This Monday I was lucky enough to go to a lecture on La Dolce Vita by Professor Richard Dyer. I say lucky advisedly. It was pure chance that I went. I never enjoyed this 1960 movie very much and, apart from its iconic status, remember little about it. But one of my best friends invited me. […]
Last Monday saw the Romantic Novel Award for each of nine different categories presented – online. Normally I would be brushing the cobwebs off the posh frock, polishing the tiara and heading for an evening of fizz, friendship and books to add to the TBR pile in some Big Hall somewhere in central London. Or […]
I don’t usually make resolutions, but this New Year I have. And it’s one I need to keep if I am to enjoy the next twelve months. The problem is I am spending far too much time worrying about the State of the World. I cannot stop looking at the news, online articles and other […]
Recently, I have been thinking a lot about lies and liars. I am writing one story and editing another and find that my characters in both lie much more than I am used to. The lie is a major tool in the writer’s workbox. Often it turns the plot a full one eighty degrees. Sometimes […]
So. It is Almost Out (just like one of Heyer’s hopeful young ladies of the Regency). The Highborn Housekeeper. My book about a noblewoman turned cook. A kind of Regency Nigella. And funnily enough, my heroine resembles her, too. In my head. Controlling Fallen Women? A few years ago I wrote about the fallen women […]
A recent lecture on La Dolce Vita started me thinking about the variety of fictional blondes I have come across in my life. For there is something special about The Blonde. She grabs our attention the moment she appears. Indeed, in twentieth century western culture she became almost an icon. Yet at the same time she has […]