On the Seventh Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me…

On the Seventh Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me…

…Seven Swans A-Swimming, and there is no prettier sight than one of them gliding along the water towards you. Their passage is elegant and effortless – you never see their black feet beneath the surface, hammering against the current. It’s the same...

On the Sixth Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me…

…Six geese a-laying. If you are very very lucky and have worked very very hard, one of the six just might be the goose that lays the golden egg – a book which gets published and even goes on to be a bestseller. A Christian interpretation of A Partridge in a Pear...

On the Fifth Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me…

…Five gold rings. It’s been suggested that these gold rings represent the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. Alternatively they may refer to the gold ring around a pheasant’s neck – some think that the early verses of A Partridge in a...

On the Fourth Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me…

…….Four calling birds. Aha! You might think they were calling birds, that’s certainly what I’ve always sung, but it only takes a little light fact checking to discover that in the earliest version of the song they are actually four colly birds,...
On the Third Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me…

On the Third Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me…

……Three French hens. Now it turns out that the French hens in question are actually Faverolles, a heavy breed of utility fowl which originated in north central France in the 1860s and are characterised by their beards and muffs. They are excellent layers...

On the Second Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me…

……Two turtle doves who, because they mate for life, symbolise undying love – one of the great themes of fiction. Almost every major novel has a love story at the heart of it (though if you can think of ones which don’t, email me because I’d...

On the First Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me…

… a partridge in a pear tree, which in creative writing terms is an excellent example of alliteration, so this is what I’m going to look at in the first verse of my Creative Writing Christmas Carol.Alliteration is when you cluster the same consonants...
Creative Writing – Getting down with the Detail

Creative Writing – Getting down with the Detail

I love this picture, taken in France last summer. I like it because of the moody sky, the black trees, the dark earth. I like the layered light of the setting sun. It’s a brooding scene, full of atmosphere. There is – you’ve guessed it – a...

(Christmas) Presence for Writers

In my chequered past I was an actress. An early and indelible lesson I learned was about stage presence: if you sidle on to the stage looking as if you have no right to be there, uncertain of what to do with your hands, you’re doomed from the start. You would do...
The Narrative Hinge

The Narrative Hinge

I took this photo of a hinge in France during the summer. I think it’s very beautiful: it is functional but the decoration of leaves and fruit (acorns? vines?) prevents it from being merely utilitarian. I like the contrast between the dark metal, the gilding and...

The Literary Chicken and Egg Question?

First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him, according to legendary sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury who, to be honest, makes it sound all too easy, but perhaps he does help to resolve the literary chicken and egg question of what comes first – plot or...

Exploring the Past by Degrees

Without getting too metaphysical and going way beyond my pay grade, we experience time in a number of different ways. How we relate to the present differs from how we relate to the recent or even the distant past, and all the way stations in between have their own...