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Swimming against the tide – writing about narcissism
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Swimming against the tide – writing about narcissism

A little about my third book, which takes me in a new direction, and into some potentially treacherous waters… In this novel, a bunch of private Caribbean islands band together to create a brand new nation, the ‘People’s Republic of Love’, governed by the citizen with the most followers on social media.

Jean’s new book and #HiddenGems at Keynsham and @bristollibrary

Jean’s new book and #HiddenGems at Keynsham and @bristollibrary

New dates for Hidden Gems! From landmine-sniffing rats to the mysterious ‘red gene’. Since just before lockdown we’ve been sharing the most amazing facts we’ve uncovered while researching our books. From the exploits of famous Italian artists to the birth of photography, the Spanish civil war and some astonishing quantum physics, our audiences always learn…

Whatever Happened to Travel?

Whatever Happened to Travel?

Writers travelling in search of better health and producing novels and journals in the process, loom quite large in English literature. There was D H Lawrence moving restlessly around the Med and roosting in the New Mexican desert, Katherine Mansfield enduring misery in the south of France, and poor Keats dragging himself to Rome – all seeking the magic cure for TB.

As Elvis rocks back to life, why does biopic mean so much more than ‘biofic’?

As Elvis rocks back to life, why does biopic mean so much more than ‘biofic’?

A biopic is a film which aims to tell a life story, usually of a historical figure and/or or celebrity in one sphere or another.  The most popular examples include Ghandi, Lawrence of Arabia, Malcolm X and Schindler’s List, with The Theory of Everything, Raging Bull and Amadeus also featuring. You could claim they are filmed biographies, or set out to be.

Fast Falls the Eventide:  in memoriam Suzie Lockart-Smith

Fast Falls the Eventide: in memoriam Suzie Lockart-Smith

We are saddened to hear y of the death earlier this week of Bristol writer Suzie Lockhart-Smith. Suzie submitted to our spoken word event Story Sunday (The Fall) in October 2019. Here is the piece she read that night, with our sincere condolences to her family and friends. Fast Fall the Eventide, by Suzie Lockhart-Smith…

Story Sunday makes it onto Zoom
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Story Sunday makes it onto Zoom

Thanks to Suzanne McConaghy for her thoughts on our recent Story Sunday event and her tips for reading online. I was delighted to be asked to submit a thousand words for ‘Story Sunday’ at the Bristol Festival of Literature. I started writing in a flurry of enthusiasm and found I’d produced something fairly bleak –…