Blog

Ballyholme: A Little Corner of Heaven You can take the girl out of Ireland, but you can’t take Ireland out of the girl.  After Daddy retired, my parents moved to Bangor, Northern Ireland. Their house was a five minute walk from Ballyholme Beach. I often wonder, of all...

When I was in my teens, my parents renovated an old property in a small village below Monte Grappa in the Veneto region of northern Italy for holidays and their future retirement home. I used to love visiting the family of contadini farmers on the hill opposite, where...

The history of Wakefield Waterfront can be traced back to the industrial revolution when the area was a hub of industry and commerce. The River Calder and the Calder and Hebble Navigation Canal was an important transport route for goods and materials, and Wakefield...

Agoraphobia in The World Outside My Window by Clare Swatman When I decided that my main character Laura was going to be agoraphobic, I wanted to make sure I made it authentic. It’s such a complex condition that affects people in different ways – some people literally...

My new novel, ‘The Silver Ladies Do Lunch,’ begins many years ago in a primary school in Oxfordshire. Three ten-year-old girls, Josie, Lin and Minnie, who live in Middleton Ferris, are about to embark on their final year before secondary school. As they wonder who...

My latest novel, The Perfect Husband, is a terrifying story inspired by my own experience of domestic abuse and a violent marriage. My protagonist, Sophie, realises too late that the man she has fallen in love with is not the man she has just married. After eight...

Let us raise our glasses, as there’s much to celebrate Still not quite at four years old, Boldwood are doing great Gathering awards and accolades with every passing year The one to watch, the place to be, success is oh so clear Newcomer was the first award from the...

The Regency male belonged to the last era when gentlemen and aristocrats did not work. If fact it was considered shameful to do so. You were expected to live on the income from your estates, farmed by your tenants who worked very hard indeed. This meant a whole...

A blog post by Samantha Tonge, author of The Memory of You, for Mental Heath Awareness Week. What is Wabi-sabi? As a character in #TheMemoryofYou, explains: ‘It’s a Japanese way of thinking about the natural cycle of life and how it’s imperfect, impermanent,...