Yesterday I was doing a talk in Tameside, celebrating Stalybridge – Greater Manchester’s Town of Culture for 2022. The talk was all about my rather famous Victorian ancestor and I was quite pleased to see that the Deputy Mayor of Tameside brought her baby along to the session. The wee one was very well behaved. […]
World Book Day Shame
Well, it’s World Book Day and I’m Writer in Residence for Kirklees, so I thought I’d flag it with my teens and ask them for their fond recollections of World Book Day in days of yore: SON: School made us dress up. Didn’t you go as Malala? DAUGHTER: Yes, but that was for World Superheroes […]
Famine, Slavery & Solidarity
Victorian white working class poor identifying their plight with that of the black African slaves … Winter 1863. The starving thousands rioted in Stalybridge. Then in Ashton and then in Dukinfield. And the hussars on horseback arrived – charging the crowds in this Mancunian town – some 44 years after Peterloo. But how many of […]
Ministering to Mind Games
My first novel, ‘Mind Games and Ministers’ kind of erm … sold out. Which was nice. So, having recently published my second one (a sequel, if you like – ‘Cuckoo in the Chocolate’) I took the opportunity to ask the artist who designed ‘Cuckoo’, to have a bash at a new cover for a second […]
To Parent. Or not to Parent.
Oh, the irony of it! As I left the house in the early hours of this morning, I yelled at my eldest; “YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW I HAVE HAD TO PUT MY LIFE ON HOLD – IN ORDER TO BRING YOU UP! YES! I USED TO *HAVE* A LIFE OF MY OWN YOU KNOW!” […]
You’re So Vane
The other day I embarked on a blog, prior to opening my birthday presents of 2016. Well. Yours truly was delighted with the fact that even more ‘needed’ and ‘odd’ gifts came her way. So here goes … I’ll openly admit to anyone that I’ve never been reet-impressed with status symbols, brands, the latest in […]
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