A Writer's Journal

June 2026

Wednesday 3 June

This month’s “scam of the month email” has already arrived. I know, says the writer, AI thingie, your inbox is full of messages competing for your attention, but I want to follow up on my earlier email. Yes, there was an earlier email full of head-turning praise: “honestly dark fantasy readers live for stories exactly like this… And truly, books with this level of worldbuilding and dark emotional intensity have a massive audience waiting for them… And honestly, [it] has all the ingredients readers obsess over…On a personal note, I genuinely love helping immersive fantasy stories..And if you would ever like to know more about me…I would be happy to share everything openly and clearly”.

What kind of a churlish sceptic would I have to be to disbelieve this?

It’s a shame the book is No Man’s Land. I didn’t write it. Richard Morgan did. I reviewed it for the Historical Novels Review. Honestly, it is a terrific story. Truly, it has some unexpected twists. And genuinely, it’s strong on world building.

Friday 5 June

I started reading Barchester Towers, the first Trollope I’ve read. I found it very dull, but after the first four chapters I got on better with it. I am interested in the narrator, the narrative voice, the “I” who often makes comments on people and events – quite sharp ones too.

Monday 8 June

I worked on the novel, did a bit of transcribing of one of the suffragette interviews, had a look at the next chapter of the Biography.

I started enjoying Barchester Towers, so I went back to the beginning and started it again so I could get a proper feel for it and the way he’d written the first four chapters.

Tuesday 9 June

We had a nice day in Bath. There was a tremendous downpour just as we pulled into the park and ride which was a bit worrying, but the afternoon turned bright, blue sky, white clouds. We had a lovely coffee at Colonna & Small’s and when the waitress told us they were famed for their carrot cake we tried some – it was excellent.

Then I went to Mr B’s to collect my signed copy of The Tapestry of Fate, Shannon Chakraborty. I loved the first book about Amina Al-Sirafi. What a fabulous character! We had tickets for her talk a few days ago but I wasn’t well and we missed it. By some unaccountable process two other books fell into my bag – The Bastard of Istanbul, Elif Shafak, and the new Sharon Blackie, Ripening: Why Women Need Fairy Tales Now. I love this bookshop.

Then to lunch, salads for both of us. Very delicious. And then to the Holborne to see the print exhibition, Beyond Impressionism: Printmaking to Picasso The man who sold us the tickets asked if we thought there was a difference between attracting people to see paintings or to see prints as attendance at the print exhibition had not been good in spite of the big names. So, very put on the spot and not being an art critic, I said I thought prints are more accessible, Gerard added that people can own prints, and we both thought it was a shame few people were going to the exhibition. But really I couldn’t answer the question. Why aren’t people going? It’s a really interesting exhibition.

Wednesday 10 June

There are few things more frustrating than setting up a new pc and having to hunt down all the bloatware and AI crap that’s foisted on you. It all seems to be part of the stupidification of things in general.

Monday 15 June

I finished Barchester Towers last night. I found Trollope’s comments on writing very interesting. His musings on not creating suspense (raising “false hopes and false fears”) are entertaining: “our doctrine is that the author and the reader should move along together in full confidence with each other.” On the difficulty of writing description of character: “at the end of a dozen pages the man described has no more resemblance to the man conceived than the signboard at the corner of the street has to the Duke of Cambridge”. On rushing to the end of his three volume book he wonders if the publisher would allow him to write a fourth; very meta, as well as the remarks on ending a novel and the requirement for a happy(ish) ending that must fit into the required length: “I am in want of a dozen pages, and that I am sick with cudgelling my brains to find them.”

I’ve ended up loving Barchester Towers and want to read some more Trollope.

I started reading Vita Sackville West’s The Edwardians. I first read it years ago. Interestingly, that also starts with the novelist drawing attention to the process of writing (“Among the many problems which beset the novelist…is the choice of the moment at which to begin...”)

Wednesday 17 June

We went to London today. Oh, it was hot. The journey took longer than we’d thought it would and so I didn’t get to the London Library.

Tuesday 18 June

Ah, London in a heatwave. Is there a pleasanter place?

