The Bloggery

If you're coming to a Summer of Writing workshop from outside Oxford, and want to make a weekend of it, here are my favourite suggest...

Fresh crunchy green salad that  stays  fresh and crunchy, topped with all your favourites. Gluten-free | Vegan, Veggie, or Omnivore As a...

Writing mysteries is partly about an intense atmospheric sense of place, and partly a complex little puzzle of laying out your clues, rev...

“How do I know if my planning is actually just procrastinating now?” “Should I stop planning and start writing?” “Is my planning j...

If you fancy writing an absolutely tiny short story, this Writing Skill will give you the shape and all the tiny twists to make it exciti...

I’ve had some good teachers – in drawing, singing, running a business. Every time I find a good teacher, it reminds me of the differen...

A hefty flavour burst of preserved lemon, artichokes, olives, garlic, ginger, turmeric and fresh coriander, all vibrant and zesty. Glute...

Just as my students start to compare notes on an activity, I can hear the comments:     “Okay, so this is awful.”     “I’ve probably do...

In The Restaurant at the End of the Universe , Douglas Adams describes an overcrowded planet whose inhabitants decided to relocate. The...

    Roasted aubergine halves stuffed with mozzarella and breadcrumbs, topped with a parsley garlic and cheese crust, baked in a sea of toma...

When I wrote Word Count Is Like Paint , I realised that however sound the advice was, it would leave my younger self stranded. After al...