Blog

Dear Readers Families are fascinating to me – as a mum and grandma, but also as an author. Siblings don’t automatically get along well together; personality clashes happen! And in blended families, children who have started life with a different parent might find it...

Vienna is incredibly magical at Christmas time… every year during November the squares in the city are transformed to charming markets selling crafts, clothing, beautiful ornaments, culinary delights and warming drinks including Glühwein (German mulled wine). If you...

Meet Bobbin the Robin Bobbin the robin is a favourite character of mine in Will You Stay Another Day? Some fun facts about robins? Their breast is actually orange, but even though oranges arrived in the UK in the 1300s, that word wasn’t used to describe a colour until...

Nelly Brooks, in The Emerald Shawl, is a fictional, British, woman reporter, but every aspect of her story was inspired by the American Nellie Bly (1864 – 1922), probably the world’s first female undercover journalist.  It was Nellie Bly (real name, Elizabeth Jane...

Meet Me under the Northern Lights Let’s set sail…   The UK was treated to seeing the aurora borealis last year but, trust me, there is nothing better than seeing this sky phenomenon in Iceland. And, although, when you think of Iceland the Northern Lights are one...

My own knitting journey   A few years back I was listening to the radio in the car on a long journey and was glued to a programme about women in the Shetland Islands, Scotland and the North of England knitting fishing ganseys. When I arrived home I went straight...