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Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, SLE or Lupus is a chronic, inflammatory, variable autoimmune disease of connective tissue, typically characterised by skin rash, fatigue, joint and muscle pain and often by disorders of the blood, kidneys, heart, lungs, and brain.  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 –1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher and theologian who, with his friend William...

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Between Books

  Oh, it’s such a difficult thing being a writer. When you’re not actively involved in writing something, you miss it. There’s a lull between finishing one piece of work and starting another. Even if you have an idea for a new one, you can’t just rush into it. There’s a sort of mourning period where you have to get over your previous one. I’m sometimes asked when I know that a novel is finished. It’s pretty obvious that it’s not when you write the last word. There are many versions to follow: reads and re-reads, writes and re-writes. But there...

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Book Review: Catch Me When I Fall by Nicci French

  This is one of those books that stays with you long after you’ve finished reading it. The description in the first chapter of the heroine’s drink and drug fuelled night out was just incredible. I’ve never had a night out like that (thank goodness!) but I really could feel what it must be like.  It’s easy to look back and find holes in the plot, easy to see too that the characters are a bit too obvious: the crazy girl, the loyal husband, the even more loyal friend. It’s...

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Book Review Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson

  I have to admit to being a bit late discovering Kate Atkinson. I remember friends raving about “Life after Life” and “A God in Ruins” years ago but when I read the blurb and the reviews they never seemed to appeal to me. Finally, however, I read “A God in Ruins” and was absolutely taken by the style of writing: so brave, so clever, so different. I went on to read “life after Life” (yes, I know that was the wrong way round but it didn’t seem to matter) and was equally enthralled. I’ve never really...

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Another Year Over…

As we approach the end of another year I wonder as ever where the old one went. Time goes faster as we grow older and in a world where we cram in as much as possible even when we’ve retired from full-time work, it goes more speedily than ever. So, looking back as always over the previous year, I find that I have achieved quite a lot. This time last year I had just finished writing my novel “I know you, don’t I?”. I spent the early months of 2019 submitting it to publishers and literary agents and in May I was thrilled to be accepted by a publisher.
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Book Review After the Party by Cressida Connellly

I agree with the reviews that say, “I’ve never read anything like it.” From the very beginning this novel is different: written in a style that evokes a different time period. It takes a while to get used to this: the main protagonist, Phyllis, comes across as a cold character, with very few redeeming factors. In fact, this first impression doesn’t improve and is one of the main criticisms I have of this book: Phyllis lacks any real depth: her feelings for her husband, children and family are at all times cold and distant....

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Bringing Coleridge to Life: Three Extraordinary Years in Nether Stowey

It’s an idea that’s been simmering in my mind for some years now: to write the story of the three years that Samuel Taylor Coleridge spent in Somerset. I have always been interested in Coleridge and Wordsworth, an interest increased by reading “A Passionate Sisterhood” by Kathleen Jones, followed by any and every biography on Coleridge, Wordsworth and their circle of friends and relatives. When I retired...

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Getting the Break

It was January when I began submitting my new novel to Literary Agents and Publishers. I remember sitting on the sofa, a cup of tea next to me, my laptop on my lap, while the rain teemed down outside. I drew up two lists, one for Literary Agents, one for publishers and typed in “Literary Agents/Publishers seeking submissions Women’s contemporary literature.” It was an arduous task. The internet has a habit of throwing up all sorts of unwanted rubbish that has nothing to do with what you’re looking for. Having made my lists I visited each website again....

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Talking the Talk I’m delighted to have been invited to speak at two Literary events this year. The first is coming up very shortly: next Friday the 1st June I shall be taking part in the Ilminster Literary Festival. My presentation is at 12.30 at the Archie Gooch Pavilion (Ilminster Football Club). Tickets £6.00 to include a glass of prosecco. https://ilminsterliteraryfestival.org/tickets-for-2018/ Although I have given plenty of presentations in the past, most recently the Counting the Days presentation that my husband and I give, based on my website onactiveservice.co.uk,...

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Planning ahead

So, having submitted my latest novel, I know you, don’t I?, to literary agents and publishers, I am now in that peculiar stare of limbo, waiting for replies. This gives me the opportunity to consider future projects. My husband and I are volunteer room guides at Coleridge Cottage in Nether Stowey and for some time I have wanted to write a novel about the three years Coleridge and his wife Sara lived in Somerset, how and why their stay here produced some of the greatest poetry in the English language, the happiness and difficulties they experienced here and the reason...

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