Blog 122 – Gathering Rosebuds …by Ms Paige Turner MSt (Cantab) I had a Hepatitis A jab last week for my much anticipated trip to Kruger where I plan to take a much overdue break watching elephants brunch on Bushwillows. The nurse said to me when jabbed, “There. That will last you twenty five years.” […]
Gathering Rosebuds …
10/10/2015 // by Jan Moran Neil
Blackberries, Boundaries and Autumn on my Mind …
02/10/2015 // by Jan Moran Neil
It must have been the back end of summer for the blackberries were heaped in lightweight wooden crates on her stall. Winnie Brambles was as darkly fleshy as her mature purple plums, tending an orchard of fresh fruit on the road where I lived. She smelt of raw vegetables. Her calves were threaded with fine […]
Beating Myself Up …
14/09/2015 // by Jan Moran Neil
Blog – 120 – Beating Myself Up … A couple of months ago my best friend came to stay: Mrs Carrieoke. She had driven all the way from Cardiff and about 6.00pm we poured ourselves two glasses of small red and proceeded to my lounge which has a cream carpet. I placed the two glasses […]
Creative Ink for Writers’ Autumn Term
31/08/2015 // by Jan Moran Neil
Blog 119 – Creative Ink for Writers’ Autumn Term There are still some spaces on the ‘Get that Book Out of You’ Thursday morning course at the Fitzwilliams Centre, Beaconsfield beginning Thursday 17th September for 5 weeks. 10.00 am until midday. The fee is £160 which includes up to 3000 words assessment and editing and […]
Smoke Screen …
19/08/2015 // by Jan Moran Neil
Smoke Screen We both wear wigs. But at the end of the day hers will be taken away. I know. Several sexual partners account for bank deposits of huge amounts of cash, then again it’s not just hash but Class A Drugs: cocaine; six and a half kilos vacuum- packed in the lining of her […]
Northern Lights in Summer …
11/08/2015 // by Jan Moran Neil
Blog 117 – Northern Lights in Summer by Ms Paige Turner I thought I would see polar bears when I went to Iceland but I think I thought I was going to Alaska. Polar bears can be sighted in Northern Iceland as some of them can drift on ice floats from Greenland. What a thought. […]
Highlighted Roots and More …
28/07/2015 // by Jan Moran Neil
Highlighted Roots and More … On Saturday 18th July this year something magical happened. We graduated on the steps of the Central School of Speech and Drama on Friday 11th July, 1975. Forty years on we met up on those steps, where celebrity alumni’s names are now set in concrete. After mirth (some of us […]
At Sea …
13/07/2015 // by Jan Moran Neil
Blog 115 – At Sea – by Ms Paige Turner I’ve just finished lecturing aboard Cruise and Maritime’s Magellan around the British Isles and it didn’t start well. The landline rang at lunch time on the day before sailing. It rang with that kind of urgency that spells and smells of alarm. We all know […]
Unreliable Narrators …
25/06/2015 // by Jan Moran Neil
Blog 114 – Unreliable Narrators They’re everywhere: Paula Hawkins’s ‘The Girl on the Train’, SJ Watson’s ‘Second Life’, Gavin Extence’s ‘The Mirror World of Melody Black’ and former Creative Inker Luana Lewis’s ‘Don’t Stand So Close’. Psychological thrillers. But they also emerge with the naïve narrators in Mark Haddon’s ‘The Curious Case of the Dog […]
Pillow Talk …
08/06/2015 // by Jan Moran Neil
Blog 113 – Pillow Talk Now that my Masters in Creative Writing has been spirally bound, catapulted down the chute and registered by ‘special delivery’ now is the time to put my house in order and get to the cleaners. The local dry cleaning firm has an offer on: £15 for any duvet. I phoned […]