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Bella, small and beautiful Bella, a reminder of two weeks in Italy I had a photo of you and your brother, in my wallet during that holiday, and you came to live with me upon my return. You were always…
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Yesterday I spent the day in Oxford. I arrived early, the train delivering me right in the centre of the city, still beautifully quiet at half past nine even on a Saturday (compared to the frenetic hustle and bustle that…
Continue readingI have two digital cameras. My big SLR which I use for wildlife photography, and my little Nikon Coolpix S9900 which actually has as big a zoom lens as my SLR buy fits in my bag for carrying around. Yes,…
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In 2019 I was devoting more and more time to my illustrating, much to the sacrifice of my writing. When it comes to my reading, I’ve kept it up, but I’ve been reading more longer books, and more non-fiction. I’ve…
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Some bookshops feature in my Booklover’s Guide to Bookshops because I’ve known about them for years and love like old friends; some I’ve not actually visited by my co-author Erica has, and some I’ve been told about with enthusiasm. The…
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Torc Books, Snettisham, Norfolk An ordinary terraced house in a small North Norfolk village. A beautiful if sun-bleached window display of Beatrix Potter and Flower Fairies reveals a visit into a front room piled high, wall to wall , floor…
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My Booklover’s Guide to Bookshops is primarily a celebration of the independent booksellers, but there are a few shops that deserve to be part of such a celebration even if they are part of a larger chain. I’ve already taken…
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There are countless quotes about books and reading. George R. R. Martin famously said: “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” Whilst Lemony Snicket took the approach that: “Never trust…
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I’ve reached the point in my novel where the story is reaching it’s conclusion, and the Fairy Queen must be reborn and thus I must dovetail my writing with revision of the ballads of Tam Lin and Thomas The Rhymer – the major…
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Last year, I pledged to journal more in these pages – to document my life in a more substantive way than on the various forms of social media that I make use of. For a while, it worked and I enjoyed it… And…
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I pledged to read 45 books this year, and ended up reading 56 books (although Thomas rules dictate that if it’s got an ISBN number it goes on the list!). I also pledged to finish writing the Mr Tumnal sequel, The Imaginary Wife…
Continue readingWhen I started at working for the university back in 2009, I inherited one website controlled by no less than 42 templates(!!), and some miscellaneous minsites that I came across as time went by. I stripped these back to one…
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Today, the BBC’s VR Box rolled into town to take over Union Square to demonstrate where virtual reality is at. Being the man responsible for orchestrating the developing of #BrookesVR I went along to see what the Beeb had to…
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Back on 30 June, Emma and I became foster-parents to a little rescue duck after he got brought in to the vets where Emma works when it got rescued from the jaws of a clients cat. Over the next three…
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In preparation for the release of Philip Pullman’s long-awaited La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust Volume One on the 19 October, I have been re-reading (should that be devouring?) the original His Dark Materials series. Aside from being awed yet again…
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What did I always want to be when I grew up? Well, aside from wanting to live like Peter Pan and never grow up – I founded CAGU, the Campaign for the Abolition of Growing Up – I wanted to…
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I originally wrote this post for the Alliance of Independent Authors‘ blog, where I explain why I choose to write by hand, tempting as it might be to jump aboard the latest technological bandwagon. Can I persuade you too to give it a…
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First Sense of the Season Misty mornings of August days. Curled leaves lie in the gutter With fallen conkers, shells split Bunches of elderberries, squashed a cushed, fermented smell that lingers in the still, fresh, air. A day of muted…
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Last night I began to reread Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights. Even though this is one of my favourite books I think I’ve only read it the once, and I can remember that time like yesterday. I can remember discovering the…
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So Wimbledon has been and gone, which is always a blessing and a disguise. I always feel that I haven’t made the most of it, and watched enough tennis. That said, it does mean that I might finally get back…
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