We started by going to Fortnum & Mason’s for coffee. Then to the London Library. And then we got the tube to Bank and walked to St Paul’s Cathedral. We bought some sandwiches and sat in the shade of the Cathedral to eat them. It’s a busy, bustling area with lots of cafés and restaurants and shops, very different from how I remember it from years ago. It was pleasant sitting there.

Then Gerard came with me to find the Leonardo St Paul’s hotel and the Capital Crime Festival. It wasn’t far. He went off to do his own thing and I registered for the Festival. I got a goody bag, but the book inside it was in the present tense so I gave it back. The rest of the stuff in the bag was advertising bits and pieces. There were a lot of volunteers wearing red t-shirts with “Ask me anything about Capital Crime” on the back. I asked one of them where the room for the first talk was and she said, “I don’t know. Ask in the bookshop.”

It was a well-stocked bookshop and the room was just behind it. I went to talks on In the Know: the realities of the publishing industry in 2026, and How to Solve a Problem Like an Expert. The first talk was aimed at people who want to work in publishing and people who want to be (mainstream) published. Seemed a funny mix to me.

There was an interesting divergence of views on the second panel (How to Solve a Problem like an Expert: There are more ways than one to approach a criminal act) from former probation officer Dr Ruth Dugdall who doesn’t believe in evil or that people are monsters, although they can be dangerous; to criminologist Christopher Berry-Dee who thought “monster would be an understatement for some of the atrocities some people commit” and they are the “scum of humanity”. In between (or perhaps an outlier) was Prof Anja Shortland who specialises in extortitive crime where the criminals are “just people”.

I went back on Friday for Fame, Fortune and Foul Play: Exploring the dark side of the elite with Abir Mukherjee, Sarah Vaughan, Foluso Agbaje, chaired by Elly Vine. Then Trials and Tribulations on courtroom drama with Imran Mahmood, Harriet Tyce and Anna Mazzola. Sections of the audience in this talk were, shall we say, lively at times, whooping and cheering in a way you’d never see at Cheltenham Lit Fest. The authors revealed the secrets of writing a page turner but I’m keeping them to myself (no, not really: short chapters; end a chapter on a hook eg a question; and now you have to have action on the first page, the murder at the beginning). I had meant to go to Based on a True Story – When facts inform fiction and when lies are chosen to be believed, but missed the session. So my last one for the day was These places are going to kill us – from glamorous hotels and manor houses to crime fiction festivals.

Now all of this sounded interesting on the face of it but I can’t say I found it very inspiring. Perhaps the atmosphere didn’t suit me. Or perhaps some events just don’t match your personality, or expectations, or something. Anyway I decided not to make the long and tiring journey back on Saturday, and don’t think I’d go to another Capital Crime. Unless I become a best seller and they ask me to be on a panel of course.

Sunday 22 June

It’s nice to be back home. I worked on the novel and the suffragette interviews.

Wednesday 24 June

I did the event at Bishopston Library for National Writing Day. It was fiercely hot and I wondered if anyone would turn up for my talk (Another Time and Place: Researching and Writing Historical Fiction). I wouldn’t have blamed them if they didn’t, but actually quite a few did. There were only twelve places available anyway (pre-booked), and I think around 8/9? did come. Afterwards I ran a short writing session and drop in. I’d prepared some writing prompts but no one actually wanted to write so it was mostly talking to people. The staff and volunteers were brilliant, bringing round tea, cake, slices of water melon, iced water.

Thursday 25 June

I finished Volume 2 of Mrs Oliphant’s Squire Arden. It was written as a three decker and it shows, there’s a lot of padding and repetition. Not one of her better books.

Friday 26 June

I hardly slept for the heat. There was thunder and lightning in the night, though a distance away, a bit of rain.

I started the Shannon Chakraborty, The Tapestry of Fate. Good so far.

Saturday 27 June

Although it’s slightly cooler I still got up early; it’s impossible to sleep with that busy old fool, unruly sun streaming in. I like getting up early in summer and working on the novel. Though it’s going round in circles at the moment.

I made some tiffin using up some chocolate biscuits no one wanted to eat (you wouldn’t think that was possible). It turned out quite well though I say so myself.

I finished a book review for the Historical Novels Review.