Rachel Cusk has been a favourite author of mine ever since I read A Country Life. She is about to publish a new edition of her non-fiction book on motherhood, A Life's Work.

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Whoopee! I earned a little money from three separate sources this month - all indirectly connected with my writing.


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Wow..what a beautiful warm, sunny day! Yesterday was like winter, and I wonder what season tomorrow will choose..

I finished my final draft illustrations yesterday for a little picture book I've written and emailed them off to the publisher that showed some interest..and the wait begins again.

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If you're wanting a taster of Thorn in the Flesh, ie the first two chapters to whet your appetite, the lovely people at the Storytellers' Cafe have very kindly posted it here (see full post for link!). Enjoy! Also huge thanks to Felicity who calls the excerpt "fantastic and compelling". Gosh, thanks, Felicity! That's certainly made my day.

Which, all in all, has been very nice really. I had a lovely two hour facial and back massage today at the Clarins salon at the Guildford House of Fraser. Wonderful. Honestly, I feel like a new woman afterwards. Lord H will be pleased. And my therapist even bought a copy of Pink Champagne and Apple Juice, so what a sweetie indeed. My cup runneth over ... Oh, sorry, that's just the way I'm dressed ...

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Like many writers, I spent much of my childhood telling myself - sotto voce if no one was around, or in my head if I might be overheard - the story of what I was doing as I did it. It wasn't a commentary, exactly, at least not in the sense of commenting on my actions as someone else would: it was more that putting my life into words brought my existence into focus as nothing else did. I guess in a family which rated books and words and talking beyond almost anything else that ordinary life contains, it was hardly suprising.

On the MPhil in Writing at Glamorgan, four times a year, all the students and tutors travel down to spend a Friday and Saturday workshopping their work. Starting from the hours on the train, or in the motorway service station, when you read and mark up the thick booklet of everyone's writing, through the readings, workshops, tutorials and hours in the pub, you're living, breathing and thinking in words. On the Sunday, I used to get up early to drive up into the Brecon Beacons, clamber onto a horse, and spend a day riding.

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I'm sat watching my practical half making a garage for our son. He'll be 3 on Saturday..bless him..we're lucky we still have him..
From his first appearance, he's had to face various challenges..not like some, I admit, but scary nonetheless..


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I'm a new guy, an American (an accident of birth), who has lived in France for 15 years. I have an undistinguished self-publish on Amazon, a ponderous piece of historical fiction called Thibault & Malcolm / A Feast for Galileo. It has been re-worked and re-written and is ready for something bigger than just my own personal vanity. I'm looking for friends and all the help I can get. This is the first site that has caught my eye, but, as you already know, Americans are getting poorer by the minute (most of us that is), so as soon as I can scrape $50 together I'm going to make sure I become a full member.

My goodness, but by the time I'd got to the end of yesterday I felt like a whipped dog. (So I had one delivered, boom boom - sorry, couldn't resist it ...) It was a real struggle just to summon up the will to get to bed and, at the same time, I was so wired I would probably have shot off into the great beyond if the ceiling hadn't got in the way. A tricksy little combination, all in all.

Still, today things have improved a little - mostly thanks to Jackie who posted a review of Thorn in the Flesh on Amazon UK, and which I reproduce below:

"In Thorn in the Flesh, Anne Brooke has written a book that is full of passion and tension. The heroine, Kate Harris, is a strong, resilient woman but, after a violent attack and stalked by the unknown aggressor, she cannot help but attract our sympathy. And so we follow her throughout the book, observing her tender relationships with the people she loves. We also accompany her on her journey into the past to places we would rather not go – to the darkest of places in the present. Anne Brooke gives an authentic feel to the seamy underbelly of London, where down-and-outs live in their own sub-culture and where Kate Harris is forced to go in her quest for the truth. In contrast, Brooke also describes the cosy environment of Godalming, where Kate lives and where much of the action takes place. Throughout the journey, readers will be on the edge of their seat and will remain there until the climax of the story, at the very end. A book that should not be missed. Anne Brooke's best, so far ..."

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Why won’t it stop ticking
That old heart of yours?
Mine swells with love
As I long to press pause..

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