One of my favourite ideas in the Harry Potter series was the pensieve, where you could syphon off thoughts and leave them swirling mysteriously in a rather beautiful stone bowl. In the novels, these were memories of significant events which helped Harry lurch on towards the final battle with his nemesis when the plot had …
I’m not sure what I think about the Amanda Knox affair. She didn’t come over well in the lead-up to the original trial, and all the ‘Foxy Knoxy’ stuff certainly blackened her name. Then, when she started dressing like a nun in the witness box, she seemed shamelessly manipulative. The trouble is that we still …
I’ve always been a hopeless romantic. As a child, in all my favourite stories, the princess glided away to a happy ending with her prince. In my teens, I graduated to Jilly Cooper’s jolly super romances. At university, I discovered the guilty pleasures of Mills and Boon as a way to take the mind off …
Had a fabulous time with the people from Kelloggs on Tuesday – not least because they treated us to the most marvellous spa treatments at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hyde Park Corner, but I won’t go on about how amazing my facial was lest you go green and explode with envy, I know I …
I’ve just finished reading Sophie Kinsella’s latest lovely book, Mini Shopaholic – what? It’s research for my novels, honestly – and the result has been that I’ve suddenly reassessed my own spending habits. The book’s heroine, Becky, is a rampant spender, who literally starts to twitch when she passes an outlet store. She has to …
I always check my junk email folder in case I have won a £10 million lottery prize and unaccountably forgotten to claim it. Today, I found something there which was even more unlikely. ‘Pinetastic Furniture wants to be your friend on Facebook!’ shrilled the email. Well, no it doesn’t. Pinetastic Furniture does not want to …
It’s lovely to be introducing our second Book Club meeting! We all did so well over the summer, reading Kate Atkinson’s Started Early, Took My Dog despite the blistering British weather (ha!) and I’m dying to see how everyone got on with our next choice, Room by Emma Donoghue. I chose the book because I …
Right, quite a lot of bits and bobs to review this month, so let’s be nice and brisk. First, the fantastic Articulate Gallery picture frame, from the Great Little Trading Company. Whovever thought of this is a total and utter genius. If you’re wondering how to display your children’s precious artwork, before it is filed …
I know I’ve said this before, but we rarely find anything to watch on telly in the evenings which doesn’t involve a woman being murdered. Either the drama comes from the behind-the-cushion terror that some maniac is on the loose, cutting up women …. or it comes from someone in a white coat, cutting up …
Well thank goodness, just as it all starts to get serious and I need to buckle down to some serious writing, I get a new excuse. He is nine weeks old and his name is Bingo: All right, all right, I know it’s not the world’s best photo, but lovely Bingo gives me an …