At home with wasps, bugs and the spice of life Whiney Bastard Stripey Bastard Bitey Bastard Blood sucking Bastard I now have a monumental lump on my thigh, matched only by the collection of savage bites inflicted by horse-flies. This …
2024
Ferragosto, starlit wine tasting and Segrettos
The scent of burnt lavender, the itch of the cicada song and the gurgles of the pool.
Hope Town, Elbow Cay, The Bahamas- Pirates, Island girls and Conchs
Our feet sank into the sugary pinks sands, footprints immediately washed away by foaming shallow wavelets.
Basking Crocs to rainbow crocks of gold
Extraordinary US never fails to surprise.
New Orleans, Cajun/Creole cuisine, Jazz, voodoo, vampires and paddle steamers on the muddy Mississippi.
New Orleans assaults all senses including the sixth.
New Orleans, The Big Easy in the Garden District
Pelting rain and violent thunderstorms- taking it easy in steamy New Orleans
The Writers’ Retreat, Tennessee
A writers retreat in deepest Tennessee
Sunshine and storms in Key West
Our literary tour starts…
Underwater wine-discovering a mysterious wine in Secret Tuscany
Dreams, underwater wines inspired by shipwrecks and poetry.
Fireflies and Nightingales in Tuscany
Ours was a warm, still spring night with ‘no breezes from heaven blown.’ We stood instead in the dark, amongst the roses and their perfumed air, looking up into the olive grove with its shaggy grass and wild flowers hidden in the dark.
Coffee, cornetti, Tuscan artists and sculptors
Bumping into world class Tuscan artists and the visceral sculpture of Paolo Pelosini
Should you write your memoir?
Don’t even think about it unless you are committed to the level of obsession.
Overnight stop in France Mulhouse aka two Philistines in La France Profonde
Two philistines in La France Profonde
Flashbacks – friend or foe for the memoirist?
Can use of multiple flashbacks exhaust word budget and lead to writer’s block?
Rainy days, operatic owls and the most romantic Cafe in Lucca
There is something lascivious about a Lucchese hot chocolate.
Writing under a pseudonym
“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” Oscar Wilde