugly – but he turns out, in the end, to be a beautiful swan, whereupon he is admired by all. And I thought – there […]
Belfast and Beyond ‘Writing’
I’ve always wanted to go to Northern Ireland. I find the accent sexy. Guys with a real Belfast accent – that clipped, fast, adenoidal and charmingly aggressive burr – gets my motor running. So it was no accident that I was taken to a city as aphrodisiac to rewrite and reproof Bastardography. The Editor and […]
Even the Boss should clean the Loo
Watching Master Chef earlier this year, something happened which gave me, if you’ll pardon the pun, food for thought. At one point in the penultimate episode, one of the contestants was running late, and one of the others went to help her. He had a deadline too and this episode would put him into the final […]
Writing for Everyone?
The commercial part of me says I write for everyone, but I do also write somewhere for a specific lesbian/bi audience because I do see myself going into a bookstore and perusing and reading the back of this book and thinking, that speaks to me. Somewhere I think we compartmentalise who we write for, and […]
Seven Ages of Man
I recently stayed in a holiday resort where there were a lot of retired fire fighters, many of them having been injured on the job, some permanently. I got talking to groups of them and some got up from the table where we had been eating and talking, stiffly, and with difficulty, clearly in pain. […]
The Author’s Voice
This is the first time that I have wanted to reply to The Author. It was the editor’s letter which drew me, and words like author’s voice… authenticity. I was going to add genius to the list, but just now on the third reading I find the word is not there. I will pretend it was. It was when I […]
On Display
My summer has been marked by spikes of joy; three in all. That’s the three times I saw my book in Chiswick Waterstones, on display, in three different locations. First, it was in a window display, next to Max Hastings, well not him in person, but next to his tome: ‘The Secret War: Spies, Codes […]
The Way I Write
There were not a lot of books in the house because I was brought up by a single mum who was working two jobs, but I do remember a comic that used to get delivered every Saturday morning. There was this story about these cats ‘Drag A Chair Puss Cat’ and ‘Never Hangs His Coat […]
Dystopian Fiction – why dystopia?
Why Dystopia? The issue of why writers might want to take up the challenge of writing a dystopian novel is a complex one. After all, a writer’s vision of a future society is invariably going to be miserable because, if you think about it, why would anyone want to read about a brilliant future […]
Dystopian Fiction – what makes a novel a Dystopia?
What makes a novel a Dystopia? This is probably the right ice breaker for a general discussion on the proliferation of ‘Dystopian’ fiction in recent years. There is of course no easy answer. The collection of novels that have gained admission to the debate come from very different times, both politically and in terms of […]
Meditations
I wonder if I am paying more attention lately, looking at things more closely. Have been hearing a lot about ‘mindfulness’ these days: being in the moment. I expect we all receive greetings cards with pictures of flowers, and flowers in vases. One of the most common subjects for cards, perhaps. I have more than most, as […]
Handbags and Gladrags
I could not understand, the other day, how I walked the length of the road to the gym in such a short time. I allowed well over half an hour, yet did it in twenty minutes. Ten years or more ago, I regularly visited someone half way up that road and it seemed to take a […]
Bookshops, Blisters and Pringles
There comes a time in every writer’s life when they have to get their hands dirty. Such days are usually foisted upon us by our publishers, and this one was no exception. Not being born into a world of shining optimism, and therefore not expecting much from the day, especially not the promised five mile hike around […]
Precious Time
Today I wasted a good half an hour running round Sainsbury’s, trying to think what I wanted to buy which might cost 20p, to make my bill up to the next pound, as at that point it was £8.80. The reason for this is you only get awarded nectar points for the first £9 you spend in the store. Every […]
The Swindon Bard rides anew
The Swindon Advertiser broke with tradition last week and turned book reviewer to accommodate the efforts of the Swindon Bard, James Goddard. In his new role, replacing the great Andy Partridge of XTC fame who had held it for over 35 years, himself replacing the seminal Gilbert O’Sullivan, Goddard has now had reviews of his […]
Radio Knowledge
So, two months since ‘Knowledge Waits’ appeared and what now? Well last week I did a piece at a local radio station, and since then ‘Knowledge Waits’ has plummeted down the Amazon charts! Not that I ever imagined that a quick interview and reading an extract on a local station might launch me into the national […]
A Fear Of Birds
Years ago I took my mother into the cafe at a garden centre. In those days (I have not been there for many years now) the cafe was run adjacent to the plant sale area, and therefore open up to the outside elements and whatever might happen to be passing by. Therefore you could hardly be surprised […]
First Creative to Help Expand Bastardography
I resisted to write a title like ‘Creative helps to the Max’, or ‘Maximum Creativity’ because that would be too cringe-worthy for words, although ‘First Creative to Help Expand Bastardography’ is simultaneously too cryptic, too vague and too obvious to be of much use to anyone. Anyway, this blog is about the fact that actor […]
Strong Women – TV Still Trounces Hollywood
It had to happen. Hollywood has got itself in trouble again. I knew it would because I’ve just come back from there and could see it was all about to kick off. I am an unashamed Americanist. I have studied the history, culture, literature and politics of California, but nothing prepares you for the sun […]
The Disappearing Lesbians
We’ve all done it. You’re watching a movie and you let out a yelp in fright; or guffaw at a comedic moment line; or simply cheer. And then you realise: it’s in the middle of the night on a long haul flight and you’ve woken up half the cabin. My most recent on-board cheer was […]
Would You Ever Want to Read a Patchwork Book?
In the writing of a book, lots can change. My original idea for the book was that it would be a collage, a patchwork memoir, that didn’t follow a narrative line; luckily my publisher talked me out of it, because I think people would not have responded well to it. Although perhaps the idea could […]
Creativity, Innovation and Participation
One of the most exciting things about having written a ‘book’ as it’s a great springboard for adaptation. I was going to cite Douglas Adam’s whose Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy spawned radio, television, film, game, stage, comic-book and tea-towel variations although I think the radio version came before the book? Anyway, a book you […]
Mr Jay goes to SOAS
I’m sitting here a little overwhelmed. This afternoon I gave my first book reading proper. I’ve been ‘on the bill’ for one or two open-mic gigs which went down rather well. But this was my first on my own. It was a bijou affair on the fourth floor of The School of Oriental and African […]