Blog

  • Death came early for Christmas

    Death came early for Christmas. My father-in-law, in hospital, had assessed his chances and agreed with the professionals: no resuscitation, please. Midwinter’s eve he spoke on the telephone to his son, my husband. He promised another visit, tomorrow; an hour later his heart stopped, giving up at 18 years since the heart attack he’d had… Read more

  • Behind the labels at the museum

    I’m working on some new fiction (which it’s far too early to say much about) and part of my research was a visit to the History of Science Museum at Oxford to see their magical and alchemical objects. This marble copy of an engraving of John Dee’s Holy Table in particular caught my eye. Dee… Read more

  • Buttered eggs and spells to face the rising dark

    There is no glittering frost outside today and the lengthening nights shut me in earlier and earlier. To make it through such dark hours I want comfort and enchantment, and for this I turn to the books I read over and over as a child. Some favourites, such as Susan Cooper’s ‘Dark is Rising,’ and… Read more

  • Predecessor of the more famous Aching? Rosemary Sutcliff’s Tudor witch Tiffany.

    All my book projects are waiting for other people to do various things before I get on with them so I’m back to working on my new fiction project and thinking about character names. This one’s a historical fantasy set in a version of seventeenth century England, and the names need to be convincing. So… Read more

  • Uncareer advice and the thinginess of things

    So, this is it. It’s almost a year since my PhD was awarded and I’m branching out into my own uncareer – a hodgepodge of things that earn money and don’t, with the main nexus being creative writing, and archaeology.* It’s taken me a while to get my head around how creative writing and archaeology… Read more

  • All sewers lead to Puteoli.

    I’m in that limbo between sending off a book draft – hurrah! – and the return of peer review – ouch! Or ouch it probably will be because it is highly unrealistic to expect that everything about the draft is marvellous and in no need of criticism. The review will help me to make the… Read more