Life Ambitions Tarnished — In her debut novel, Lady Hartley’s Husbands, Andrea Emblin follows the fortunes of the Meadows family, in particular, Reenie Meadows, a strong-willed child who grows into an ambitious woman. From a carefree childhood in Cornwall, where outwitting her controlling mother is all part of the game, Reenie is heartbroken when…

Let’s Party On The Banks Of The River Weser — An artist’s sketch sparks the story that headlines the collection The Umbrellas of Hamelin is a short story anthology from Sue Knight. Fans of her recent novels, Waiting for Gordo and Disraeli Hall, will be familiar with her as a sharp observer of human behaviour. This collection of shorter works…

And An Anomaly In Edible Oil — An obvious route from Chemical Engineering but apparently unheard of from edible oil! Author and chemical engineer Alan R Paine has long been a fan of science fiction and has won accolades for his short stories, notably winning the Julia Bradbury prize for capturing the spirit of the Wolds in…

September Six Word Photo Story Challenge: “Shadows” — Caped Crusader sits on her shadow. The Caped Crusader is always happy to oblige (on the off-chance a biscuit might appear) but we couldn’t get on the same page when I wanted a sharp photo of a canine shadow. I suspect she didn’t want to be upstaged by her own shadow, so as I took the…

Making It Sound Effortless Takes A Lot Of Effort — Imagine for a moment that you have two well-loved children’s books in front of you and want to create a trio. It’s a hard decision. …

An Intergenerational Rollercoaster — Riding the High Road is Penny Frances’s debut novel, but she has previously won prizes for her short fiction and has an impressive writing CV behind her. …

Six Word Photo Story Challenge: Freestyle —

A Spotlight On Parody & Satire — The title is a quote from Mark Twain. I’m not sure his target was specifically parody and satire, but his words capture the magic of both as tools for critique and challenge. Neither parody nor satire is easy to get right, but when done well, it has a sharp enough…

September Six Word Photo Story Challenge: “Shadows” — Time to climb for the apples. Even with a dearth of wasps this year, there is plenty of competition for the apple harvest. If we don’t pick them off the tree, they won’t be in good enough condition to store. If we hadn’t allowed the trees to grow so tall, we wouldn’t need a ladder to…