Lovely book blogger Anne Williams has been rooting through her archive and has dug out these reviews of my novels, as a foretaste to the publication of ‘Sandlands’ in July. Thank you so much, Anne!

I’ve been looking at the programme for this year’s Felixstowe Book Festival (25th-26th June) and feeling humbled to be on a speaker list which includes Deborah Moggach, Rose Tremain, Nicci French, Alison Weir and many other fantastic names.

See this beautiful cover for my forthcoming short story collection, ‘Sandlands’

“I am excited and proud to be signing a publishing deal with Sandstone Press for my short story collection, ‘Sandlands’. Publication is expected to be in late 2016.”

On Monday 24 November 2014 I shall be running a writing workshop near Lowestoft, Suffolk, as part of the ‘Just Write It!’ weekend workshop programme. Bookings are open now!

On Friday 26 September 2014 I shall be giving a lecture on the topic of ‘Storytelling and the Common Law’ for the University of Cambridge Alumni Festival. Apparently I am going to ‘explore the tension between abstract principles and the power of narrative and storytelling as a tool of legal argument’ – scary stuff!

26 March 2014: It was a pleasure and a privilege to be invited to meet the wonderful young people of the creative writing group at Hinchingbrooke School in Huntingdon. I ran a workshop on ‘openings’ and establishing ‘voice’ – and came away feeling completely inspired by the enthusiasm and talent of the students.

11 March 2014: I enjoyed a wonderfully convivial evening as a guest of the MCR at Newnham College, Cambridge, having supper with the graduate students and then speaking and answering questions about the challenges of writing fiction alongside an academic career.

13 November 2013: I had a great time at the opening of the new social/meeting space at Cherry Hinton Library – on a ‘local authors’ Q&A panel with the lovely Saumya Balsari and Jane Wilson-Howarth.

How curious to see that a conversation I had with friends online, about falling off a horse, had been spotted and become verbatim poetry!