Category Archives: Uncategorized

‘Dialogue with the Queen …’

24/09/2022 // by Jan Moran Neil

‘Dialogue with the Queen …’ by Ms Paige Turner Dialogue with the Queen Last night I dreamt the Queen said to me, “Oh Janet, weren’t you in the crowd at Jubilee in … nineteen seventy seven? Wasn’t it that little town in Devon?” “Falmouth,” I replied. “Ah yes, and in nineteen eighty two at Regent’s […]

Blog 300 …

03/09/2022 // by Jan Moran Neil

‘Blog 300 …’ by Ms Paige Turner I had my brows dyed this afternoon. The lovely beauty therapist said that when she was training she was told that one isn’t a Mistress of Brows until one has completed 150 treatments. Malcolm Gladwell who is very hot on numbers says one cannot be a master of […]

‘Flying Nannies …’

26/08/2022 // by Jan Moran Neil

‘Flying Nannies …’ by Ms Paige Turner Of late, I have focused on ‘Theatre’. It’s because we were Thespian-starved during the pandemic and we are now seeing as much theatre as we can afford. This trip was primarily to give our five-year-old granddaughter a break from summer club. She has two working parents and is […]

‘Knocking on Doors …’

16/08/2022 // by Jan Moran Neil

‘Knocking on Doors …’ by Ms Paige Turner In response to my last bi-month’s blog ‘Memory, Misappropriation and Menageries …’ focusing on Tennessee Williams’s ‘The Glass Menagerie’, my former Creative Writing student Steve Givens from St Louis, Missouri, USA emailed me his story. Steve was visiting Florida as a 19-year-old English student and made a […]

‘Memory, Misappropriation and Menageries …

06/08/2022 // by Jan Moran Neil

‘Memory, Misappropriation and Menageries … ‘by Ms Paige Turner. ‘The Glass Menagerie’ by Tennessee Williams – a play told in flashback by a narrator who is one of the characters. A play about fragility and seeing the past through a triangular prism: the dysfunction of a family unit of three: mother, brother, sister – all […]

‘Seeing Behind the Lines …’

22/07/2022 // by Jan Moran Neil

‘Seeing Behind the Lines …’ by Ms Paige Turner Mister Double Cream from Uxbridge – one of my three blog readers – aka playwright Phillip Sheahan – has asked me to write this in less than 500 words. Here goes on the hottest UK day on record. Three years ago I volunteered to organise a […]

‘Premise and Performance …’

07/07/2022 // by Jan Moran Neil

Premise and Performance by Ms Paige Turner Mister Justin Case and I are on a post pandemic Theatre Gorge. We’ve just been to see ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ at the Gielgud Theatre with Rafe Spall giving a warm and beautiful performance as Atticus Finch, the defence lawyer who takes on Tom Robinson’s case of […]

‘Gill Hartley – 12th May 1944-21st May 2022’

17/06/2022 // by Jan Moran Neil

‘Gill Hartley – 12th May 1944 – 21st May 2022’ During my lifelong career of teaching Creative Writing, Gill was one of the most talented writers and artists I have had the good fortune to meet. She was a valued and instrumental editor of the 1993 and 1994 ‘Rhyme & Reason’ anthology for the Rennie […]

‘Dialogue with the Queen’

01/06/2022 // by Jan Moran Neil

‘Dialogue with the Queen’ by Jan Moran Neil Last night I dreamt the Queen said to me, “Oh Janet, weren’t you in the crowd at Jubilee in … nineteen-seventy-seven? Wasn’t it that little town in Devon?” “Falmouth,” I replied. “Ah yes, and in nineteen-eighty-two at Regent’s Park, we remember asking you – ‘how has been […]

‘Atrs Festivals and Anthologies …’

21/05/2022 // by Jan Moran Neil

‘Arts Festivals and Anthologies …’ Some nice feedback from the Chalfont St Giles and Jordans Arts Festival where I led a ‘Writing Memoirs’ workshop and did a reading from my novel ‘Shakespeare’s Clock’. ‘Thank you for joining us at the Chalfont St Giles and Jordans Literary Festival 2022! Your writing class on “Writing Memoirs” was […]