Newsletter

Welcome to my 18th newsletter. It’s been almost a year since I wrote one and this is mainly due to the fact that I have been working full-time on my next book. As I am about to go on holiday I thought it would be a good moment to assess a very turbulent year and […]

Welcome to my 17th newsletter. A new and exciting chapter is opening, as Penguin USA publishes my original book Jambusters under a new title Home Fires. The drama Home Fires, starring Samantha Bond and Francesca Annis, will be shown on PBS Masterpiece starting on Sunday 4 October 2015 at 9pm EST.Contents © ITV-Home Fires© ITV-Home FiresJulie […]

Welcome to my 17th newsletter. A new and exciting chapter is opening, as Penguin USA publishes my original book Jambusters under a new title Home Fires. The drama Home Fires, starring Samantha Bond and Francesca Annis, will be shown on PBS Masterpiece starting on Sunday 4 October 2015 at 9pm EST.Contents Jambusters & Home Fires Fashion […]

Welcome to my 16th newsletter. In my last letter I started by saying that I was looking forward to a quieter period of planning for the future. That spectacularly failed to happen and I have had the busiest spring of my career to date.Contents Jambusters & Home Fires The Arvon Link Fashion on the Ration […]

Welcome to my 15th newsletter. After an autumn of intense activity on all fronts I am looking forward to a quieter period of planning for the future.Contents Jambusters Fashion on the Ration Mountain Matters Hotel Majestic Pen Thoughts Future Events Samantha Bond: to feature on the forthcoming Jambusters Audio CDJambusters There is nothing to report on […]

Welcome to my 14th newsletter and the first one for almost a year. The reason for this gap is that I was waiting to be allowed to announce the news that ITV has commissioned a six-part drama series inspired by Jambusters. This is definitely the most exciting development in my writing career to date.Contents Jambusters are […]

Welcome to my 14th newsletter and the first one for almost a year. The reason for this gap is that I was waiting to be allowed to announce the news that ITV has commissioned a six-part drama series based on Jambusters. This is definitely the most exciting development in my writing career to date.Contents Jambusters are […]

Welcome to my 13th newsletter. I’m shocked to see that I have not sent a letter out since January of this year, although I have been using www.facebook.com/Jambusters1 to mention the odd thing that is going on with the book. This book came out on 28 February 2013 and has been studiously ignored by Radio 4, all […]

Welcome to my 12th newsletter – the first of 2013. Happy New Year to you all. It is six months since I last wrote but there was little to report as I was in the final editing phase of my WI book and busy working on a long-term project with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. […]

Welcome to my 11th newsletter. There is only one story to tell this quarter so I hope you will forgive me. I have to admit that when I received an email on Sunday 3 June at 11:08 with the subject ‘Invitation to private audience with the Dalai Lama, London, 20 June. The British in Tibet’, […]

Welcome to my 10th newsletter, written on the warmest day of the year thus far. 20C in March certainly does not feel normal.Contents Sticking My Oar In Children’s Tales Zeitgeist Jam Tomorrow Pen Thoughts And Finally… Forthcoming Events Sticking My Oar In Rowing is usually relegated to ‘and finally’ in my newsletters but this quarter […]

Welcome to my ninth newsletter, posted at the very end, I suspect, of the season of mellow fruitfulness. I can hardly remember a lovelier autumn and certainly the trees in my garden have put on an unrivalled display of beauty.Contents Mr Irvine laid to rest (for a while) The Warpath Leads to Woodstock E.E.K. Clowning […]

Welcome to my eighth newsletter. Last time I wrote I mentioned that my chickens were scratching around my garden. Unfortunately our local fox put paid to that activity, killing all six in one night but the garden has benefited from their demise, even though we miss their clucking, not to speak of the delicious eggs.Contents […]

Welcome to my seventh newsletter which I am writing on a glorious spring evening. The chickens are scratching around in the garden, ruining my borders to be sure, the birds are singing and the spires of Oxford are looking particularly dreamy.Contents The Evacuees are Launched A Play on Words Knowing Your Onions Pen Thoughts Forthcoming […]

Welcome to my sixth newsletter and a very Happy New Year to you all. I have given up making New Year’s resolutions as I so seldom manage to keep to them. However, I would like to feel that 2011 is the year of the tidy office. I suspect that it won’t be, but it’s nice […]

Welcome to my fifth newsletter, which is a few weeks later than I had originally planned. I had a round birthday at the beginning of October so we had several joyous celebrations to mark it. Since then I have been working on the final edits and the picture selection for the evacuees’ book, which is […]

Welcome to my fourth newsletter. One or two people have asked why I don’t produce a newsletter every month. There are two answers to this question. One is that I do not have the time, and the other is that my work does not move as quickly as all that, so that a monthly letter […]

Welcome to my third newsletter. Last time there was a theme of rocks and snow (and a little bit about rowing) but recently my work has been all about the world wars and their impact on ordinary people.Contents Updates The Human Cost of War at Fromelles The Armed Forces Memorial Who to Leave Out Pen […]

November 2009 Welcome to my second newsletter. There is a theme of ice, rocks, snow and water in everything but the updates. It was not intentional – it just happened that way. So wrap up warm and enjoy some extreme activities from the comfort of your chair.Contents Updates The Wildest Dream Fit for purpose Pen […]

News Update This is just a quick update to say that I will be appearing on Excess Baggage on Radio 4 on Saturday 17th October at 10am to talk about my visit Thailand when I was preparing to write The Colonel of Tamarkan. My mother and I made the trip in 2003 and I have been back twice […]

First, thank you for subscribing and welcome to this, my first newsletter.Contents Update Worlds Out Loud Researching & Writing Pen Thoughts Forthcoming events for autumn 2009 Update– now out in paperbackStranger in the House, which was published in September 2008, came out in paperback last month and has recently received two good reviews in the […]