Print
14 February 2007 /
No comments
This month, some startling new statistics have come to light. A higher proportion of Britons find Sir Cliff Richard a powerfully erotic fantasy figure than they do George Clooney. Between Carol Vorderman and Nicole Kidman, it is the Countdown presenter...
Read more
Print
09 February 2007 /
No comments
Fingers on buzzers, your starter for 10: which public figure has just achieved the unique double distinction of having an exhibition based on his work shown at Tate Britain while in the same month being voted 2007's Most Inspiring Political...
Read more
Print
07 February 2007 /
No comments
The signs are now in place on the borders of the restricted zone. Local newspapers have moved on to emergency footing and bear headlines which read "The crisis - what YOU can do". Meanwhile, within the zone, we are doing...
Read more
Writer's Shed
On...
... The Seven Rules of Rejection
... The Seven Ages of Authorhood
... There’s no snob quite like a book snob
... Writing v. Living: a conversation with myself
... An ill-fated journey into the world of TV writers (contains sex and violence)
... Sex, children, friendship, health – by the experts (Tolstoy, Amis, Dickens, Mantel, Larkin and a few others)
... From InstaNovel to NervousBreakdown: the next generation of apps for the busy modern writer
... On being a careerist or a purist
... On discovering whether you are really, truly an author
... On the seven great questions of an author’s life.
... On not writing at all
... On being a genius, a talker or a one-book wonder
... On keeping yourself pure
... On authors and housework
... On publishing your own work
... On being Harvey Porlock
... On being the wife of an author
... On suffering from life block
... On what you want, what you’d settle for, and what you get
... On the tricks of the trade
... On establishing a relationship with a publisher
... On discovering whether one is worth knowing
... On discouraging the young from becoming a writer
... On caring for your publisher
... On becoming part of the creative arts industry
... On attending the right literary events
... On writing bad sex
... On etiquette for a writer
... On interpreting a royalty statement
... On understanding your publisher’s speech at a launch party
... On developing your public image
... On solving the practical problems of an author’s life
... On being promoted by a pair of underpants
... On being a dinner-party novelist
... On the illnesses of authors
... On teaching a creative writing course
... On the unexplained mysteries of the writing life
... On meeting a grand old bookman
... On some useful attributes for a writer
... On writers who prefer to rest
... On the boom in ghost-writing
... On humiliation in a classroom
... On understanding book trade slang
... On being read for libel
... On the different species of publishing wildlife
... On writing a newspaper column
... On playing the publicity game
... On writing for money
... On the democratisation of writing
... On the importance of parties
... On good and bad literary agents
... On setting up a website
... On becoming a respectable author
... On writing the same character for 21 years
... On things going wrong for a writer
... On the need for a writers’ revolution
... On surviving literary festivals