Freelance Writer, Author, Novelist, Photographer
I live in the Chilterns, Buckinghamshire, England, with two young guinea pigs and an aging husband.
I’m a professional freelance writer for magazines and occasionally newspapers. My debut novel, Pestilence, was published in January. It’s timely, because it follows the story of a deadly pandemic, which brings about the end…
Prepare, plan ahead, go easy on the edits
Years ago, I took part in National Novel Writing Month. It’s a global initiative to encourage people to get their first drafts done. The idea is that you reach 50,000 words in the month of November.
I reached 38k. Now some might consider that a failure, since the aim is…
Exploring the fascinating history of psychiatric medicine at the Wellcome Collection, London
Victorian lunatic asylums have always been a source of fascination for me, so when after an appointment in London, I passed the Wellcome Collection, promoting its exhibition entitled ‘Bedlam: the asylum and beyond’, I couldn’t not take a look!
The exhibition explored the history of lunatic asylums in the UK…
Was It Something I Said?
My Medium followers are like yoyos and every time I see the number drop, I wonder, ‘was it something I said?’ Or was it that…
Their activities are increasing diversity of wildlife in the area
The first baby beaver to be born on Exmoor, England, for 400 years has been spotted on the National Trust’s Holnicote Estate in Somerset.
The young beaver, known as a kit, has been captured on camera just 18 months after the conservation charity undertook its first licensed enclosed release of…
But some critics may be breaking Medium’s rules themselves!
The Medium competition winner seems to have caused a storm by not crediting photos, and everyone’s getting worked up about the lack of image credits on the winning story and piece about her win. I have a different take on this.
Let’s assume it’s OK to use the image —…
And went caravanning around the UK for five months
Charlie guinea pig had been my treasured pet for seven years when he got ill. He had a huge lump under his neck, and it transpired he needed treatment for an abscess, which was urgent, horrible and traumatic.
So following veterinary treatment for his abscess, Charlie was feeling low. He…
