“The Crine” and an accent mystery
Mrs W and I are thee episodes into Netflix’s mega-budget offering “The Crown,” and are loving it. (Though I am developing a slight obsession over one character’s accent.) It’s not just that every shot is beautifully-composed, or that the costumes are gorgeous, and that even the CGI’d locations and sets are indistinguishable from – probably […]
“Hamster” and the Geordie accent
No – obviously, hamsters don’t have a Geordie accent. It just made a good headline. But seeing as Time Traveling With A Hamster (note the absent extra “L”) was released in the US last week, I thought it would be helpful for the American readers to get an idea of how they speak in the […]
Book number 2: thank God for that!
I’ll be honest – there were times when I thought, fleetingly, that perhaps I was destined to write only one book. That Time Travelling With A Hamster would have its brief moment in the limelight and then gracefully move along the bookshelf to make room for books by other, more prolific and successful authors. I would tell myself […]
Whistling: top 5 songs
I learnt to whistle over the summer, and accomplishment of which I’m much prouder than it really merits. I don’t mean whistling a tune. I’ve been able to do that since I was very little. (My Gran would say, “Oh, it’s Whistling Rufus again!” which I assumed to be some performer but I’ve just looked […]
What I Read In My Summer Holidays
It’s odd, I reckon, that since the whole writing thing took off for me – with Time Travelling With A Hamster, and another one (title TBC) coming out next spring, and the zygote of a third one beginning its gestation – I have actually read less for pleasure than before. So roll on a long summer holiday: endless […]
Back to CDs…I think
The builders are in, and so a load of junk is out. (How do we accumulate this stuff? Where does it come from? Why did I ever think that there was any point in hanging on to a broken hand-mixer?) Anyway, stuck at the back of a cupboard, Mrs W and I came across our […]
Game of Thrones spoilers: I give up!
I was watching the news the other night and the newsreader said something like: “Coming up next, news of the opening game of the Euros as England faced Russia earlier today. So if you don’t want to know the result, time to leave the room.” It’s familiar enough stuff; we hear it all the time. Then […]
The Encounter: time-travelling magic
I’ve written before about my, shall we say, complicated relationship with the theatre. I take the approach once described by Sir Michael Parkinson: “I have never sat in a theatre without wishing I were in a cinema instead.” Except…sometimes. This was one of the sometimes. Tempted by a friend who promised that it would appeal […]
Blackadder Rides Again
It’s hard – and painful – to think that Blackadder Goes Forth first appeared on TV in 1989. I know. Twenty seven years ago. And for 27 years, those of us who loved it have wanted it to come back. We have lapped up rumours and weighed the options. Could it be Blackadder in WW2? […]
How I dodged a bullet in Chicago
I can summon hot waves of shame just thinking about it. It could have been soooo embarrassing… There I was in Chicago at Book Expo America. I had been invited by my US publisher, Schwartz & Wade (Penguin Random House) to promote my children’s book, Time Travelling With A Hamster which had been selected as one of the titles […]