Commonplace - Maria Taylor

This fascinating site was brought to my attention by Wayne Burrows the other day. A project run by Sophie Mayer. It's a simple idea,...

Here's some good news! There is a feature on Melanchrini on Michelle McGrane's excellent blog 'Peony Moon.' As I don't ...

My Photo of Ledbury at Night Last weekend we went to the Ledbury festival. I performed on the Sunday in the Shell House Gallery, but I’...

I'm reading at the Ledbury Festival on Sunday 8th July at the Shell House Gallery at 4pm. This event is the official launch of Melanchri...

When I was about 6 or 7 I had a curious urge to write a book. At that point it was a children's book, I wrote my first on A4 paper with ...

Nice shirt. On a very balmy evening at the end of May – yes, balmy, there was actually sunshine – I went to Leicester’s central libr...

 Always one to get the timings wrong on this blog post, I was thinking about the Jubilee. No, not the Jubilee t...

Alice contemplates the flowers... In the few months which have elapsed between their publication and now, there’s been some very li...

Fiction is Stranger Than Truth (Sometimes). The other week Will Buckingham interviewed me for American webzine 'Necessary Fictio...

 A poet spotted on t'internet Surely a whole month hasn't whizzed by without a blog entry? Crikey me. It was a busy month wit...

Gwyneth Lewis Last week was Cultural Exchanges at DMU. Before it becomes a dim and distant memory I shall try and write up a few blog pos...

I couldn't resist putting these up for your delectation. Here are the covers of the six lucky winners of the Crystal Clear Creators pam...

As it's Burns' Night, here's a lovely stamp It feels like a long time since I've blogged. Actually it's three weeks, ...

I am now on Twitter. To be frank I don't get it. I'm still a Tweeting virgin and feel all clumsy and am not sure what to put where. ...

Bricks or cobbles? At any rate,  tres urban . I am determined to get this post in before 2012; it may be the only constructive piece of w...

This is traditionally the time of year when people put up thoughtful, balanced and considered retrospectives of the year. I'm of moderat...

No, that's a lie. It's only true in a metaphorical sense, and you know how writers like that sort of thing. Ok, I'd like to anno...

 hap•pen•stance [hap-uh n-stans] noun: a chance happening or event. I have a new heroine and her name is Helena Nelson, the chief edit...

I've been nominated for the Leibster blog award by Gary Longden, a lovely initiative to support bloggers with small but perfectly form...